Wal-Mart
 

Hello Everyone,

I've just joined and wanted to pass along some news. I spoke with Wal-Mart Corporate Headquarters this morning to inquire about what low carb products they are/will/or trying to stock. I had been told by my local Wal-Mart MGR that company wide the wanted to jump on the LC sales train in a big way. This is the news I received. BTW the lady that I spoke with was wonderful! Informative, helpful and very very knowledgeable.

They will put a LC display up December 26th (in the same location the holiday baking display now, ours is a huge freestanding section you can't miss it) and In January they are rolling out lots of new products to "test" in the Super Centers. They are currently trying to get Walden Farms, La Tiara Taco Shells, Sarah Lee LC bread. They will stock tons more Atkins (think they are going with the Atkins Tortilla not LaTortilla Factory), Ross, Pure De-lite, Russell Stover's, Carbsense etc. She is going to talk to the dairy department and inquire about LeCarb yogurt as well as the milk and ice cream. I'm sorry to say I didn't ask about Keto products, it just totally slipped my mind.

She requested that I make a list (with product info and mfg info if possible) of anything I could think of that Wal-Mart might be able to stock. So I need ideas plz.

Thanks

Great, hope that means the Super Wal*Mart centers every where. I shop at ours here in central IL but would be nice to know that I could go to any when we are camping and get what I need and want.

I think it is really great that more places are listening to their consumers and getting what they want.

Windy

I just returned from our super center. I bought granola, hot cereal, pizza crust, and snickerdoodle mix all made by minicarb, which also had carb sense on the box.

The prices were MUCH better than my local health food store.

I'll post again after I taste these things.

The pizza dough was good but difficult to work with. Try to get it as thin as possible because it does "puff" during cooking. I'm not a big fan of the Walden Farms Sauce so I use Mama Marys (found it with the deli items at Wal-Mart) 1/4 cup had about 3 carbs. The lady I spoke with said the carrot cake mix was great...What a job...getting to low carb taste test *G* where do I sign up!

I would like to see them carry low-carb tortilla chips, if there is any such thing. Today I tried Carb Solutions High Protein Chips (from Wal-Mart), and they weren't very good.

I have resisted my impulse to post this for the past 8 months that I have been on this forum, as it seems as though this board is inadvertantly giving Walmart a lot of free advertising, but seeing a thread entitled simply "Walmart" has sent me over the edge. The following is only a tiny example of Walmart's unethical, amoral, practices. Read this, and if you still have the stomach for it, ask yourself how badly you need low carb tortillas. At least those from Walmart.

Wal-Mart's Shirts of Misery - Walmart In Bangladesh

When you purchase a shirt in Walmart, do you ever imagine young women in Bangladesh forced to work from 7:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., seven days a week, paid just 9 cents to 20 cents an hour, who are denied health care and maternity leave; screamed at to work faster; with monitored bathroom visits; and who will be fired for daring to complain or ask for their rights?

At the Beximco factory in the Dhaka Export Processing Zone in Bangladesh, there are 1,000 workers, at least 80 percent of them young women, sewing shirts and pants for Walmart and other retailers. Beximco is a sweatshop, where human rights are systematically violated.



Shame on Walmart

Walmart and its contractor Beximco do not pay the overtime premium. In fact, as we have seen, they do not even pay the legal hourly wage of 33 cents. They pay only 20 cents an hour and pay overtime at this same illegal 20-cent rate.

These workers are locked in poverty, being cheated out of over $20 a week in legal wages by the largest retailer in the world. The workers are being illegally paid just $16 for a full 80-hour workweek. For the forced 80-hour week, they should be earning at least $36.96. Surely Walmart, with $7.6 billion in annual operating profits, could afford this wage!

Some of the poorest people in the world are being illegally robbed of their wages, driving them deeper into misery. Even the 33-cent an hour wage does not come close to meeting basic subsistence needs.

This is why in Bangladesh there is no difference in the malnutrition rate of children whether their parents are unemployed or are working in factories sewing garments for the largest U.S. companies. Even the legal minimum wage is set too low to allow the workers to climb out of misery.

No maternity leave: At Beximco, legal maternity leave is denied and benefits are not paid.

Denied health care: By law, a factory the size of Beximco should have a health clinic, with a doctor present. Beximco has nothing. There is an empty first aid box for show. The women workers and their children have absolutely no health coverage or protection.

