Can Wal-Mart Make Me Healthy?

Last week I shot an ad for Wall-Mart yoga. This has to be by far the most impressive work I've done, if you ask the folks back home in Illinois. European designers, fashion magazines, and famous photographers are all a bunch of hoo-ha to my small-town family clan. My relatives have been paying attention to all things Tara Stiles ever since my first TV commercial for Illinois Tourism. In the dead of Chicago winter I was twirling on my pointe shoes in white leotard and tiny skirt. I thought I would never regain feeling in my feet, but eventually I thawed out and kept at it.

If you're from the Midwest you've been a Wal-Mart shopper probably since before you were born. Mom was slinging rollback-priced baby goods in the cart while you were swimming in her tummy. Every small town American knows the slogan, "If you can't get it at Wall-Mart you don't need it!" It's probably true.

I'm not praising all of Wal-Mart's practices and company history. The largest ever sex discrimination lawsuit was filed against them in 2001. Then in 2005 a federal jury returned a verdict of $7.5 million against Wal-Mart and an individual manager for discriminating against a disabled man with cerebral palsy. That verdict is one of the largest ever handed down under the ADA and has received worldwide media attention. And of course, how do they really make all these things we're enjoying so cheaply?

Still, there are good things, and Wal-Mart has made some changes in recent years. Health insurance coverage and minimum wage have been boosted. Wal-Mart has launched an ambitious environmental program. This is important because when you're Wal-Mart, cutting one-third of your plastic bag use drops 133 million pounds of plastic waste and 678,000 barrels of oil a year - a program they just launched with the Clinton Global Initiative and the Environmental Defense Fund. Probably it's a good sign that Wal-Mart is receiving criticism from conservative groups who argue the company's new activities are hurting business. Which of course is silliness.

The facts, history, and issues of Wal-Mart can be discussed passionately for hours. I've already heard strong opinions for and against my appearing in a Wal-Mart ad from people who think on all sides of the issue. When it comes to Wal-Mart people have a strong beliefs.

Honestly, I'm more concerned with helping people's lives on an individual and personal basis then spending too much effort digging into all the reasons why or why not I should be involved with each company I work with. If I spent too much energy finding out the negativities every time, I would be alone in my apartment sitting on my yoga mat wondering how I'm going to pay the bills. There has to be a balance. And in this case, the people win.

The people I am referring to are the Wal-Mart shoppers. I talked to the designer of the yoga clothes on the set of our shoot. She told me that the highest selling size at Wal-Mart is XXL. Number 2 is XL and you can figure out the rest. People need to exercise and pay more attention to their health. When Wal-Mart puts their focus on a workout line, it's going to reach a huge number of people. If I get to be a part of that, helping them hit the gym instead of hitting the drive-through on the way home, then I'm in!

Obesity Facts from the CDC

Fact: Obesity rates are soaring in the U.S.

Between 1980 and 2000, obesity rates doubled among adults. About 60 million adults, or 30% of the adult population, are now obese.

Similarly since 1980, overweight rates have doubled among children and tripled among adolescents - increasing the number of years they are exposed to the health risks of obesity.

Fact: Obesity is already having an adverse impact on young people

Type 2 diabetes - once believed to affect only adults - is now being
diagnosed among young people.

In some communities almost half of the pediatric diabetes cases are type 2, when in the past the total was close to zero. Although childhood-onset of Type 2 diabetes is still a rare condition, overweight children with this disease are at risk of suffering the serious complications of diabetes as adults, such as kidney disease, blindness, and amputations.

Sixty-one percent of overweight 5 to 10-year-olds already have at least one risk factor for heart disease, and 26% have two or more risk factors.

And now for the fun obesity comparison chart 1987-2007

So you can say Wal-Mart is the devil and it's wrong to promote anything that comes within 200 yards of them. But they have a huge distribution network with the ability to influence millions of people. There's large potential for good here. Wal-Mart is like a physical version of YouTube. You can find anything you want on YouTube. It let me access millions of people online who maybe wouldn't have tried yoga. Wal-Mart carries a similar heavy weight in its ability to reach people. The more health-oriented products they carry, the better the chances are of shrinking obesity rates and bringing back a healthy balance to people's lives. Where we are now, there's really a desperate need for kicking a healthy trend into the mainstream.

Comments

[abitm]

I've been having variations of this argument since I went to college in 1984, and I think its an important discussion to have. Because too many of my lefty friends want to see companies like McDonalds or Wal-Mart cease to exist, rather than make positive changes in the way they do business. Efforts like Tara Stiles' - to bring products promoting health to the world's largest retailer - are not shameful, they are positive steps in working with others. Whether your causes surround energy, pesticides, labor, health, or consumption, the answers to the problems lie not in shame-enforced boycotts, but in making the most of the opportunities you have to promote the policies you approve of. A huge corporation that is promoting a healthy product is promoting a healthy product (hugely), and if I go buy a vegie-burger in McDonalds, recycle my used motor oil at the neighborhood Exxon, or buy fence made from sustainably harvested wood at Home Depot ...I'm no traitor to the cause.

