Walmart Sustainability Critique

personal opinions about the 2007 report by the Bog Box Collaborative

Category:

Education

Tags:

• witiger
• Walmart
• Sustainability
• Critique
• business
• ethics
• globalization

[sungjkim0103]

According to a New York Times article, a "U.S.D.A. Organic" certification is done by private groups. Last year, a leading American inspector operating in China has been banned because they used employees of Chinese government agency to inspect state-controlled farms and food processing facilities. They passed the liability and responsibility on to the Chinese government rather than conducting the inspection themselves. Thus these inspector companies are more to blame than Wal-Mart. MGTC46 Sung.K

[profwitiger]

sneaky sneaky eh, yes, Sung, it is a troublesome problem - USDA really doesn't mean anything if the real USDA has no reps actually doing the inspecting - probably they used Chinese inspectors cause the USDA has no ppl who speak Chinese!!

[jazzyM31]

Its interesting because i didnt know even a big company like walmart can lie to people about products they sell just to make few bucks.Not only thats effecting costumers also the other small companies which are honnest and selling the original product for a higher cost.

Jahanzaib M

BUS-106

[trinidadeshawn]

It's strange that despite all the bad publicity Wal-Mart gets, either for destroying small town businesses or preforming unethical practices, people will still shop there. It goes to show loyal people can be to price.

[Diana460MV]

It is no secret that Wal-Mart continually uses their bargaining power to lower their prices. If a vendor does not comply in lowering their prices, Wal-Mart will surely disolve the partnership. In a sense, this forces globalization as it is forcing competition among businesses, ensuring producers comply with the lowest possible standard. This problem is likely aiding the organic food problem talked about in the video, as increased competition relates to both price and quality.

Diana M - MRK460MV

[marion7171]

@marion7171

Catherine M. MRK460MV

[marion7171]

In Belgium where I am from, most of the organic food in the supermarket have a logo AB (Agriculture Biologique) on them to certify that it is organic. To be allowed to use this logo on their product, the product has to be made of at least 95% ingredients from an organic agriculture. The AB logo is a French brand that supports smaller farmer to keep growing organic food. We also have only organic market where agriculture can sell their product directly to the consumer without many middlemen.

[namiecawaii]

The comment about USDA was interesting because many consumer believe that if it is approved by USDA it must be organic. This is also ethics issue since US and Chaina have different ethical standards xsun mgtc46

[nimzzk]

I remember doing a case study on Wal-Mart in high school and found 'sneaky' information like that. There are actually dedicated websites such as Wal-Mart Watch, which run campaigns explaining how Wal-Mart runs their business operations. This reminds me of my friend who works at Swiss Chalet. The oil that the fries were fried in was not halal, however the manager strictly told the employees to tell the muslim customers that the food is halal.

Niwaz K MGD 415 Winter2011

[arnejaha]

@arnejaha Harleen A. MGTC46

[arnejaha]

While the text book reason for Wal-Mart's success is its ways of increasing profit and revenues by restricting output, which is the goal all businesses have, the real reason includes among others, the practices described in this video. The small businesses that Wal-Mart is effectively kicking have nowhere to turn to. What makes it worse is that it is not competing fairly but illegally. All this makes me doubt whether it deserves the throne that Fortune magazine has bestowed it with.

[tusharchadha]

I'm sure Wal-Mart would simply refute these remarks against them. However, it is important for organizations such as Wal-Mart to do their due diligence when developing relationships with suppliers to ensure that they are following a certain protocol expected as a supplier to Wal-Mart. With already such high profits and economies of scale, its quite amusing to see Wal-Mart take even further steps to add each and every penny possible to their bottom line.

Tushar C - MGTC46