Sunday, January 15, 2012

Join the Good News Club


The Good News Club is being organized as an on-line place to counteract the “Wal-Mart Effect.”

The Wal-Mart Effect has many factors, but the most troubling is the effect that forces businesses to manufacture  consumable products with the lowest quality (and often un-safe) ingredients by people being paid the lowest wages so that these stressed businesses can make a profit . . . pennies in profits.

This effect results in:
·         Less to non-effective products
·         Unhealthy homes full of toxic products made with less expensive synthetic and cancer-causing chemicals
·         U.S. wage-earners losing their jobs
·         Wage-earners in other un-regulated countries being paid pennies to produce these  sub-standard products
·         A cheapened, coarser, polluted world

Now for the Good News!

I thought I would have a difficult time finding ways that businesses were working against the grain and deciding on their own to take a stand against ” low prices at all cost” in their quest for a piece of the market.
But, happily, I am wrong for two reasons:  

1.       Businesses are taking a stand against the Wal-Mart Effect and producing quality products  
2.       They are easy to find once we take the time to start looking.

BUSINESS HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK:    APPLE

Apple has always stood their ground on prices.  Wal-Mart has had no effect in convincing Apple to tow the line and offer sales to its customers.  Of course, when you are Apple you have a lot more say than a start-up or Mom and Pop, but still kudos to them.
The bigger news to announce this week is that Apple is making another stand by joining the Fair Labor Association.  I applaud their realization that they have the power to demand that their overseas suppliers pay their employees decent wages, provide adequate work environments and conditions.

The Good News Club Challenge:

1.       If you have a “shout out” of businesses who are putting quality first, we want to hear about it and spread the Good News. 
2.       As consumers we have power.  Refuse to buy the lowest priced product if you have any suspicions that the product is of sub-standard quality and cheapens society with its production. 
3.       Find another company that sells a better quality mouse-trap and tell us about it.  Welcome to the Club

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