Walmart has been trying to weasel its way into our hearts, minds and city limits for some time now. The company's latest desperate gambit involves luring consumers away from Whole Foods for their healthy-ish food shopping: Walmart has announced they'll be selling "low cost" organic food, scattered amid the giant bags of Doritos and discount Utz pork rinds.
Apparently, Walmart is partnering with "authentic and affordable" organic food company Wild Oats, with plans to introduce the label's organic goods at non-organic prices that'll undercut competitors by at least 25 percent. The retailer says it will start this health food invasion slowly—first, they'll stock pantry items like canned vegetables, spices and chicken broth at about 2,000 of its 4,000 stores before rolling out the goods nationwide, eventually dispatching an army of Sam Walton-esque androids to burn down every Whole Foods and Trader Joe's in sight (assume the mom-and-pop health food stores are already dead).
Walmart's move may force prices down at other markets, which is good for us, though not so great for organic food retailers big and small. "Prices can and will come down with scale," David McInerney, one of Fresh Direct's founders, told the Times. "You can compress the margins on organic to make it more attractive." Whether or not Walmart's organic food prices will be low enough to feed the retailer's underpaid workers remains to be seen.
You can purchase Walmart's organic tomato paste for a steal at noon on Thanksgiving Day, so long as you don't mind fighting someone to the death for it.
