Please don't buy their stuff. And please speak out against their exploitative practices. Buying from Wal-Mart is "penny wise, pound foolish."Want to know the price of "every day low prices"?
Just take a look at the empty toy shelves at your local Wal-Mart.
Over the past two weeks, Mattel has recalled over 10 million Barbie, Polly Pocket, Dora the Explorer and Sesame Street toys for hazardous lead paint and dangerous magnets. Thousands of concerned parents are rushing to pediatricians' offices to have their children tested for lead poisoning.
Mattel has taken responsibility for the safety of its products, but Wal-Mart has to be held accountable as well. As it stands, you can't trust that the toys Wal-Mart is selling you are safe. As the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart sets the standard for product safety -- and by bullying companies like Mattel to produce toys and other products at bottom dollar costs, it's pushing American companies into shady overseas operations.
Tell Wal-Mart to care about its customers' health, and demand a higher quality for its products:
http://action.walmartwatch.com/madeinchina
Maybe Wal-Mart doesn't care what it takes to get its suppliers to sell their goods at cheaper prices. That's probably why 70% of Wal-Mart's products are made in China, where quality guidelines and worker standards are less stringent.
In recent months, we've seen story after story about Chinese-made products: faulty tires, tainted toothpaste, toxic pet food, and now poisonous, dangerous toys. Wal-Mart currently has dozens of products listed on its "product recall" web page -- and those are just the ones the company has told us about.
Plus, in factory after factory that supplies goods for Wal-Mart, widespread cases of blatant illegal and unethical labor abuses have been uncovered in recent years. In light of the recent toy recalls, it's not a stretch to draw a connection between Wal-Mart's pressure on its suppliers for low cost merchandise, the problems at these factories and the safety of these toys and other products.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
PLEASE don't shop at Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Watch sent me an email today with the following message:
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Now now, let's be fair. Where the bit saying walmart have any responsibility for malpractice of their own here? Why is the fact that they resell others' goods later shown to be defective somehow *their* fault?
ReplyDeleteClassic case of assuming the worst there, I think.
Simple, Tim. Wal-Mart has demanded completely unrealistically low prices from manufacturers - forcing them to outsource their manufacturing operations (read: sweat shop labor) and the use of cheap (read: lead paint) materials.
ReplyDeleteNo, you're missing the point. The piece you quote states that it's Mattel's products that have been recalled. That has nothing to do with Walmart unless you can demonstrate that they've failed some responsibility, such as deliberately not forwarded notice of recalls.
ReplyDeleteBy all means the company responsible should be held accountable, but that company is Mattel--not WalMart. Mattel is a giant company and has been for decades--long before WalMart came along. They moved their production to China because they saw the chance to increase profits by decreasing production costs. Wonder how much this recall is going to bite into those profits. Yes, WalMart sells Mattel products, but guess what so does ToysRUs and a lot of other national and on-line toy sellers. WalMart has enough things for which it has to answer without piling on things that are not their fault.
ReplyDeleteCarolyn L.