Thursday, July 03, 2008

Buy local produce at your neighborhood Wal-mart

Wal-mart is a champion for local food? You think I'm kidding, right? Wrong. Wal-mart is leading the buy local movement by proving it can work outside of farmer's markets and high-end specialty stores.

Some haters of chain stores have claimed that Wal-mart's business model is contrary to the buy local movement, but maybe we're in for a surprise. Remember, Wal-mart got big by innovating.

Wal-mart isn't alone among large corporations. Bon Appetit, the foodservice company, is an even more impressive corporate leader in buying locally-produced food.

This is an interesting development that may shake up our view of what's possible.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Chains stores might be imperfect in many ways but if only for the positive influence that buying from local farmers has on the carbon emission from the transportation that is needed this trend should be welcomed

Jives said...

I was shocked on my recent trip home. My dad is totally into shopping at Wal-Mart for other reasons. They have staff in my home town dedicated to community service and they're really doing great things with a bunch of committees my dad is on.

So I guess you don't have to pay your employees or manufacture things outside of China to win people over.