Dive Summary:
- Walmart.com's "Store for Good" will offer over a selection of items from 19 small, women-owned businesses from the U.S. and eight other countries as part of the retail giant's "Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative" launched last year.
- The initiative and Wal-Mart's sizeable investment of $20 billion through 2016 in women's businesses that supply goods to the company may signal a tipping point in socially-conscious merchandising.
- Other socially-conscious initiatives by large retailers include Whole Foods' decision to require suppliers to label all genetically modified foods and Starbucks' commitment to ensuring that all of its coffee is ethically sourced by 2015.
From the article:
... Wal-Mart has launched a shop on Walmart.com that will offer more than 20 items from 19 small, women-owned businesses – including nine in the U.S. — from nine countries.
It’s all for sale on Wal-Mart’s “Store For Good.” These include apparel and accessories such as a $20 woven dress from Gahaya Links, a Rwandan company that helps economically-challenged women who are still rebounding from that country’s1994 genocide; jewelry like an $18 sliver necklace from Colorado-based Women’s Bean Project, an organization devoted to creating a safe work environment for unemployed and impoverished women; and home goods that include a $12 paper mache vase from Full Circle Exchange, another company designed to help poor women attain economic security. ...
