Wal-Mart to Cut Back Organic Food in Stores

Business week reported that discount retail giant Wal-Mart is backing off plans to aggressively court shoppers who want organic foods. Just a few months ago Wal-Mart announced plans to double the number of certified organic products available in Wal-Mart stores to 400 and to offer organic products "at the Wal-Mart price". Since certified organic products usually carry a higher price tag than other products Wal-Mart was hoping to attract a different kind of shopper to its stores, those that usually shop at local farmer's markets or food co-ops.

But demand for organic products by Wal-Mart customers has not kept pace with the company's plans. And this causing an unexpected drop in sales for suppliers of organic products that Wal-Mart had placed orders with. Even though Wal-Mart had placed huge orders for organic apples and juices last year with organic farmers last year in preparation for the organic push, the retailer is cutting back or stopping orders altogether. Wade Groetsch, president at the Florida juice producer Blue Lake Citrus Products, says he stopped shipping his organic orange-tangerine blend to Wal-Mart after a few months. "The sales there just weren't enough to justify our costs of packing and shipping," he says.

Karen Burk, a spokeswoman for the company, says that the majority of Wal-Mart stores are offering between 100 and 200 organic food items. She says the company does not have a target, at least not a public one, of stocking 400 organic items in the average store. Burk denies that this means the company has fallen short of its goals. She says that individual stores make the decision of how much organic food they carry based on local demand. If there is no demand, the orders go down.

Burk said that in some cases, stores have doubled the number of organic products that they offer. She said that there are Wal-Mart stores that do stock roughly 400 organic items, including locations in Rogers, Ark., Rockwall, Tex., and Plano, Tex. "We are continuing to see a demand by many of our customers for organic alternatives and will tailor each store's assortment to meet the demand," she wrote.