Category: Economy

Gallo Teams with Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart announced that they would soon be offering customers a new discount item: Wal-Mart’s own brand of wine. The world’s largest retail chain is teaming up with E&J Gallo Winery of California, to produce the spirits at an affordable price, in the $2-5 range.

Wine connoisseurs may not be inclined to throw a bottle of Wal-Mart brand into their shopping carts, but “there is a market for cheap wine”, said Kathy Micken, professor of marketing. She continued, “But the right name is important.” Customer surveys were conducted to determine the most attractive name for the Wal-Mart brand.

The top surveyed names in popularity are:
10. Chateau Traileur Parc
9. White Trashfindel
8. Big Red Gulp
7. World Championship Riesling
6. NASCARbernet
5. Chef Boyardeaux4. Peanut Noir
3. I Can’t Believe It’s Not Vinegar!
2. Grape Expectations

And the number 1 name for Wal-Mart Wine…
1. Nasti Spumante

According to Micken, “The beauty of Wal-Mart wine is that it can be served with either white meat (Possum) or red meat (Squirrel).”

Founder in 1962, Wal-Mart is a global company with more than 1.3 million associates worldwide and nearly 5,000 stores and wholesale clubs across 15 countries. Last year, Wal-Mart generated more than $256 billion in global revenue, establishing a new record and adding more than $26 billion in sales.

Starbucks Spends More on Healthcare than Coffee

Today, I heard Rush Limbaugh make the claim that Starbucks spends more on healthcare than they do on coffee. I just
had to see if its true. Guess what?

It Is!

Here’s the source; none other than Starbucks’ Chairman, Howard Schultz.

Q: What’s the biggest challenge you face in terms of meeting your objectives for growth?
A: Without a doubt, it’s health-care costs. We just had to raise our prices for the first time in four years. That is primarily because of the rising costs of health insurance and also dairy prices. Over the next two years, we will spend more for employee health-care costs than we will for coffee.

China & Unocal

Communist China has put in a bid to buy Unocal Oil for 18.5 billion dollars in cash. I am a person that believes in free markets; however, selling one of our biggest petroleum producers to a government that is bent on world domination is one of the dumber ideas that our government has contemplated during the Bush Administration.

Why should we consider selling this company to China at a time when we should be developing energy independence from the Middle East?

Unocal is the 9th largest United States oil company. The proposed sale would give China not only direct control over a portion of the American market but more control over the petroleum supply of many of China’s neighbors. This sale would allow China to expand their sphere of economic influence in Asia.

Still, it is nice to know that all that hard earned money that I spent at Wal-Mart is being pumped back into the economy.

 

Follow-up

Chevron purchased Unocal 08/11/2005