{"id":719,"date":"2011-02-02T17:57:46","date_gmt":"2011-02-02T15:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/?p=719"},"modified":"2015-04-27T22:42:53","modified_gmt":"2015-04-27T20:42:53","slug":"wal-marts-new-food-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wal-marts-new-food-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Wal-Mart’s new food strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the world of commerce, Wal-Mart<\/b> is a phenomenon unto itself. In 15 countries, it attracts 200 million customers a week to more than 8,700 stores, where they can buy practically everything. Its sales volume \u2014 more than $400 billion \u2014 is bigger than the GDP<\/span> of Austria.<\/p>\n

Since its first store opened in 1962, Wal-Mart has followed the philosophy of selling its goods at lower prices than its competitors<\/span>. Over time, this has driven<\/span> smaller, privately owned stores and even entire shopping malls<\/span> out of business.<\/p>\n

The low prices come mostly from an economy of scale<\/span>, but are facilitated<\/span> by two other factors. First, almost all of the manufactured goods sold at Wal-Mart are made in China. If Wal-Mart were a country, it would be China’s eighth-largest trading partner. Second, Wal-Mart goes to great lengths<\/span> to discourage<\/span> and even prevent its American employees from forming unions<\/span>, in order to keep wages<\/span> low.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of thousands of female employees in the United States say that Wal-Mart has systematically discriminated against them in pay and promotions<\/span>. The Supreme Court<\/span> will hear their case on March 29.<\/p>\n

To most Americans, low prices are much more important than patriotism or fair labor practices. Low prices are even more important to consumers than their own health. The cheapest packaged<\/span> foods \u2014 sold anywhere \u2014 tend to have less nutritional value<\/span> than more moderately priced<\/span> items<\/span>. People buy whatever’s cheap<\/a>, and if they can afford it, they often buy more of something because it’s cheap.<\/p>\n

Better food choices?<\/h2>\n

Well, Wal-Mart sells more groceries<\/span> than any other company in the US \u2014 and now it’s made a very interesting announcement<\/a>. In its store brand<\/span>, the retailer<\/span> will reduce sodium<\/span> content by 25 percent, reduce added sugars by 10 percent, and remove all industrially produced trans fats in steps by 2015. It will put pressure on big-name brands to do the same. It will reduce its profit margin<\/span> in order to offer more affordable fruits and vegetables and eliminate<\/span> the price difference between healthier foods, such as whole-grain<\/span> products, and less healthy items.<\/p>\n

As part of this plan, Wal-Mart will build stores in urban areas that have few or no supermarkets. This will put healthier food within reach of the poor, the company says.<\/p>\n

First Lady Michelle Obama<\/b> has offered her support to this initiative, as it dovetails<\/span> with her program to fight childhood obesity<\/span>.<\/p>\n

This finally appears to be<\/a> a win-win situation<\/span>, given that millions of people are going to shop at Wal-Mart anyway. For Wal-Mart, it means attracting more customers and expanding into areas where it’s not present. For buyers, it means slightly healthier food.<\/p>\n

I say “slightly” because, to produce a noticeably healthier population, the added sugars<\/a> would have to be cut by 50 percent or, better, 100 percent. Wal-Mart says it will take five years for consumers to get used to the idea. Their reaction will certainly be worth watching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the world of commerce, Wal-Mart is a phenomenon unto itself. In 15 countries, it attracts 200 million customers a week to more than 8,700 stores, where they can buy practically everything. Its sales volume \u2014 more than $400 billion \u2014 is bigger than the GDP of Austria. Since its first store opened in 1962, Wal-Mart has followed the philosophy … >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[72,182,95,51],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1747,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions\/1747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}