NOW what should I think?

Apparently Al Gore has been praising Walmart. "What?!", you say? "I thought Walmart was a big bad corporation that we didn't want to have anything to do with, with its taking-over-of-small-towns, and its terrible record on employee practises."

(That's what I said too)

Well, apparently Walmart has a soft spot for the environment. Who knew? They want to become corporate environmental leaders actually, and have set three goals for themsleves:

• reducing waste to zero
• moving toward using only renewable energy
• offering more products made in a way that preserves the environment

Progress all of those goals will certainly be measurable over time - which sort of implies they might actually be serious. After all, we'll be able to call them on it if they don't make any changes. The stores have already been doing some retrofits: installing more efficient lighting and refrigerators - and new prototype stores should be 30-50% more efficient over the long term than the current ones are.

I haven't shopped at Walmart in forever - and that's a function of (a) my disapproval of what I percieve to be poor handling of employees + their impact on independent buisnesses and, (b) let's admit it - the fact that it's highly inconvenient for me to get to one.

I may have to reexamine my attitude towards Walmart. If only they could get along with the idea of unions.