Wal-Mart and Fair Trade
First we had news that Wal-Mart was going to start carrying organic produce, now we hear that Wal-Mart will start carrying Fair Trade products:
As Michael Pollan noted, this might mean that we end up having industrial agriculture with an Organic and Fair trade twist. Definitely an improvement over the present agricultural practices, but buying locally grown organic products is still preferable.Wal-Mart is in the midst of overhauling its tightfisted image to win over shoppers searching for more than low prices. That effort has taken the company that built an empire on the principle of high volume and low costs into previously uncharted territory, into the realm of trendy apparel and organic food.
Now, with the help of Pereira, it is embarking on one of its most radical undertakings to date: fair trade.
Pereira, 40, is part of a small cooperative of growers living here in the heart of coffee country, where the rolling mountains are lush with trees. The late afternoon sun is strong. Pereira wipes the sweat from his brow with his forearm as he works his six acres. Dirt is jammed deep underneath his fingernails. He has been picking coffee cherries since 5 a.m., stripping them off the branches with his bare hands. They will be dried, and eventually only the pit will be left -- the coffee bean.
Pereira gets a premium for his harvest. His co-op is one of only seven in the country that is fair-trade certified, charging above-market price for beans because it meets certain social and environmental standards.
Wal-Mart is considering bringing Pereira's beans into its namesake stores. It would be a novel arrangement for a company infamous for squeezing pennies out of its suppliers -- and a test of how deep its makeover will really go.
posted by BEN LORICA @ 6:00 AM
1 Comments:
Call me cynical of Walmart... but... It seems obvious - they already control a huge percent of the lower middle class market of america. They are running out of places to build new monstrosities, and running out of small towns to destroy. They see a backlash of public opinion building more and more - just look at the maryland health insurance law. So what do they do? Two birds with one stone... Sell fair trade coffee... a little got PR to hold back the backlash AND they get to expand their market to include one economic level higher that otherwise probably wouldn't walk into their stores... Meanwhile, the Walton family need not reach into their own pocket or cut into their own profits to generate any of that good PR (And they never do, do they? Walmart employees, making an avg of $7 donated some $2million to hurricane relief this past year... The walton family grossing in the billions per year donated $5,000! But who's name was stamped on the check? You guessed it, walmart!) I just hope this latest attempt to woo back the american public falls flat on it's face... If you want fair trade coffee, go buy it somewhere that treats both the foreign farmers AS WELL as their own employees with dignity. This move makes the walton family no more human than they were before. I promise you that every bag of fair trade coffee bought there will still bring them a pretty penny.. and guess what... those are all NEW customers - it's all just a genius marketting scheme, don't fall for it!
Post a Comment
<< Home