The Walmart Report

Some greenies choose to boycott Walmart on the basis that they are the evil empire.  I'm not one of them.  After I read about how the new management are trying to improve things such as employee healthcare (though not as much as we'd like, obviously), and introduce more organic choices I decided that I would give them a go.  I would rather that organic choices are available everywhere and if that means that Walmart and giant agribusiness have to get involved, so be it.  If we have to have giant agribusinesses (and yes, I do appreciate that local, mixed farming is much more green), then I would like those giant agribusiness to be farming organically. So that is why I now include Walmart in my rotation of stores to go to.  Please don't shoot me for being a bad greenie.  I'm afraid my frugal nature wins out every time.

Today I scoured the health and beauty aisles trying to find green products. The pickings were slim, but at least there were a (very) few things there if you looked hard enough.  There were two Tom's of Maine toothpaste choices - one with fluoride and one without.  Both for $4.18. There was one Tom's of Maine mouthwash, for $5.82.  A good portion of the Physician's Formula Organicwear makeup range was there - including the Tinted Moisturizer that I reviewed a few days ago for $9.93 (it was $11.99 at CVS).  And that, sadly, was it.  I couldn't find any shampoo, cleanser, moisturizer or anything like that.  I also scoured the women's clothing section hoping for some organic cotton items, but I couldn't see any.  I know they have organic cotton baby clothes, but I guess organic items haven't made it to the adult section yet.  [At least, not that I could see in my local store - I checked out walmart.com when I got home, and they do have organic cotton jammies for women, and quite a few t-shirts for men and juniors as well as baby clothes.  They also had some cute tote bags.]

I do regularly buy organic food items at Walmart - they have a few Amy's Kitchen meals for $2.97 and YoBaby organic yogurts for $3.19 for six (the next cheapest place I have found these yogurts is Publix at $3.97).  There are also some organic vegetables as well, and I have also spotted some organic teas.  You just have to look carefully as you are going around the store.

Other green items - reusable bags are now available at the cash registers for $0.99 but they are not as good quality as some of the other supermarket reusable bags.  CFL bulbs are available, as are power strips so that you can plug your TV and other items in, and switch 'em off when you are not using them.