Wal Mart and Good Food

Travel Man found a link about how Wal Mart wrote a lovely letter to the president and first lady saying that they're SO excited that the White House is looking to get good food into the hands of more people who don't have access to it now. We're going to do everything we can to help you! they wrote. And I'm sure that the First Family was very excited to have such a powerhouse as Wal Mart on their side to help with their initiative!

*snort*

Democrats and Lefties are quite good at trashing Wal Mart, at times even the people who shop there. They even work actively to keep Wal Mart out of the very neighborhoods that would benefit from the jobs and the low prices on food and other sundries that a Super Wal Mart carries. (I will admit that link is old, but it is typical of the way Wal Mart is viewed by the Left.)

None of this endears the Left to me - I, who shop at Wally World (and Sam's) about a dozen times a week. I, who shamelessly shop there to cut down on our grocery bills. And the clothes budget. And sports equipment bills. And decorating the home bills. (But not car parts. NEVER for auto parts.)

Don't trash Wal Mart to me, buddy. I'm a big fan of the Happy Face asterisk thingie. (My kids say it looks like the "loading" symbol on a Mac.)

So, anyway, apparently a foodie did a blind taste test with other snooty foodies, using Wal Mart organic foods and organic foods from Whole Foods.

On to the details: Kummer buys two batches of nearly identical groceries at Wal-Mart and Whole Foods. He has them prepared in a restaurant kitchen and invites taste testers to make a blind side-by-side comparison. The Whole Food grocery set cost $50 more, $20 of which is spent on top of the line chicken breasts (Wal-Mart didn't really offer equivalently high-end meat.)

I can tell you that the prices don't surprise me, but the meat thing ... well, I haven't had enough money to shop swanky, so I am find with Wal Mart's lower-end meats. They're better than our local Kroger, where ALL the chicken is frozen before they pop it into the fridge section. And is usually mostly still frozen. If I want to cook chicken breasts the same day I buy them, I'd better be shopping at Wal Mart.

A summary of the results can be found here. Short story is this: they can't get over their snooty selves and admit that Wal Mart does a good job bringing good food to people who can't afford to shop at high-end places like Whole Foods. (We shopped there when vacationing in Alexandria, VA, one vacation - before our Total Money Makeover days - and even then, when I wasn't paying attention to grocery costs much, I was just floored at the prices.) And that's too bad.

But I have a feeling Wal Mart is going to get their message out anyway. And that will be a good thing, overall. Because I think Wal Mart really is serious about helping, and I really think that they can do a great job at helping families eat better.