Wal Mart Goes Racist

[Chosen]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bd371350-0f2c-11de-ba10-0000779fd2ac.html

ARTICLE EXCERPT:



Wal-Mart looks to Hispanic market

By Jonathan Birchall

Published: March 12 2009 18:03 | Last updated: March 12 2009 18:03

Wal-Mart plans to open its first Hispanic-focused supermarkets this summer in Arizona and Texas as the largest US retailer continues its drive to expand its dominance of the US grocery business.

The pilot stores, named Supermercado de Walmart, will open in Phoenix and Houston in remodelled 39,000 sq ft locations occupied previously by two of Wal-Mart’s Neighborhood Market stores.

The retailer said that the stores were in “strongly Hispanic neighbourhoods” and would feature a “new lay-out, signing and product assortment designed to make them even more relevant to local Hispanic customers”. The staff will also be bilingual.

Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club warehouse store also plans to open a 143,000 sq ft Hispanic-focused store called Más Club in Houston this year.

Several leading regional US supermarket chains already operate Hispanic store brands, including Publix in Florida, which operates three Publix Sabor markets, and HEB in Texas, which opened a Mi Tienda store in Houston in 2006.

The markets include elements such as cafés serving Latino pastries and coffee, and full service meat and fish counters.

Leading retailers are also pursuing Hispanic consumers online, with Best Buy and Home Depot having launched Spanish-language versions of their e-commerce sites in recent months.

Eduardo Castro-Wright, the head of Wal-Mart’s US stores since 2005, has also been an advocate of testing new smaller, more focused formats, and raised the idea of turning the Neighbourhood Market into a Hispanic-style bodega concept several years ago.

He has also developed Wal-Mart’s efforts...
CONT

[sevin]

Anyone with enough spare time should start studying Spanish now. It will help your chances of finding a job in the coming years.

[Dequeant]

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[Zippyjuan]

Wouldn't it be more racist if they said they were NOT going to sell to a particular ethnic group instead of catering to them? A business trying to expand its market is a bad thing?

[cradle2graveconservative]

Edit

[RSLudlum]

Racist? That's bass ackwards. Walmart is catering to their customers on a localized basis, what is wrong with that? Why is it that many people seem to believe that a national company should be totally standardized in it's operations across the board? Could it be the same reason we have an overbearing national gov't?

[The_Orlonater]

How dare they! :rolleyes:

[BlackTerrel]

What are you talking about? How is this racist?

[BlackTerrel]

Soon to be the most robbed supermarkets the world has ever seen. Is profiling based off of statistics still racist or is that not PC enough?

Care to elaborate? Hispanics rob more supermarkets than others???

[NMCB3]

Doesn`t sound "racist" to me, although in a free society you could be as "racist" as you wanted to be...the free market would decide if your business would succeed or fail. :)

[danberkeley]

It's racist because they are descriminating based on race. What if Wal-Mart came out with a store that was catered to whites?

[Dequeant]

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[NMCB3]

It's racist because they are descriminating based on race. What if Wal-Mart came out with a store that was catered to whites?Who cares? What if I open a restaurant that caters to Japanese?

[NationaliseIt]

It sounds quite free-market to me

[Up The Deise]

No this is not racist as they are not targeting a particular race but catering for a particular taste. In this case Hispanic/latino foods and drink.

If Wal-Mart is racist in this case then so is your local Chinese takeaway.

[Cowlesy]

It's racist because they are descriminating based on race. What if Wal-Mart came out with a store that was catered to whites?

Since our country is majority white, isn't that what regular WalMarts already do? I mean they can't rename them WhiteMarts or Al Sharpton would blow a gasket.

Pretty good idea by WalMart --- if there is a market for them, you might as well build it.

If a WalMart in an area wasn't attracting white shoppers, they could rebrand it european-american-focused Walmart.

Yes there would be a double-standard in that minorities would call it racist, but they call anything focused on european americans racist so that wouldn't be anything new.

