April 2, 2006
Walmart to Offer More Organic Food
Walmart will begin offering more organic food, according to a news article. According to Reuters, "Wal-Mart is the top U.S. grocery seller and also No. 1 in organic milk sales. It carries organic baby food, juice, produce and pasta sauce, but will be expanding its offerings to include products ranging from pickles to macaroni and cheese." Maybe more people will buy organic produce if Walmart begins actively supplying its stores with organics.
Right now, the two Walmart locations closest to my house have no organic produce, compared to Target (its closest competitor) which offers some organic produce (lettuce, grapes, apples, carrots, celery, cucumbers). Whole Foods is still the best retail choice for fresh organic produce, but Target is an alternative option (albeit less desirable).
All of Target's organic produce is "packaged" and comes from Earthbound Farms. For example, organic cucumbers at Target are wrapped in plastic in a black container, in comparison to Whole Food's produce which is not packaged, and comes from local farmers (well, at least some of it does).
I live in the suburbs, and the five options here for organic produce are…
Whole Foods
Local CSA (community supported agriculture) subscription
Kroger
Target
Lowes Foods
Whole Foods and local CSA's are the best. Surprisingly, Kroger has a decent selection of organic produce (they recently expanded their offerings). Lowes Foods is another store that offers a small selection of organics. It will be interesting to see what kind of organic products Walmart decides to carry.




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