Is Wal-Mart poised to lead the green revolution?
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Compelling news from Wal-Mart. If the world’s biggest retailer (and my home state of Indiana’s biggest employer) continues to take the lead in measures like this and discount prescription drugs, I may just start feeling better about them.
[Wal-Mart] is developing an ambitious, comprehensive, and fiendishly complex plan to measure the sustainability of every product it sells. Wal-Mart has been working quietly on what it calls a “sustainability index” for more than a year, and it will take another year or two for labels to appear on products. But the company’s grand plan-”audacious beyond words” is how one insider describes it-has the potential to transform retailing by requiring manufacturers of consumer products to dig deep into their supply chains, measure their environmental impact, and compete on those terms for favorable treatment from the world’s most powerful retailer.
Wal-Mart intends to announce the sustainability index at a meeting on Thursday, July 16, at its corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., to which hundreds of suppliers, academics, environmentalists, and government officials have been invited.
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Austin agreed Walmart has done quite a few things over the past few years to improve their image, but in all candor I’m just not ready to trust them yet!
Wal-Mart makes its own gravity. They know enough to make their own “voluntary” standards before the Feds get around to imposing a less favorable one on them.
How’s that whole “Organic Wal-Mart” product line these days?
Well something is happening at WalMart.
I’ve done some shopping there and always hated it and grumbled that a company that makes money hand over fist shouldn’t make their customers hassle their way through cramped aisles in stores decorated in blue and gray with grimy floors and dim florescent lighting. The place was just depressing.
But they redecorated the our local outlet, the food section is well lit with cheery colors on the walls and pretty pictures of food and the aisles have widened, the rest of the store is still blue but a brighter shade and the shelving looks like a real department store style rather than the old warehouse look.
It is hard to hate shopping there and I’ve lost my favorite excuse not to. Of course their redbox video vending machine is blue, would love to have been in on that negotiation.
And shockingly they now stock local organic veggies and have a bakery that is not bad, not great but hey it’s a little town. Plus they are practically giving away green light bulbs.
I have to give them credit, the generation coming up isn’t going to be less environmentally sensitive, no matter where they grow up.
And WalMart is in dire need of a PR boost and this is a win win.
They don’t lose any clout in the market and to be seen as a boon to local produce and healthy living is great PR. Now they are in support of a National Health program backing Obama, another smart move because they need it to get workers off their backs about health care. It would also be one less issue for unionization and now sustainability.
No one else has the power to change the landscape as they do. I hate their politics and the impact they have had on our trade balance but this is a good move and I applaud them.
Now if they could just start a buy America program that would restart this country’s industry we would be talking about something.
Maybe American clothes…restart the garment industry in the south…Arkansas maybe…anyone listening…
Austin!
You sound as though you are surprised Wal-Mart might come up with a sound marketing idea – (because make no mistake about it, going uber Green is an idea seeped in marketing and PR concerns.)
Wal-mart didnt get to be as big and profitable as it is by being behind the curve!
Oh, and P.S. – it provides a LOT of jobs for Americans and the rest of us should be very glad for that. ~DD
Hey, Diane,
I wouldn’t say I’m entirely surprised. But I’ll confess I’m a bit (and pleasantly) surprised that Wal-Mart seems to be just a little bit ahead of the curve on this one. Wal-Mart is big enough to do whatever it wants — or, in this case, to not do whatever it doesn’t want to do until it absolutely has to.
That said, I’m on board with the tenor of both your and Steve’s comments. The cynical take here is probably the right one. This move does make good business sense. And, yeah, they may be just a step or two ahead of regulation for all we know.
But like libtree09, I’m mostly just really glad. I love, for example, getting $4 prescriptions. As a guy without health insurance, that’s really huge for me. And if I don’t get my prescriptions there, I can get them for $4 at Walgreen’s or CVS as well, because they’ve made steps to match Wal-Mart’s offer. The why’s and wherefore’s, in this case, matter a lot less than my bottom line.
I also agree that the jobs thing is a good thing. In my heart, I wish all those Wal-Mart jobs hadn’t come at the expense of so many mom-and-pops over the years. But that’s life, I suppose. The reality now, as I indicated in my post, is that Wal-Mart is my home state’s biggest employer. By necessity, whatever’s good for Wal-Mart, then, is good for everyone here, regardless of my own feelings historically.
In response to another comment. See in context »Wal-Mart started this initiative at least two years ago, and whatever their motive–which, c’mon, it’s a business, so of course they are profit-oriented–they seemed determined to make it happen. They insisted, for example, that suppliers of laundry detergent, etc., start reducing the plastic packaging. (Have you noticed how small, say, Tide bottles have become?) The smaller containers take up less shelf space (and leave more room in the grocery cart!)…while saving a bit of the environment.
Because Wal-Mart is such a huge client for companies like P&G, whatever they ask for, they get. And in this case, it seems to be working in our benefit!