About a year and a half ago I was watching a college basketball game with a bunch of friends when the first green Walmart commercial ever popped up. My immediate reaction was: you have got to be kidding me! In my book, and perhaps at the time, Walmart was one of the furthest things from green that I could possibly imagine, much less a socially viable purchasing option. From the looks of the commercial, it sounded like Walmart was just jumping onto the eco-friendly train to sell more products, and maybe they were at first but the message is now more than marketing hype. Almost two years later and Yvon Chouinard, founder of the eco-mecca for urban elites and outdoorsy folk known as Patagonia, is now working with Walmart to translate image into principle. Chalk it up to market need or market niche, but Walmart has decided to put a new spin on their products.
Whereas previously most of the wares at the typical Wally world might hail from the hands of Chinese laborers, or represent one of the worst eco-footprints in terms of fuel usage (ala massive global transit schemes to get those goods from one end of the world to your own), today Walmart is taking a hard look at its business plan and rethinking the future. This will certainly take a lot of time and effort, but the result will be incredibly powerful given Walmart's immense purchasing power. It seems Chouinard may be as shocked as I am, but this is no joke. See more below:
You can also learn more here: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/harvardbusiness?sid=H2c7e044be78a5e6d144f9b45ab085921
Monday, December 21, 2009
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2 comments:
You are an amazing writer!!!!!!!!!!!! this is really great!!!!!!!!!!
This is totally a PR stunt. Walmart will continue to destroy local businesses and community to make a profit. They still have no respect for their employees.
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