Thursday, February 18, 2010

Walmart Rescues Rural Agriculture?

I found this piece in The Atlantic regarding Walmart and their attempts to improve the quality of their fresh food offering to be quite interesting.  It seems that they have been making an effort to get fresher food to their customers by using locally grown food. 

The author did a side by side comparison with food from Whole Foods.  He included a number of people that know a thing or two about food.  Suprise!

As I had been in my own kitchen, the tasters were surprised when the results were unblinded at the end of the meal and they learned that in a number of instances they had adamantly preferred Walmart produce. And they weren’t entirely happy.

In an ideal world, people would buy their food directly from the people who grew or caught it, or grow and catch it themselves. But most people can’t do that. If there were a Walmart closer to where I live, I would probably shop there.
I have to confess, I still don't understand the continued demonizing of Walmart and their employees.  From the article:
 The service people I could find (it wasn’t hard) were unfailingly enthusiastic, though I did wonder whether they got let out at night.
These folks work hard...and apparently enthusiastically...for a living.  Is it too much to ask that the media treat Walmart workers with a modicum of respect?  Sam Walton's corporate progeny have provided gainful employment for many people.

In particular, they employed someone from my high school graduating class that continues to live with significant physical disabilities.  In fact, they gave her a transfer to Walmart so that she wouldn't get so cold greeting people at Sam's Club in the winter.

A lady I know left industrial sales to work for Walmart.  She worked her way up to running one of their departments.  It paid the bills and gave her an immense feeling of satisfaction in her work.

Walmart is a lot of things, but the precursor to the coming of Satan is definitely not one of them.  Too bad the major media is so clue resistant.

Read the whole thing as it offers many surprises.

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