[JoshLowry]

This is not racist.

[MelissaWV]

As people have already pointed out, this is "racist" the same way that other ethnic markets are, or ethnic restaurants. Are all the people eating at your local Chinese restaurant Chinese? Are even the majority? There is no sign at the door requiring you to "be Hispanic" (a very broad group, by the way, just as not all "white" people are Irish or German or anything) to shop there. Instead of having to shuffle through an entire huge store looking for what's usually half an aisle (even in traditionally Hispanic areas) of the right ingredients, there's a store that caters to that sort of cuisine.

You should also note the workers are going to be "bilingual" according to the article. Not "Spanish only," but "bilingual"... which seems to indicate "white" people are also welcome to shop there for when/if they feel like trying their hand at another cuisine. You do know, right, that there are already shops all over the place that sell these sorts of ingredients, but most are small and family-run and some of the content is a little suspect? All that's happening is that the large chain stores are opening subset stores to compete.

As for the stores being robbed more often, I doubt it. Robberies have more to do with access and potential gain than anything else, and these sorts of stores have ridiculous lighting and security to start with. You're more likely to still see pawn shops and little corner stores robbed more often than anything affiliated with WalMart, as far as on a large scale. Shoplifting? That's another matter.

Why be so quick with the "R" label, I wonder?

[angelatc]

It's racist because they are descriminating based on race. What if Wal-Mart came out with a store that was catered to whites?

It would be racist if they denied entry to anybody that wasn't white.

It looks like this is just a part of Wal-Mart's "Neighborhood Grocer" concept which they unveiled a few years ago. Instead of crowded one-size-fits-all stores, they were going to try smaller footprints with emphasis on fresh and local.

All retailers cater to their target audience. Even mainstream grocery stores make decisions to carry ethnic-specific items based on their neighborhood demographics. Stroes in the Jewish part of town are heavier on foods that appeal to the Jewish residents, stores in the Asian part of town are heavier in different foods.

Let the market work it out.

[angelatc]

Going purely off of historical crime rates, a store that caters specifically to a group with an above average crime rate is more likely to experience much greater crime, no? I don't believe that's racist, but I recognize the fact that it is PC to ignore simple facts such as these when they involve issues such as race, religion, or ethnicity.

Lets compare the numbers in a year. I'll be here. One of these stores vs. a normal "Wal-Mart" in the same area.

I'd take that bet. People who don't really pay attention to what Wal-Mart does usually don't realize that Wal-Mart knows far more about logistics, demographics and the issues that accompany them than any other retailer on the planet.

One of the reasons they can keep prices so low is that they are very focused on keeping theft down.

If you think they haven't addresses this in their planning meetings, I suspect that you're wrong.

Wal-Mart isn't huge because the local governments give them tax breaks. The local governments give them tax breaks because they're huge. They're huge because shopping habits are science to them.

[Cowlesy]

I'd take that bet. People who don't really pay attention to what Wal-Mart does usually don't realize that Wal-Mart knows far more about logistics, demographics and the issues that accompany them than any other retailer on the planet.

One of the reasons they can keep prices so low is that they are very focused on keeping theft down.

If you think they haven't addresses this in their planning meetings, I suspect that you're wrong.

Wal-Mart isn't huge because the local governments give them tax breaks. The local governments give them tax breaks because they're huge. They're huge because shopping habits are science to them.

^this

[Dequeant]

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[NationaliseIt]

If you don't like it just distribute union formation material to the workers of these stores, walmart will shut them down pretty sharpish.

[danberkeley]

:p It's not racist. However!, what if the article read, "Wal-Mart plans to open its first European-focused supermarkets this summer in Kansas and Nebraska as the largest US retailer continues its drive to expand its dominance of the US grocery business", there would a shit storm calling out Wal-Mart for being racist or eurocentric etc. Btw, I approve of Wal-Mart's decision.