Access to bathrooms limited: The workers need a ticket and permission to use the bathrooms. Access is limited and bathroom breaks are timed.

Maltreatment/cursing/yelling: There is constant pressure to meet the high daily production goal; the workers are yelled at and cursed at to work faster.

Cheated of their tiny savings: In Bangladesh there is a government regulated savings system whereby a small deduction is made each pay period from the workers' wages and deposited in the Provident Fund, which the factory maintains. The workers can withdraw their savings from this fund when they leave the factory or are fired. It functions as a kind of severance pay, to act as a bridge or means of support while new work is sought. But most workers at Beximco, who have been forced to leave, report that they are cheated of their savings.

No worker has seen Walmart's Code of Conduct: Walmart says it has a corporate code of conduct which guarantees the human and worker rights of anyone sewing Walmart garments around the world. Even by industry standards, Walmart's code of conduct is very limited and extremely weak. Yet the workers at Beximco have never even seen this weak code of conduct. Walmart's code is not posted and it has never been explained to the workers. There has been no attempt to implement the code.

No right to organize: In Bangladesh's EPZs, unions and collective contracts are prohibited by law. The workers have no rights; the government authorities do nothing to implement labor law. The workers are fired for daring to protest forced 24-hour shifts. Denied their right to organize, the workers are isolated and vulnerable -- easily cheated of their legal wages and benefits.

Falling Real Wages

Devaluation and inflation have further eroded the real purchasing power of the Bangledeshi workers' wages.

The local currency, the taka, has lost 19% of its value against the U.S. dollar since 1995. (In 1995, there were TK 40.90 to $1.00. By October 1998, the taka had fallen to TK 48.50 to $1.00.)

There is a five to six percent inflation rate each year.

What Can We Do?

We can have an impact.

We do have a voice.

Walmart sells more clothing in North America than any other company in the United States or Canada. We purchase this clothing. That gives us a voice and the power to demand that Walmart respect human and worker rights in Bangladesh.

Write to or Call Walmart:

Mr. David Glass, President & CEO

Actually, Kay, Wal-Mart has devasting effects on the economy here at home, too. In fact, the average annual salary of a full time Wal-Mart employee would have said employee's family living well below the federal poverty line (about $2000 below if the worker is a single mom with 2 kids). Since you were a social worker, you know the federal poverty line will never be confused with the king's riches. For those of you that don't know, the federal poverty line for a family of 3 is about $14,000. In areas where Wal-Mart is the primary employer, they serve to keep wages artificially low. And before anyone starts in about health care benefits - most Wal-Mart employees can't afford to participate in the company's health care plan. Only about 38% are enrolled - compared with 61% for other large employers. When Wal-Mart moves into your neighborhood with 100 jobs flaunted in front of eager town councils desperate for an expanded tax base, what the local government fails to realize is that 150 current jobs will vanish. Local businesses will close and traditions like Main Street are but a distant memory. By the way, Wal-Mart uses every corporate tax code loophole to avoid paying the taxes these rural areas need to support the services their residents deserve. Wal-Mart doesn't pay overtime - in fact, it steals time from its employees as part of its corporate mission statement - under the guise of customer service. Wal-Mart regularly campaigns against raising the minimum wage.

If you're thinking to yourself, "How can this happen in America?" think about how Wal-Mart also alters the music you buy, the magazines you see, and the limited number of books that meet their standards. Wal-Mart is a corporate bully, threatening other corporations with economic destruction if these corporations don't toe the Wal-Mart party line. Wal-Mart's hardline stance to lower prices by any means necessary also means that many manufacturing jobs end up overseas - where employees don't have watchdog agencies to protect them. It's been said that that is why Wal-Mart had to abandon it's famous campaign of the late 80's "Made in America" - they simply cannot purchase American goods with their restrictions on unions and other protective federal employment measures.

I think I'll just pay a little extra to the delightful lady who runs my local health food store.

Lisa

P.S. Most of the information in this post came from Business Weekly, to which I subscribe, but I cannot provide links since the archive is a pay service. However, you can type in "Wal-Mart", "wages," "employment policies," etc. and pull up the same type of information.

WIC,

By the way, this ranting is in no way directed at you. Especially since you are new here, I'm sorry you have gotten in the line of fire. And I know you were simply being helpful.....your post just happened to come along at a time when I couldn't keep quiet any longer.

