Meet The Employee-Centered Company That Could Eventually Take Down Wal-Mart

Prices as good or better than Wal-Mart? Healthcare coverage with dental and vision as low as $40 a month for employees? It’s not some stereotypical crunchy granola liberal health food co-op store in Brooklyn or San Francisco, it’s a company that has expanded across the Western United States (including Arizona and two new stores just opened in Texas) and it could be going nationwide before long.

WinCo Foods, Boise, Idaho, is scheduled to open its first two Texas stores on Thursday, with at least three more Texas locations due over the next 13 months, the company said. The first two stores will be in Fort Worth and McKinney, Texas, on opposite sides of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, with each covering approximately 95,000 square feet, said Mike Read, the company’s spokesman. Three additional stores are likely to open in Texas during the company’s fiscal year, which begins April 1, Read said — in Duncanville, North Richland Hills and Lewisville.

Read more: http://www.forwardprogressives.com/meet-the-employee-centered-company-that-could-eventually-take-down-wal-mart/

British shoppers becoming increasingly ethically-driven

New research shows that ethics are playing an important role as shopping becomes increasingly tech-focused

British shoppers are buying in a far more ethical way than 10 years ago, with more than two thirds (66%) of Brits considering the ethics of a product before they purchase, according to a new study by global marketing firm McCann.

Comparatively, only 40% of French shoppers and 50% of Americans do the same. The global average was just over half, pitting the UK as the most ethically minded of the 11 countries profiled in McCann Worldgroup’s The Truth About Shopping research.

The British shopper isn’t totally virtuous however. The study reveals that despite Britain pioneering modern manners and etiquette, it doesn’t apply when it comes to the shopping environment. More than one in five Brits believe it is acceptable behaviour to buy an item of clothing online, wear it once, and then return it. Similarly, the same amount of people would excuse themselves from a business meeting with their boss to partake in an online sale to ensure they secure a coveted item of clothing. More surprisingly, over a third of British shoppers would be willing to enter into a competitive encounter with their fellow shoppers whilst in-store to ensure they secure a bargain and buy the last sale item.

Read more: http://positivenews.org.uk/2014/economics_innovation/16321/british-shoppers-increasingly-ethically-driven/

CO-OP VOTED MOST ETHICAL COMPANY IN PAST 25 YEARS BY ETHICAL CONSUMER READERS

The Co-operative Group has been voted the UK's most ethical company over the past 25 years by readers of Ethical Consumer magazine in spite of the problems that have recently beset the company.

The Co-op topped the poll in a readers' survey to mark the 25th birthday of Ethical Consumer magazine.

Ethical Consumer co-director Tim Hunt said: "Over the past 25 years the Co-op has been at the forefront of the ethical consumer movement. From its supermarket, which was the first retailer to stock only Fairtrade bananas and ban products from the Occupied Palestinian Territories, to the pioneering ethical policy of its bank, the Co-operative Group has been a genuine ethical trailblazer.”

"Many commentators have had their knives out for the Co-op Group in recent months. Ethical Consumer's readers however are able to see through the spin and realise that despite the problems the Co-op remains an ethical business at heart – at least for the time being.”

In the same survey the controversial multi-national food giant Nestlé topped the poll as the least ethical company over the past 25 years.

The Swiss-based company is the subject of the world's longest-running boycott with activists campaigning against the marketing of its baby milk formula for over 30 years.

Ethical Consumer co-director Tim Hunt said: “Our poll shows that people still feel strongly about Nestlé even after so many years, despite the company's best efforts at greenwash by using Fairtrade chocolate in some of its products. From baby milk to Kit Kats and across all its product lines, Nestlé's brands score just 1 out of 14 on our ethical rankings tables.”

In the same survey Amazon, Tesco and Shell were named as the most boycotted companies.

The top 10 most ethical companies over the past 25 years as voted by Ethical Consumer readers are:

Co-op; Lush, Traidcraft; Triodos; People Tree; Ecotricity; Suma; Good Energy; Riverford; John Lewis.

The top ten least ethical companies over the past 25 years as voted by Ethical Consumer readers are:

Nestlé; Monsanto; Amazon; Shell; Tesco; Barclays; Exxon; Wal Mart; Coca Cola; Primark

The most boycotted companies as voted by Ethical Consumer readers are:

Amazon; Tesco; Shell; Primark; Coke.

Details on the reader survey can be seen here: http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/aboutus/ethicalconsumerat25/thebestandworstofthelast25years.aspx

Readers were asked what was the biggest action they had taken to reduce their environmental impact. The top five answers were:

Changed electricity suppliers; gone vegan, bought solar panels; started cycling for transport; stopped flying.

Readers were also asked what was their most difficult ethical shopping decision. The top five answers were:

Stop using Amazon; stop flying; boycotting unethical clothing retailers; not upgrading my mobile phone; stop eating meat.

In addition to that readers were asked what will be the most important developments for ethical shopping over the next 25 years. The top five answers were:

Better ethical labelling; more Fairtrade products; greater transparency from companies; clamping down on tax avoidance; greater use of social media to share ethical shopping choices.

And further readers were asked what product or brand they would like to be ethical that currently isn't.

The most popular response was Apple.

Launched in 1989 Ethical Consumer is the UK's leading ethical and environmental magazine. In each issue Ethical Consumer examines the ethical and environmental record of the companies behind everyday products and services from bread to banks. For more information visit the Ethical Consumer website: www.ethicalconsumer.org

Amazon vs. the high street

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

When buying your presents for Christmas this year consider carefully and think ethics before you think price. I know that in an age of austerity this is not always easy but thinking we must that way nevertheless.

While Amazon may be cheaper than high street stores and even other mail order companies it comes at a price for the workers and the environment.

In addition to that Amazon is playing the tax avoidance game big time and pays little to no taxes in the UK or the US because they are, basically, with their head offices, based in what can only be described as “tax havens”. Furthermore they pay the lowest wages that they can possibly get away with and hate trade unions and the way they deal with their workers is exploitation bordering on slavery that is a risk to the health of those workers. They also are wreckers of bricks-and-mortar bookshops, especially of the small, independent ones but even the large chains are far from immune to their influence.

Yep, "all the bad stuff at once" but you can make a change here, every single one of us, and that is by refusing to make use of Amazon.

Personally, for reasons of ethics, I refuse to buy from Amazon and also will not accept, even when free, as it would be in that case, to take an Amazon published e-book for review. And for the same reason I refuse to publish in the Kindle format and only offer PDF.

It is for the same reasons of ethics, because of workers' rights and treatment and of exploitation of labor and environment, that I will not buy at Walmart or its subsidiaries, such as ASDA in the UK. The old ASDA once was a favorite place to shop for me when they were ASDA, as in Associated Dairies, but that is long past.

As shoppers we can make a difference to the way companies and stores do business and how they operate. Voting with our wallets and our feet is the best message that we can send to them.

So, let's send them the proper message, a message that will hurt them in their profits for it is the only one that they will ever understand. Let's buy our books and other things from local stores and local makers and if it comes to e-books let's insist that they are in PDF and not in Kindle or other format designed to work with but one device type often and being tied to one store.

Help bring life back to the high street – or main street as our American cousins call it – by shopping there as much as possible. And while not all goods may be local, the shops are and best choice is to give our custom to the independents wherever possible.

We can all bring about the change that we wish by even small steps and one of those small steps is to support the High Street and its shops wherever and whenever possible, and give our custom especially to the small and independent stores and the co-ops.

© 2013