Wal-Mart to launch price war on "Expensive Organic Food"

I guess the target market would be anyone that wants to spend less money on organic produce. I buy a lot of produce every week, especially during the winter when I can’t grow my own. If I can get organic bananas for 30 cents less per pound I’ll do it. Whether they like to admit it or not, everyone shops at a big box store at some point.

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This is true, but I try to limit it. Wal-Mart is definitely where I draw the line though. I had no problem with them in the past when they bought American and Sam Walton was actively involved with the business, but his kids are just pure profit remoras that do not give a damn about anyone else.

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Is this organic food as in “contains carbon”?

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Here are two possibilities you don’t seem to have considered:
-Some foods absorb pesticide more readily than others and it may be worth buying organic in those cases. (I mention this because you seem to imply that organic food isn’t any healthier than industrial food – which is true in most cases but not necessarily when it comes to pesticide content.)
-Organic farming may be less environmentally destructive and it might be worth it to some people to pay extra for that.

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Today’s Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal is apropos

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Frankly, the fact that markets compete on national and global levels mean those prices go up. I can’t imagine blue collar workers really appreciating welfare recipients buying products that are effectively priced as luxury goods that they have to budget for or catch in the wild to consume, especially when they’re footing the bill for the welfare. Take crawfish for example, you’re going to spend about $20 to feed one person. That still doesn’t mean there’s not a way to buy them cold when you’re on welfare. There’s nothing really good that can be said about that. I imagine that in this case, it’s more a matter of Wal-Mart just needing to cater to whichever market they’re in. You don’t see chicken feet at every Wal-Mart.

I realize you were joking but I would point out that the write up never mentioned fresh vegetables. Tomato paste… yes, apple sauce… yes, quinoa, salsa and pasta sauce… check, check, check. But no fresh veggies.

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An EBT card is not a license to just take food off shelves. People have to budget their EBT credits too. When you spend food stamps on lobster you can’t buy as much food overall.

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There are a lot of people who sadly no longer have the option. My grandmother lives in a town of about 6200 people - when Walmart moved into town, they completely destroyed all competing businesses. It’s literally not possible to shop elsewhere unless you’re willing to make a 70 mile round trip to the nearest town that has real stores.

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I believe the entire McDonald’s menu might count as prior art.

I might be misunderstanding, but I thought that lobsters were delicate and unlikely to survive long distance travel, so they are graded according to their likelyhood of survival. This leaves the lobsters which will not travel far without dying which need to be sold at a reduced price.

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Wow. That’s horrifying. I think people are realizing how bad of an idea it is to let them into town, but sometimes it’s unavoidable due to zoning or politicians. They have all of my sympathies.

The real tragedy would be if anyone in that store tried to organize for worker’s rights the owners would just shut the store and let the town die. It’s like the era of the company store all over again.

If you consider how much money walmart makes from foodstamps and their workers dependence on foodstamps because of low pay, then you could remove the word ‘like’ from that statement.

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Oh the spectre of ‘immigrants eating caviar on welfare’ seems to be my uncle’s biggest bugbear of my uncle, along with obamaphones

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Actually, lobster was such a poorly regarded food in New England that it was considered a “mark of poverty.” See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobster#History

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I’ve witnessed this as well. it’s terrible. Luckily, i don’t live in those places and have other options.

Oh no, everything I need in one convenient spot at competitive prices! Those bastards!

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It may be shocking to discover that not all the citizens of the USA live in places with a Whole Foods or Trader Joes nearby–or are willing and able to spend 4 dollars a pound for Bananas.

As for “farm stands” in rural America…with few exceptions, most of those even the ‘truck farmers’ use pesticides—and even those have a very narrow window of seasonal availability.

I’ happy to see my local farm stand opening up for the season with prices cheaper than wal-mart—yet I know the Tomatoes, Peaches and corn are grown with pesticides.

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Oh no, a company willing to increase the trade balance with China while encouraging undercutting American companies at the same time! Definitely those bastards.

Sometimes paying too low of a price is harmful.

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Besides putting all the retail and grocery stores out of business and replacing all the retail jobs in town with positions that have unlivable wages, Walmart doesn’t have everything she needs. In fact it has huge gaps in what it carries, as it’s only one store with no competition. (So the prices aren’t competitive, necessarily, either.) You want to buy a winter coat, during the winter? Nope, Walmart had already replaced their winter line with spring clothes by the time winter is in full swing. Too bad! The latest thing that my grandmother realized she’d have to drive 70 miles to get: fucking shoelaces. Her Walmart only carries a specific color and type of shoelaces. The shoe store it replaced didn’t have that problem. It’s but the latest of many deficiencies compared to what was available pre-Walmart.

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