[Dripping Rain]

Im sympathetic with your cause ChosenOne but this post is just ridiculous
To be fair if you are angry at this then you need to support affirmative action just to stay consistent

[JoshLowry]

Not to mention, the store sounds like it is catered EXCLUSIVELY to latin americans, so I seriously believe that all other races will avoid it. This will make their "base" of law abiding customers smaller, again increasing the likelyhood of crime.

I have doubts that the store will even be profitable after theft and damages are factored in. Honestly though, I wouldn't mind being pleasantly surprised. I mean, I'd be happy if minority crime rates suddenly plummeted for no specific reason simply because a wal-mart was in the area.

They are putting one of these Wal Marts in Houston.

Fiesta is a similar grocery store in Houston that is geared towards Hispanics but others races do not avoid it. I go shopping there because it is close. Lots of whites, orientals, blacks, and Hispanics were there.

I doubt crime is significantly higher at one of these stores. I don't feel any less safe either.

[fedup100]

No this is not racists, this is treasonous. Walmart is and has been the number one reason most small business have been put out of business and at they same time, they have single handedly built the communist red Chinese army, with your dough.

They can be credited with the fact that most of your poisonous food and medicines now come from their shores. You my friends thanks to this communist outfit has now made the usa a colony of China.

Nothing to see here folks, just move along to get along. 10 years from now as you survey your landscape, note you live in a foreign country known as the NAU, the usa no longer exists and your children woke up without a country in the land their forefathers conquered.

The propaganda machine has been very successful! :mad:

[JeNNiF00F00]

Anyone with enough spare time should start studying Spanish now. It will help your chances of finding a job in the coming years.

I have gone to job interviews where I have lost getting the job already because I did not speak spanish. I REFUSE to learn it.

[JoshLowry]

I have gone to job interviews where I have lost getting the job already because I did not speak spanish. I REFUSE to learn it.

Why refuse to learn it? If the job market is calling for bilingual employees, maybe it's time to be competitive with the rest of the field.

You will only be handicapping yourself...

:confused:

[danberkeley]

No this is not racists, this is treasonous.

Statist.


Walmart is and has been the number one reason most small business have been put out of business and at they same time, they have single handedly built the communist red Chinese army, with your dough.

Yup. The US government has nothing to do with it.


They can be credited with the fact that most of your poisonous food and medicines now come from their shores. You my friends thanks to this communist outfit has now made the usa a colony of China.

Yup. The FDA and FTC have nothing to do with it.


Nothing to see here folks, just move along to get along. 10 years from now as you survey your landscape, note you live in a foreign country known as the NAU, the usa no longer exists and your children woke up without a country in the land their forefathers conquered.

And so history repeats itself...

[MelissaWV]

There are some jobs where it's a significant advantage to speak another language. Personally, I'll be learning French soon to help me in my future job searches. It seems silly to be on this board and suddenly see this influx of people who think WalMart's being racist, or it's bad to require fluency in another language for a specific job, or whatever. I thought most of us were about letting the markets decide, and letting companies decide what employees best fit their roles instead of dealing with quotas and political correctness? And, of course, letting the people protest openly those companies they dislike for those very practices. It's a two-way street.

This is much ado about nothing. Aren't there far bigger things to worry about than stores *opening* across the country? Isn't there a huge job shortage in most of these areas (and the country in general) right now? Even at the crappy wages, aren't these jobs a little welcome compared to standing in line for handouts that come on my dime?

Pick your battles.

[phill4paul]

Seems like the EEOC should be alerted. Being born American and not given the opportunity to be brought up bi-lingual (not in my high school anyway) I wonder if the EEOC would defend my position as a token Caucasian in one of these mostly Hispanic employeed stores?;) Or perhaps I can get a government grant to take a new language. Yeah that's the ticket.

[danberkeley]

There are some jobs where it's a significant advantage to speak another language. Personally, I'll be learning French soon to help me in my future job searches. It seems silly to be on this board and suddenly see this influx of people who think WalMart's being racist, or it's bad to require fluency in another language for a specific job, or whatever. I thought most of us were about letting the markets decide, and letting companies decide what employees best fit their roles instead of dealing with quotas and political correctness? And, of course, letting the people protest openly those companies they dislike for those very practices. It's a two-way street.