You were very kind to pass along the information you had on some new and exciting lc product availability. We are by and large very nice people on this forum. About a million other members have referenced Walmart, and I know none of you meant any harm, only helpfulness.

Please don't let let this discourage you from other posts. Only about 3% of the population pays any attention to boycotts anyhow. Unfortunately.

I'm genuinely glad to see you as a new member and wish you well in your lc journey.

Kay

Ditto!

Lisa

Shopping at Wal-Mart
 

Wal-mart now carries a new line of milk (aka dairy beverage) called Carb Countdown. I bought some tonight on the recommendation of my mom who is also LC'ing. I just had some and it isn't bad. It tastes a lot like reconstituted powdered milk but has only 3g of carbs per 8 oz serving and a lot more protein than regular milk. I think it tastes much better than soy, and would be great on LC cereal.

I don't mind shopping at Wal-mart. I find their prices are decent and their selection good.

Our Wal-mart sells a new line of LC ice cream from Breyers which tastes great. 5 net g per serving.

===========================================

Just some personal opinions on the Wal-Mart controversy mentioned below:

I appreciate the lower prices as well as my local Wal-mart and Sam's Club's regular fund raising for charitable causes. Super Wal-Mart is the #1 grocery store in the nation. Why? Because it is able to regularly sell things at cheaper prices, and allows those of us who shop there to save time and money and take better care of our families. Most of the LC products on the market are home-grown and don't have to do with sweatshops in Bangladesh. Currying the LC market is both lucrative and serves to help our nation get healthier.

Sam Walton was somewhat of a hero in my hometown of Columbia, MO. He was a simple self-made farming man with some business acumen who succeeded in his vision. He built a huge successful corporation.

However, when any corporation gets huge, there's always opportunities to stray from the more warm and fuzzy corporate missions, moreover our fluffy lifestyle in an affluent country depends on the work of others less affluent--which is what capitalism is about, for better or worse--the rosy picture is that others have an opportunity to better themselves, the less-than-rosy picture is that not everyone does.

Fortunately in our country we have a system of checks and balances to try to keep our corporations honest on our soil, particularly with regards to our own workers... it doesn't always work, but at least we are on alert, and sooner or later if violated, they will pay the price.

A lot of times organizations like Wal-Mart (note the article referenced only uses the big name of Wal-Mart as one example and alludes to other corporations--Wal-mart doesn't only get their products from Bangladesh, but from other legitimate local and international companies as well) will sub-contract with other organizations for labor and products due to a successful outsourcing bid (particulalry overseas where labor is proportionately cheap--those workers are probably very grateful for the pennies per hour that they do earn because the economy in those countries is so depleted), but unfortunately those organizations and the countries in which they exist do not necessarily hold to the same social value system or have the same labor rights that we enjoy in this country.

Ideally, in going into those countries for labor, international organizations bring in more jobs and proportionately better wages. Perhaps in the example below, there was a serious error in corporate judgement, but saying the entire corporation of Wal-mart is corrupt and that we shouldn't ever shop there is a bit extreme to me. Wal-mart is one of the largest employers in the world, and I'm sure that not all their employees are angry or neglected.

The social, economic, and political changes needed in parts of the world like Bangladesh and even our close neighbor, Mexico, to address poverty extend much farther and deeper than a few shirts for sale at Wal-Mart. Changing social demographics is about awareness, education, and dedicated constructive (rather than destructive) social and political activism, particularly by the people who are experiencing the problems first-hand.

I guess if we want to get technical we would not shop at a lot of places because in way or another they are hurting the American family by taking jobs over seas or to Mexico for cheap labor. Just a thought,

Windy

Here's some links to check out:

Walmart underpays its workers

http://www.ufcw.org/issues_and_acti...almartwages.cfm

Walmart actively prevents its workers from unionizing

http://www.kpft.org/news/111502story3.html

Six out of Ten Walmart workers can't afford their health insurance premiums.

http://www.flagstaffactivist.org/ca...s/walmyths.html

I've hunted high and low for my copy of Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich in which she documents her time working undercover at Walmart, so I could quote the final page, but I can't find it. She said it more eloquently than me, but the gist was that if you shop at a store like Walmart, you are asking another person to earn less than a living wage, be unable to provide health care to themselves and their children, be treated with respect by their workplace, just so that you can enjoy lower prices. How many of us could go up to another person and feel okay asking them to do that so we can pay a dollar less for a box of Atkins bake mix?

