Is a (Fake) Rose Still a (Fake) Rose?

You might have heard—or, likely, seen—that Walmart changed its logo. In place of its star is a symbol that looks like a flower or the sun.

To quote an article on MSN.com, “The redesign looks like an effort to advance the discount retailer's reputation as environmentally friendly. But can it repair an image?”

I’m sure you know how I feel.

Walmart may be the world’s biggest purchaser of organic cotton, but I dare you to go into a store and find many organic cotton products . . . or even one. I’ve forced myself into several stores to see what happens when I ask a clerk to direct me to the organic cotton products.

Not once has someone been able to rise to the simple challenge.

Forget about the logo, though, and let’s talk about Walmart’s tagline: Save money. Live better. Every time I see a Walmart commercial that ends with the line, I have to laugh. This isn’t an A = B proposition. Saving money doesn’t make you live better, especially when you’re saving all that money buying products made overseas, filled with chemicals, and otherwise bad for your health.

I’d like to ask Walmart to define its definition of living better.

I get that the economy is bad, but we’re not going to make it better by supporting other countries and making ourselves sick. I went to the Farmer’s Market this weekend and filled two huge cloth bags with local, organic, healthy produce for the week, and it cost me under $20.

Now that’s saving money and living better.

Question of the blog: Does a bad economy influence you to make equally bad choices you wouldn’t make in a good economy?