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Walmart, in one of their worst ways of prioritizing prices above qualities to date, turns to a foreign drug supplier, Ranbaxy Laboratories, LTD, who has repeatedly been investigated by the FDA and the DoJ for "inadequate" safeguards against contamination, falsification of records and submitting false information to the FDA.
On top of that, just eight months before the FDA inspected Ranbaxy's Paonta Sahib plant and found significant violations, Walmart awarded the company a "Supplier Award" for improving shipping times and performance.
In a new report on our website, we detail their multi-year spanning violations, DoJ investigation, Congressional Investigation, and list out all of the drugs made at the facility in questions. Additionally, we detail their recent violations below.
In 2008, we had another Walmart open here in the Eastern Panhandle. This one appears from a distance to be a super-humongous version with everything from turnips to tables to tractors. (I haven't set foot inside, so I don't know for sure.)
Over at OpenLeft, Eating Liberally Food For Thought writer Kerry Trueman asks a question worth periodically revisiting, "Should We Shop At Wal-Mart?"
Here's an extended version of the question:
I used to shop at Wal-Mart, until I figured out that low prices based on lousy labor practices and shoddy made-in-China schlock are not such a bargain. But now that Wal-Mart--America's largest food retailer--has jumped on the organic bandwagon, it's making organic products available to folks who lack the access or means to shop at farmers' markets or, say, Whole Foods. Wal-Mart has also made a great show of going green, and just shelled out more than $352 million in what may be the "largest settlement ever for lawsuits over wage violations. ... Is it OK to advocate shopping there if it's the only way you can get your hands on organic stuff (even if it's industrial organic)?
The entire post is well worth a read. You'll learn a lot about the organic foods and why what you get at Walmart is not quite the same as what you get elsewhere.
Some considerations:
Wal-Mart is so huge that it's easy to make the argument that any "good" thing Wal-Mart does - from stocking organic food to changing to energy-saving lightbulbs - makes a huge impact. And in a sense, that is absolutely true. But its potential to make a huge positive impact in one arena can't be viewed in isolation from its potential to hugely screw things up in other arenas. Looking at the sum total seems to be the only way to answer that question fairly.
Fair enough. And what does that sum total look like? On organic... Walmart's relentless pursuit of low prices is inconsistent with the spirit of organic. In the process of offering organic products, they are undermining the standards for organic production and giving consumers a lower quality product than many assume they are purchasing. In other arenas... Walmart's labor and supplier practices are largely unchanged.
For me, I'm still boycotting the Walmart in 2009.
What do you think? Is shopping at Walmart consistent with progressive values?
This December, Wake Up Wal-Mart is going all out with our annual Holiday Campaign to awaken America's largest retailer to its responsibilities. Here is a peek at our second TV ad for 2008's holiday season:
Titled Wal-Mart: America Just Can't Afford It Any Longer, the ad focuses on the hidden costs of shopping at Wal-Mart:
McCain probably thought that by choosing Sarah Palin as a running mate he could mask his record on women's issues - or to borrow a timely phrase, put lipstick on the pig that is his platform.
But WakeUpWalmart.com is going to make sure he doesn't get away with it.
In a new ad, WakeUpWalmart.com highlights what is one of the most egregious examples of his standing in the way of progressive reforms like fair pay for women.
Women working at Walmart make notoriously less than their male counterparts (it's the Walmart way). That's why WakeUp Walmart joined together with other groups to form the largest discrimination class action in history.
This was a chance for Big Mac to prove those reform credentials he likes to talk about, but instead he case a big, fat, regressive "NO" to fair pay.
(Yet another Walmart just opened in W.Va. last month... learn more about how Walmart costs us all money. - promoted by Clem Guttata)
Wake Up Walmart has released its first video of 2008. Walmart is a key issue for progressives to focus on -- because of their awful health care benefits, West Virginia citizens are estimated to be paying $11,211,002 a year in taxes to cover poor Walmart employees and their families with health care -- while Walmart is making huge profits.
Please check out this video, and let your friends know why we need to "Wake Up Walmart".
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Walmart, in one of their worst ways of prioritizing prices above qualities to date, turns to a foreign drug supplier, Ranbaxy Laboratories, LTD, who has repeatedly been investigated by the FDA and the DoJ for "inadequate" safeguards against contamination, falsification of records and submitting false information to the FDA.