This is much ado about nothing. Aren't there far bigger things to worry about than stores *opening* across the country? Isn't there a huge job shortage in most of these areas (and the country in general) right now? Even at the crappy wages, aren't these jobs a little welcome compared to standing in line for handouts that come on my dime?

Pick your battles.

I for one was joking about the racist part. However!, what if Ford annouced that it was coming out with an automobile directed towards English-speaking Europeans?

[MelissaWV]

You mean like all those talking cars from the '80s that spoke only in English? Where are those now :P

My point was that on this board, people used to be of the opinion Ford could do that if they liked, and that people could vote with their dollars. There are already numerous bilingual works and Hispanic-ingredient markets in those areas, and the scandal seems to be that large chains are now opening stores along those lines. Are the small stores bad, too? Have we gotten to the point that everything must be bland and neutral? Or do we have to hike through acres and acres of every possible ethnicity to find the half aisle of ingredients we need individually to use at home?

Maybe that's where I'm off! I should stop cooking plantains and such, and learn to use ethno-neutral ingredients ;) Boiled beef, anyone?

[phill4paul]

You mean like all those talking cars from the '80s that spoke only in English? Where are those now :P

My point was that on this board, people used to be of the opinion Ford could do that if they liked, and that people could vote with their dollars. There are already numerous bilingual works and Hispanic-ingredient markets in those areas, and the scandal seems to be that large chains are now opening stores along those lines. Are the small stores bad, too? Have we gotten to the point that everything must be bland and neutral? Or do we have to hike through acres and acres of every possible ethnicity to find the half aisle of ingredients we need individually to use at home?

Maybe that's where I'm off! I should stop cooking plantains and such, and learn to use ethno-neutral ingredients ;) Boiled beef, anyone?

No you are not off. Wal-Mart sees a marketing opening and they are taking advantage of it. I think peoples outrage comes from the fact that they believe this opening is caused by the current immigration laws or lack there of.

[danberkeley]

You mean like all those talking cars from the '80s that spoke only in English? Where are those now :P

My point was that on this board, people used to be of the opinion Ford could do that if they liked, and that people could vote with their dollars. There are already numerous bilingual works and Hispanic-ingredient markets in those areas, and the scandal seems to be that large chains are now opening stores along those lines. Are the small stores bad, too? Have we gotten to the point that everything must be bland and neutral? Or do we have to hike through acres and acres of every possible ethnicity to find the half aisle of ingredients we need individually to use at home?

Maybe that's where I'm off! I should stop cooking plantains and such, and learn to use ethno-neutral ingredients ;) Boiled beef, anyone?

I agree with you.

[thasre]

Count me among the people who think that in a free-market society this sort of thing should be encouraged and not frowned upon. If you can make money by tailoring your product to a certain demographic, you ought to. It would only be racist if the government or some other outside agency was forcing WalMart to diversify in the name of "equality". But if they do it of their own free will and profit motive, where's the harm?

[Danke]

Lots of whites, orientals, blacks, and Hispanics were there.


psst, keep up with the times, the PC terms is "Asians."

:D:p

[danberkeley]

psst, keep up with the times, the PC terms is "Asians."

:D:p

Yeah but "Asians" also implies Indians and Pakistanis and Suadis and Iragis and Afghanis and Isrealis and so on.

[Danke]

Yeah but that "Asians" also implies Indians and Pakistanis.

Don't look at me, take it up with the Chinks and Japs.

:p

[JK/SEA]

Not racist. Anyone ever been to China town?

get over it, and use common sense....geez...

[Zuras]

You have far more to be concerned about at your local supermarkets who fly the Orwellian "equal opportunity employer" flag, in regards to racism, than hispanic oriented supermarkets.