[MattMueller]

Here's my viewpoint:

Take all the jobs you can and use your publicity to support your message of healthy living and yoga. Meditating in the forest won't change anything.

Here's a cartoon (which I borrowed from my buddy Anthony Anderson's blog RawModel.com, who actually started blogging for huffington as well)

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_f4ch8yJ1cZw/SNuyuGjEGFI/AAAAAAAACHY/646W0sm9gRI/s1600-h/fox.bmp

Be well,
Mueller

[SpeakupNation]

I think of Walmart as the third circle of Hell..with a McDonald's inside. If I can find Yoga at Wallyworld, why can't I find social justice?
And talk about bad Karma.....

[Rivercs]

Sorry, Tara, promoting the purchase of cheap Chinese crap is environmentally unsound. It doesn't matter how Wal-Mart has cut down on the use of plastic bags; that's only the tip of a very large environmental iceberg. Purchasing goods that are shipped by container ship from China rather than manufactured nearby is an extremely environmentally unsound practice. By agreeing to make an exercise tape to be sold at Wal-Marts all over the place, including places far, far away from where they are manufactured, you add to the problem instead of helping to solve it. Shame on you.

And shame on you for putting money in front of better healthcare; many Wal-Mart associates can't afford health care on the pittance they are paid. How do you put money in front of healthcare? Well, you sure didn't make that tape for free, out of the goodness of your heart, in order to combat obesity, did you? And I'm sure Wal-Mart isn't giving it away.

And shame on you for touting the increase in the minimum wage as a Wal-Mart good. Wal-Mart fought it. It was done by the U.S. government over Wal-Mart's strenuous objections.

[MeanGreenMachine]

Anti-American Sell Out.

[mjt96]

Are you suggesting that pointing out the positive potential of Wal-Mart is anti-American? Also, America is defined by its people and what we all do. A great number of us are going to Wal-Mart . . . so I guess Wal-Mart is rather American. What's good with America, what's not, and what needs changing is a different point.

[dgscol]

There is all this talk about US obesity. Actually, this is a global problem. Some of the fattest people on earth are in Africa and SE Asia and Polynesia.

So there. We are not pigs.

[Tara Stiles - Huffpost Blogger]

You're right this is definitely a global problem. Also true, we're not pigs. But possibly we're eating too many of them!

According to the WHO and BBC, 20-30% of South Africans are obese, falling a little under the US 30 to 40% level. Some of the folks in Samoa and Tonga have us beat though, with up to 70+% of women being obese, and the men not far behind. Of course, these are pretty small places . . . while the US has a population of about 300 million. So, we've got lots of people here who need some help!

[MeanGreenMachine]

Do you have ANY idea how RAYCIST you are?

[mjt96]

I agree with Dan's comment about balance 100%. I think it's important to be able to work with what's there, which in this case is Wal-Mart. Also, fixes that seem obvious to onlookers may not be so simple, or even actually fixes. I worked at a steel mill for years. Unions do not necessarily create good outcomes for the workers or the customers.

Back to Wal-Mart, yes there are some serious problems. Reading the comment about how they ship meat around the globe . . . if this is true, I'm floored. Incredibly bad in so many ways. But a look at the practices of most big companies would show similarly ridiculous short-sighted practices that were born in a conference room and somehow made it out.

The interesting side of these big companies is, if we can bump their practices a little bit rather than just condemning them, we can get some massively helpful impacts - simply because the scale on which they operate is so great. Cut that plastic bag use by another third and we have over a million barrels of oil saved. Promote some new products that suggest increased attention to health, and maybe it will reach enough people that we can start recoloring that scary CDC map.

[Jain]

Unions - the people who gave us the week end.

As for the other comments - sounds like corporate rationalization to me.

[ProFromOre]

Tara, you need to learn a few things about Wal-Mart. My eyes were opened when I stumbled across an article at a doctor's office 5-6 years ago. I've never been a fan of Wal-Mart after watching what they did to my home-town, but the results of the study I about that day were disgusting. I sincerely wish I could remember more from the article so I could find it for citation.

The study looked at the amount of state and federal assistance Wal-Mart workers received. It was presented on an average PER state. Then the study looked at the amount Wal-Mart donated, contributed, etc on an average per state. The results: employees received around $440,000 per state. Wal-Mart donated around $40,000.

Typical Failure Party subsidized profits plan.

