http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/20/AR2011012005578.html
This article talks about how Michelle Obama is working with Wal-Mart to provide it's customers with healthier foods. She wants Wal-Mart to try and sell less foods with sugar, sodium, and trans. fats. Also, opening more stores in urban areas like New York City rather than rural areas. Since Wal-Mart has the support and publicity of Michelle Obama, then maybe the store in NYC will be a success and it will multiply within each city. As Wal-Mart becomes more popular the more stores and quantity are demanded and so the prices will decrease. The healthy living aspect will also draw customers in to buying more products from Wal-Mart, since many people these days are focused on healthy living and eating smarter. This will also cause an increase in Wal-Mart customers. Wal-Mart has also emerged in carbon reduction and improving fuel efficiency to its supply trucks and eventually produce no waste at all. Some environmentally conscious people will like that new aspect of Wal-Mart and start shopping there as an effect. This will help the money production for Wal-Mart and customer satisfaction.
5 comments:
Healthy living and going green are definitely "in" right now. There are plenty of people that will follow trends just to follow trends, even if they don't actually believe in them. Whether they do or not, this will probably help out Walmart's business not only because it has the support of the first lady, but because of its image. A lot of people think Walmart is just a heartless corporation that's trying to get as many stores into as many places as possible. If it comes across as though Walmart cares about the environment and the health/well-being of its customers, opinions may change.
So its not bad enough Walmart is destroying small businesses or business in general but now have the support of the Michelle Obama? Sure I bet there are a lot good things to come out of this with the healthier foods and what not, but what about the bad things to come out of it? Are there any downsides to this? Walmart is already a major corporation that monopolizes the food industry and supplying society with cheap goods in mass. We need more jobs in the economy, not less. Only thing I see happening as of right now are people following trends and the customer base growing for Walmart which in turn slowly destroys jobs for other establishments.
You say that prices will go down as more Walmarts appear, but why would Walmart lower its prices to compete with itself? I agree with Garret on the job spectrum though, I'm not too sure how having more Walmarts taking over the food industry is a good thing. If Michelle Obama wanted to promote better foods shouldn't she support places like Farmer's Market that brings in fresh fruits daily, instead of a company who sells mostly processed foods?
You say this will help Walmart? If so why are they being forced to build in these areas? As you may know there are plenty of large grocery stores in urban areas. This will create competition, and although this competition will result in lower prices for consumers it will hurt all the grocery stores (big and small) in that area.
With Wal-Mart's popularity, I feel as though the prices of these new healthier alternatives will increase. I say this because there will be more customers that are willing to buy those goods from Wal-Mart making production of those goods also increase, because of the popularity. While I do believe the prices will increase, they will not sky rocket. Wal Mart prides itself on low prices always and they will not raise prices just to compete. Besides, that's why customers would rather go to a Wal Mart rather than a Farmer's Market any way.
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