“Wal-Mart prides itself on cutting costs at home and abroad, and its Mexican operations are no exception. That approach has helped the Arkansas-based retail giant set a track record of spectacular success in the 16 years since it entered Mexico as a partner of the country’s then-leading retail-store chain. But some of the company’s practices have aroused concern among some officials and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that Wal-Mart is taking advantage of local customs to pinch pennies at a time when its Mexican operations have never been more profitable.”

For a multi-billion dollar company to exploit a loophole like this is a travesty. This company makes more than enough money in Mexico to pay it’s employees and really make a difference in their lives. But instead they are after the almighty dollar, which is just one more reason I have never and never will shop there.

Wal-Mart = Injustice.

Post from: The Good Human

Wal-Mart Does Not Pay A Dime To Baggers In Mexico – Tips Only.

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Here is the letter floating around out there, take from it what you will:

April 13, 2007

Dear Editor,

Pallavi Gogoiâ’s article, posted April 12, 2007, on Businessweek.com, is an erroneous and inaccurate representation of Wal-Mart’s commitment to providing our customers with affordable access to organic products.

We have been selling organic products in our Supercenters and Neighborhood Markets for many years and, due to customer demand, announced plans to double the organic food offerings in those locations in March of 2006. We quickly met that goal and even exceeded it in communities where there is an exceptionally high demand for organic offerings. We continue to see steady customer interest in buying quality organics at great prices.

We realize that the customer base in each of our communities is unique, so we tailor the assortment in each of our stores to meet our customers needs. This is part of our long-standing “store of the community” philosophy of matching the mix of merchandise with the customer base and demand in each specific community. At a Bear Stearns investors conference on March 8, 2006, Wal-Mart executive Stephen Quinn announced, “We’re soon going to have over 400 SKUs (stock keeping units) of both fresh and brand name superior organic foods available at the Wal-Mart price.” Today we’re proud to offer significantly more than that company-wide, which is completely in line with our plans. This enables specific locations to customize their assortment of organics to fit the consumers in their community. This simply makes good business sense. We’ve used this same philosophy of tailoring our merchandise mix for each store for various categories for more than 10 years.

As a company that’s always working to provide our customers with the best products at the best value, we determine what we’ll buy based on ongoing assessments of quality, price, customer feedback and other factors. Organic apples are one of the top selling organic produce items at Wal-Mart, along with carrots, citrus, lettuce and packaged salads. Far from “backing off,” sales for Wal-Mart’s organic produce for 2006 were at a growth rate well above the industry average of 13.7 percent, based on data from the Organic Trade Association.

Bottom line, Wal-Marts growth in the organics category will continue to be reflective of the demand and we will continue providing our customers with the organic products they desire at low prices.

Sincerely,

Karen Burk
Wal-Mart Corporate Communications

Thoughts?

Post from: The Good Human

Wal-Mart Responds To Organics Issue, I Still Don’t Buy It.

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Let me get this straight. In 2006, Wal-Mart tallied its worst same-store sales growth in 27 years. The company’s stock price has remained stagnant for years. And, public opinion has taken a serious turn for the worse.

The company has slashed labor costs by capping the salary if its employees, reduced the number of its employees receiving company health care and implemented a series of additional business practices to cut labor costs.

Given all that, the company’s board rewards Scott with a $22 million bonus? Something is seriously wrong with this picture.

And then from the “real” news…

From The AP:

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has awarded it chief executive officer a stock bonus worth $22 million for reaching revenue targets, the retail giant disclosed Friday in a regulatory filing.

The compensation committee of Wal-Mart’s board voted Wednesday to make the award to Scott and also grant shares to other executives.

Scott’s salary and bonus for 2006 was $5.23 million. His total compensation for that year was, excluding restricted stock awards, was $15.7 million. The $22 million bonus was for Wal-Mart’s 2007 fiscal year.

This really bothers me on so many levels. Here they have all their employees doing all the hard work and they are having hours cut and health care taken away, and they all get nothing at all. The head honcho gets TWENTY TWO MILLION DOLLARS? Not $1 million, not $500,000…but TWENTY TWO MILLION dollars? Meanwhile most of his employees are living on what amounts to minimum wage, working part time, trying to survive, and he has the balls to accept 22 million in bonus?

It’s a sick world sometimes.

technorati tags: Wal-Mart, Bonus, Scott

Post from: The Good Human

Wal-mart CEO Gets $22 Million Bonus, Workers Still Get Nothing.

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Yep, they are labeled as organic….with big signs and everything…but they are not organic. Thanks Wal-Mart, for doing exactly what we knew you would do: Lower organic standards to save the company money. However, we didn’t know you would just change the labels out to do so! So sneaky and clever!

More pictures and more story over at The Cornucopia Institute

technorati tags:Wal-Mart, Organic, USDA

Post from: The Good Human

Wal-Mart To Be Investigated for Organic Swapping.

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