News comes from the US that Wal-Mart is considering switching to using solar power in five US states – which would make the project the biggest individual solar power project ever.
For all the downsides with Wal-Mart’s behaviour, it’s huge size means that if it does something even half-decent, the positive impact can completely swamp the valiant efforts of many more organisations over a much longer period of time.
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12 Comments
We should be chearing Wal*Mart for providing cheap goods and jobs for the poorest in society, for boosting international trade and the lives of the pooreest abroad…
They may put expensive small shops out of business, but the increase in quality of life Wal*Mart has brought to many areas is praise worthy and should be praised, not condemned…
Criticise them for their stance on unions (although it makes sense from a commercial point of view, they are restricting the right to free association) and other practices, but credit where credits due.
Do you work for Edelman, by any chance?
Hi Tristan,
I believe you are Tristan Roy, employed by Edelman and working on behalf of the well-known Astroturf organsiation Working Families for Walmart. Care to admit or deny? I thought Edelman had learnt their lesson about source-concealed postings on blogs, given that on 16th Oct Richard Edelman blogged a personal apology for the Walmarting Across America fiasco.
Clue – real people don’t know there’s a star in Wal*Mart.
I’ll say it a few more times so it pings up in your tracking software – Wal*Mart Walmart WalMart.
Sheila
x
Hi,
Poor Tristan – no he isn’t a Wal*Mart lacky, he’s very definitely a Lib Dem, though I see your thinking!
R
He looks like the same economic libertarian who has posted on David Rundle’s blog (http://liberalibus.blogspot.com/2006/10/explanation-at-last.html) to defend a personal definition of liberalism. Or at least, there is *a* Tristan operating in the LibDem blogosphere with these sorts of views. It would be a coincidence if he was working for Walmart, I suspect. And if he was a cheerleader for them, I’m not sure he’d take the time to attack their union policies. But of course, you could be right for all I know…
He does of course have a point that there can be a trendy lefty fad to attack all supermarkets, when the basic idea is brilliant at providing cheap and convenient food. That’s good for consumers, and no liberal should mourn that. The problem is when supermarkets become monopolistic in an area and competition dies. That’s bad for consumers, and is surely an accurate description of Walmart and Tesco in areas of the USA and UK.
The increase in quality of life Wal*Mart has allegedly brought includes ensuring that no american woman needing the morning-after-pill to prevent conception can obtain it. WalMart has taken a decision, based on their (allegedly) Christian values, not to supply the morning after pill because they believe it causes abortions (it doesn’t). However, since when WalMart opens every other pharmacy inevitably closes, millions of US women are denied control over their own bodies and unwanted babies are brought into the world. I’ll criticise WalMart as long as I breathe for that policy.
Apologies – I am out of date and retract the above. Walmart altered this policy in March 06, which is good news.
FWIW, I don’t really like a lot of the “moralising” Wal Mart does, but if there was proper competition, they’d be financially penalised for not stocking the morning-after-pill or America: The Book, and no consumer would be left unable to access them.
‘Ethical Consumer’ magazine (www.ethicalconsumer.org) rates companies according to a whole list of criteria under the headings of Environment, treatment of animals, treatment of people, Politics, Company Ethos, and Sustainability. It is possible to imagine a Walmart which scored well under all of these headings (which it obviously doesn’t at the moment) but it would still be completely unacceptable to Liberals because of the consequences of its monopolistic strategies.
I see that you all failed to mention that the American government actually pays Wal-Mart to move into an area. The government shouldn’t EVER pay a company to expand itself. They are just giving Wal-Mart the opportunity to monopolize a good majority of the consumers. Does the government pay other people to set up a store? No. Other people have to pay to make a store, they don’t get paid for it.
In defence of Tristan I also knew WalMart had a * in the middle – as, presumably, would anyone who had lived or worked in the US for a while. I also know that TESCO comes from T E Stockwell and Mr COhen, that Asda is short for Associated Dairies, and that the S in John Lewis’ middle name is Spedan. But then I do have to give a lecture on the history of retailing next week to my undergrads.
More seriously, yes, we should celebrate Walmart doing this. Solar power has a lot of potential in sunny areas like Arizona, and is particularly useful for places that use aircon – it tends to be sunny at times you need aircon, so solar power and aircon are a good pairing. Solar power and the need for heat in winter are a less effective pairing.
And yes, Walmart does have a great record of attracting customers who are poor enough to want low prices. Not everyone finds Waitrose promise of good food, honestly priced meets their needs, as the number shopping in Lidl in Britain show.
Supermarkets do not serve the poor well and the evidence for this is increasingly available – or you could just look around low-income areas where they have moved in. Independents are often cheaper but the perception is all the other way. Big business needs to destroy small business, it needs every fraction of a percentage of consumers for their short-term success. Once the small shops have gone social-cohesion slips further away, wages fall as unemployment rises and the spiral is downwards. Increasingly, across the globe, these firms dictate to the legislature. Their (unelected) political power is beyond that of even the US government far less third-world Britain. Politicians may be able to delay or modify but they can no longer stop.