Here's some other enlightening reading about Wal-Mart's employee compensation scheme in various parts of our country.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Corporate_Welfare/WalMart_Welfare.html

http://mediamatters.org/items/200511300014

http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2005/03/taxpayers-pay-for-wal-marts-low-road.asp

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/05/03/09_walmart.html

[Marysdude]

Wal*Mart buys its meat from foreign places, i.e., Argentina, Paraguay, etc, then sends it to places like Taiwan for butchering, then back to places like Mexico for packaging, then to a storage for later shipment to SuperCenters. At each stop and stage in that operation the meat receives certain chemicals and preservatives in order to make it suitable for table use when it finally gets to that table. Most Supermarkets and other grocery stores in the United States buy meats from American or Canadian Ranchers, which has been butchered in American shops, then sent to those store warehouses in a reasonably fresh state for more trimming, then on to the stores...most of those stores insist that preservatives nor chemicals be added to that meat. Which of those supply lines, do you think, provides healthier meats? Which will be better tasting?

Wal*Mart could care less about the health of Americans...Lee Scott, Wal*Mart's CEO actually hates Americans because he thinks they all want to unionize, and as soon as he is making more profits from foreign store locations than he is from American store locations, he will begin to close American stores...you heard it here first...

[Star2000dancer]

Walmart is deadly poisonous on so mant levels. They should name t Waltoxic.

[hopefull2008]

Don't kid yourslf that it is just Walmart. All food companies will buy the cheapest ingredients from anywhere as long as the last party in the chain will certify that they are legal. Wait till you find out how much Chinese tainted dairy product are on your shelves. The baby food guys are the last guys to cheat.

[mikkisoto]

Agreed.

[Clayton139]

Costco does it better....! Please, read the link?
http://reclaimdemocracy.org/articles_2004/costco_employee_benefits_walmart.html

[DanBrowning]

"Honestly, I'm more concerned with helping people's lives on an individual and personal basis then spending too much effort digging into all the reasons why or why not I should be involved with each company I work with. If I spent too much energy finding out the negativities every time, I would be alone in my apartment sitting on my yoga mat wondering how I'm going to pay the bills. There has to be a balance."

I couldn't agree more.

The lack of balance on BOTH sides of issues like this is what has led this country to the polarized mess that it is in. We need more Rachel Maddows and Pat Buchanans. More balance, less stubborn. I'm sure if you dig enough you could find damning evidence against Target and Ikea too, both large corporations that somehow seem to be left out of these discussions.

I believe that the animosity toward Wal-Mart has much more to do with the culture wars and the perceived demographic than their business practices. Which makes "us" just as guilty as "them" when we take such hardline stances against one corporation and let the others ride.

And make no mistake, I say this as an unapologetic liberal who has been bucking up against the beliefs and politics of the small town evangelicals who raised me.

Keep up the good work Tara! Keep striving for balance. It is the only way.

[rini]

Balance??

Not every issue has two sides that are both correct. Sure there are nuances. I'm sure Wall-Mart affects some people positively.

But,

from a human rights, environmental and general decency standpoint, the negative far outweighs the positive.

My right to a cheap DVD player is not more important than someone's right to a living wage or health insurance. Also, I don't want to mortgage my children's future with worldwide manufacturing runoff produced by all the plastic crap that no one needs. Sure, Wall-Mart isn't the only one. It is, though, a behemoth.

[ProFromOre]

MORE Pat Buchanans? You need to roll through the cranium shop for a check-up, pal

[mjt96]

Well said.

[YeahDonkey]

Willows California, 1993

A small town started by rice farmers, a high school a number of churches a Sheriffs office and a number of small businesses on a main street. Those businesses are gone, that main street is empty and unused with office space and storefronts completely abandoned. All that remains is a Wal-Mart and fast food.

Wal-Mart is everything that is wrong with American business, it has screwed the American worker,taxpayer and yes even the American consumer( WHY THE HELL DO YOU THINK IT'S SO CHEAP )!!!!!

I'm really glad you got a paying gig and all, but this little "article" might make your conscience feel better but not mine.

[Clayton139]

This country needs to re-think on how we do business and greed in America like Wal*Mart has done. Why does Costco do so well, pay well, and has good benifits?
Costco Wholesale Corp. often is held up as a retailer that does it right, paying well and offering generous benefits.
http://reclaimdemocracy.org/articles_2004/costco_employee_benefits_walmart.html

[Lagniappe]

I guess lots of folks can do without integrity. That sure isn't a staple at WalMart or Sam's either.Guess there's not a big demand,or there's no way to make it cheap enough for itto be profitable.

[Jain]

No Union - no way. Your "influential" people who gave us the Wal Mart are the same types who gave us the current wall street crisis.

Oh, and by the way, with no oversite their claims of "health food" and "organic" and "safe"
they are simply marketing labels...