The urban sprawl wars continue this week, as the Chicago, Illinois City Council approved the third Walmart for the windy city, and officials in Houston threw public welfare at a Walmart superstore in the Heights neighborhood of Houston.

In Chicago, the city council voted 41-4 to approve a third Walmart location: a 143,000 s.f. store in the Chatham neighborhood. On assurances that Walmart will pay its workers $8.75 an hour (25 cents above Chicago’s minimum wage), the city council is now approving sprawl without even a debate.

Walmart is now scouting out as many as 20 additional locations—realizing that they better get their stores in the ground now that the political winds are behind their back, and before the windy city blows back against them.

Mayor Richard Daley, who has drunk deep the Walmart Kool-Aid, made the remarkable statement quoted in the Chicago Sun-Times this week that “No one questions Walmart in the suburban area.” After all the battles and scars Walmart has suffered in suburban America, including small Illinois communities, Mayor Daley has missed the narrative, like someone who walks in at the end of Gone With the Wind and tries to recreate the plot line.

I’ve had a few emails asking if I’m ok since I kind of disappeared this week and didn’t put up a "reuse it" post. All is well! I just started a nursing class this week that meets for five hours at a time so now it’s time to reorganize my life a bit to fit everything in. In the meantime, I think I’ve cooked NOTHING this week. The kids have been fending for themselves, using my menu plan and

Mandy wrote in with this question….Your frugal tips and tricks have saved me a lot of money in the past and I am hoping that you can save me once again. We recently found out that our 17 month old daughter has a gluten intolerance and we are all having to go gluten free now. Right now, this is nearly doubling my food budget and I was wondering if you or any of your money saving readers had any

So…..finally here’s the round up. I did a one-stop-shop this week by only going to one store. I’ve STILL got loads of that free bread in my freezer so I didn’t need to go to the discount bakery again. (Gosh, I’m loving that!) The garden is keeping me in free greens and a few berries and I have lots fewer people to feed this week as kids are shipped off to mission trips, and vacations with

So…..finally here’s the round up. I did a one-stop-shop this week by only going to one store. I’ve STILL got loads of that free bread in my freezer so I didn’t need to go to the discount bakery again. (Gosh, I’m loving that!) The garden is keeping me in free greens and a few berries and I have lots fewer people to feed this week as kids are shipped off to mission trips, and vacations with

Ever wonder how Walmart can sell jeans for $8 a pair? The National Labor Committee found out by going to the source: young women garment workers in Bangladesh.

The Faded Glory – Women’s Organic Cotton Relaxed-Fit Flared Jean is sewn in Anowara Apparels factory in Chittagong, which sells almost 100% of its production to Walmart. According to an action alert from NLC issued on July 28, 2010 and available at nlcnet.org.

These workers make the equivalent of 11½¢ an hour. They are expected to make 10 pairs of Faded Glories an hour, working out to about 1.2¢ a pair. Compare that to workers who engaged in the Bread and Roses Strike here in the US. They were making about 15¢ per hour. In 1912.

In June we encouraged Wake Up Walmart supporters to join the National Labor Committee and called on Walmart CEO Mike Duke to support a minimum wage for garment workers in Bangladesh. The letter to Duke is still available, and more than two thousand people have already signed on.

Walmart isn’t willing to pay a cent or two more per pair of jeans to lift these women and thousands like them out of abject poverty.

“The wage the workers are paid, I will say, is not only insufficient, but also inhumane. It is simply impossible for [the garment workers] to even live from hand to mouth in the capital with the peanuts they get in wages.” – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina

Please join us and NLC in telling Wal-Mart to support the modest 35-cent-an-hour minimum wage demand of Bangladesh’s garment workers, not one cent less.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
702 SW 8th Street
Bentonville, AK 72716

Phone: 479-273-4000
Fax: 479-273-4329
Email: Mr. Rajan Kamalanathan, Vice President of Ethical Sourcing – Rajan.Kamalanathan @wal-mart.com

Let Walmart know that under no known branch of moral philosophy is this considered to be ethical:

“A few years back, I told Wal-Mart, ‘Give me one cents more a piece, one cents. I will use that money for these poor people.’ He says, ‘No, give us two cents less.’” – Bangladeshi Factory Owner

On September 28, 2007, Sprawl-Busters reported that the town of Wellsville, New York was up against a Wal-Mart.

Almost three years later, all is not well in Wellsville for Wal-Mart. Even though Wal-Mart has reduced the store size by 24%—it’s still not ready to go.

Wellsville promotes itself as a lovely small town in the heart of the Allegany Hills. This town, and Wellsville Village is nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, with the Genesee River flowing through it.

But the town is also looking for big malls, and says it has several properties in “Empire Zones,” which allow it to give tax subsidies to developers. If a Wal-Mart ever happens in this town, it will be with public welfare subsidies.

