Walmart is “shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!”
There’s part of me that reads this and just yawns:
Walmart has severed ties with one of the country’s major blueberry growers after an ABC News investigation found children, including one as young as five-years-old, working in its fields.
The children were discovered at the Adkin Blue Ribbon Packing Company, in South Haven, Michigan, this summer by graduate school students working with ABC News as fellows with the Carnegie Corporation….
The owner of the company, Randy Adkin, was once featured on a Walmart billboard advertising his “locally produced and locally sold” blueberries.
But then again, this is an absolutely perfect illustration of Walmart’s m.o. Pressure suppliers to cut costs to the bone, even if they break the law, and then get all outraged when the supplier is eventually caught:
“Walmart will not tolerate the use of child labor,” said a spokesperson who said the retailer was unaware of the children at the Adkin facility until contacted by ABC News.
“We will not purchase any additional product from Adkin Blue Ribbon Packing Company pending the outcome of an investigation by our ethical sourcing team,” the Walmart spokesperson said.
If Walmart cared so much about child labor, why did it take ABC News to reveal the truth about this company? It’s not like you had to send an inspector to Bangladesh to find it.
And come to think of it, why does Walmart sound so outraged when the company has already been linked to many instances of child labor used in its overseas suppliers and even at its own stores.
Walmart’s business model is predicated on keeping people from understanding the costs of its low prices. This kind of fake outrage reminds me of Casablanca, except nobody has fallen in love.
Sorry, I didn’t know where else to “file” this since you didn’t have a discussion thread started yet on the news about Walmart “dying” to get into the casket business.
It all makes pefect sense to me. Think of the marketing possibilities: “WALMART: We service you from cradle to the grave”
Many months ago I posted “half tongue in cheek” that people should be buried beneath the expansive parking lots of their favorite Walmart Supercenter.
Think about it! All that vast space going to waste.
Now when Walmart buys up tracts of land, they can turn it into a cemetary, (after they sell you an Official Walmart Casket of course) and then when it’s full, simply pave over everyone!
Be the first on your block to to have the Ultimate Headstone…A Walmart Supercenter.
This is bound to be a bigger hit than those Moonpies that sold 5 for a buck.