Not me.

Ciao, Dig.

P.S. The UCFW site has much more information about Walmart than just the article I referenced.

P.P.S. I would also like to add that this is not directed at any particular person, but I do feel that it's important to share information and then let people make up their own mind. If you don't know, then you can't factor it into your spending decisions.

bvtaylor:

Your response is very well thought out. I don't agree with you but I envy you your innocence. I do think that (fortunately in our fluffy society) there are other options to taking care of our famillies. Our families are part of a world family. What harms one family eventually, maybe only after decades, has ramifications for another. Ever wonder why the Iraqis hate us, even as we send our troops over there to die?



Fortunately in our country we have a system of checks and balances to try to keep our corporations honest on our soil, particularly with regards to our own workers... it doesn't always work, but at least we are on alert, and sooner or later if violated, they will pay the price.

Part of that system of checks and balances, in my opinion, depends upon individual consumers rather than legislators and bureaucats. So whether it makes one iota of difference or not, I try to make my voice heard in the small ways available to me.

(particulalry overseas where labor is proportionately cheap--those workers are probably very grateful for the pennies per hour that they do earn because the economy in those countries is so depleted)



That seems to be a simplistic judgement call. But I can't prove my point any more than you can prove yours. How else can one use an example of the term "exploitation'" other than the way you have just done?



The social, economic, and political changes needed in parts of the world like Bangladesh and even our close neighbor, Mexico, to address poverty extend much farther and deeper than a few shirts for sale at Wal-Mart.

It is not about a few shirts. That was just an example.

Changing social demographics is about awareness, education, and dedicated constructive (rather than destructive) social and political activism, particularly by the people who are experiencing the problems first-hand.

Oh, so I guess we'll just let these workers use their bathroom chits to spend that time emailing us instead of taking a whiz?



Wal-mart is one of the largest employers in the world, and I'm sure that not all their employees are angry or neglected.

You aren't? Probably not the ones who they use in their commercials, anyhow....Assuming they are really Walmart employees.

Kay

Let's not single out Wal-Mart.
 

Of course this is my opinion and not intended to offend anyone.

To me, the question is, is there a corporation in America that somehow does not face the same issues that Wal-Mart does? Why single out Wal-Mart? If I pay more at Vitamin Cottage, K-Mart, Target, or the Co-Op, does that mean that their workers are better off?

Where do you think that the same poor people working at Wal-Mart go to buy their groceries and clothing? They are grateful that there is a place like Wal-Mart where they can buy some affordable groceries and sundries.

Pretty much we're saying that in order to be ethical, about every discount store in this country or every company that pays minimum wage or is allowed to pay less than the minimum wage (which a lot of small business fall under) or uses unskilled labor should be boycotted. I think that would cover a lot of the natural grocery co-ops, too.

Even Ben & Jerry's, one of the most "green" and activist companies in the nation, changed their payscale. At one point they had a rule where the person in the company making the least amount of money wouldn't make less than a certain percentage of the highest earner in the company. After a while that wasn't practical any more and even that company fell into the corporate rut.

Let's face it, minimum wage itself is unliveable--it's not only Wal-Mart employees that are stuck with low wages. Most minimum wage workers don't even have the opportunity to buy insurance.

Unskilled labor is the most underrated work in the world--and you only get out of that rut by learning a marketable skill. Even so, you could graduate for Harvard and make less than $10 an hour working as a social activist/journalist for one of the green companies that comes to our door to solicit signatures. Of course it wouldn't pay back your student loans. I don't see anyone persecuting those employers for less than a liveable wage...

Unions are not the begin all and end all. In and of themselves there is corruption there as well. I used to work for the grocery store union in St. Louis, MO. When Krogers went belly up in that region, all the Krogers union workers who lost their jobs lost everything. They had to start over again with entry-level wages in a different grocery store chain. How did the union help them?

Yes, unions can help, particularly with benefits... but benefit prices are determined by private insurance companies--when I worked at my low grocery wage, the union dues and insurance took a chunk out of my pay. It's like saying that Cobra helps people who lose their jobs... heck, who can afford to pay for Cobra health insurance when you are unemployed?