On March 3, 2008, Sprawl-Busters noted that Wal-Mart held one of its dog and pony shows in Wellsville, but for many local residents, there were no ponies. It is common practice now for Wal-Mart to hold such public relations “open houses,” where people mill around a series of posterboard displays about the proposed Wal-Mart, get to ask the engineers some informal questions, and most importantly, from Wal-Mart’s perspective, sign a sheet supporting the plan. The retailer then uses that list to drum up support for public hearings on the plan later.

I recently delivered training to a new OGS (Online Grocery Shopping) store. They implemented MyWebGrocer recommended best practices for a successful launch of their online program. These best practices will also make for great efficiency in completing orders which will save time and costs of doing business. Here are some of those best practices they [...]

Here is a list of the current Hot Printable Coupons! Be sure to print quickly because the best ones always go quickly! Also, feel free to check out the Coupon Database for a list of all of the printable coupons available! Enjoy!
$1.50 Welch’s Healthy Start 100% Refrigerated Juice 
$.99 off a 14oz, 16oz or 20oz Bottle [...]

Monica, owner of the Rancho Cordova Grocery Outlet, will be demonstrating how to make a restaurant-quality steak with ingredients from Grocery Outlet on the news.  Here is her recipe for your reference:

Restaurant-Style Marinated Top Sirloin Steaks
This marinade adds flavor and tenderness to lean top sirloin steak.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup light soy sauce
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons honey
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup very finely chopped onion (add coarsely chopped onion to small food processor, if you have one, and pulse until almost pureed)
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)
Pinch of cayenne red pepper

4 or 5 top sirloin individual steaks (about 5 ounces each), trimmed of visible fat

Preparation:

1. In an 8-cup measure, whisk together balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, honey, olive oil, pepper, Worcestershire, onion, salt (if desired), and cayenne.

2. Place steaks in a shallow glass dish and cover with the marinade. Turn to coat both sides well. Cover and marinate in refrigerator for up to two days.
3. Preheat grill to medium-high heat. Lightly coat the grill grate with canola cooking spray or oil. Add steaks and grill 5-7 minutes per side, depending on the thickness of the steak and the desired doneness. Throw away any leftover marinade (because it has raw meat juices in it).

Enjoy your delicious steak!  Serves 4-6.

I published a teaser post last week about Fresh-tival: our extreme bargain extravaganza on fresh produce.  And now, here are the details:

Fresh-tival: Grocery Outlet’s 72-hour Produce Sale

When: Friday, July 30th—Sunday, August 1st
Where: your local Grocery Outlet store

And here are a couple of the fresh produce bargains that will be in every store:

• Juicy Watermelons, $1.99 each!
• Sweet Cantaloupes, $0.99 each!
• 3 lb. Dole Bananas, $1.99!

Come check out Fresh-tival and enjoy summer’s best sun-ripened produce at exceptional prices!

My day got away from me today so I didn’t grocery shop yet. Check back tomorrow for the Shopping Round Up. If you’ve sent me an email recently I will EVENTUALLY answer. (smile) Thanks for all the kind words and encouragement. I’m so gratified to know that this little spot in the blogosphere is helping other people live frugally, save money, and reuse! Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy

I’ve got kids going every which direction this week. One kid is headed off on a mission trip, one kid is going camping with Grandma and cousins, and one day all four kids are gone at the same time. I love summer. Here’s what’s cooking this week…BreakfastsKids make their own this summer and can choose from oatmeal, eggs and toast, or bagels and fruitDinnersMonday, kids are gone so I’m

Walmart is starting to put RFID tags on items such as blue jeans and underwear. Walmart claims that these tags, which the company uses already to track shipments and pallets, will help with inventory control. But there are many privacy and security issues surrounding RFID which must be addressed.

A little background: RFID stands for Radio-frequency Identification, and when used in this context refers specifically to RFID microchips. These chips send out a short, identifiable signal, similar to a computers IP address, when scanned by an RFID reader. This signal can be uniquely identified when scanned.

RFID tags can be very, very small. They can be washable for textiles and clothing like, well, underwear and blue jeans. They already are in many things you may have on you at this moment. Got a US Passport issued after 2006? If you use public transit and have a smart card, use a credit card with a swipe option, or use a touch badge at your place of employment, you are already using some of these chips without even knowing it.

If this freaks you out, check out how to disable RFID chips (not for those who are afraid of using blunt force).

Walmart was one of the industry leaders in using RFID along its distribution network, and many companies have followed Walmart’s practices. So Walmart putting RFID tags in merchandise is setting a practice that we can expect other retailers to follow.

Psst!  Next week, I’ll be posting details, but I wanted to give our readers a sneak peek of our upcoming event:

 

Will you be attending?  Leave a comment and let us know!