Is this the beginning of some type of corporate healthcare bartering system?
Safeway (SWY) Stocks Its Stores with Sustainable Seafood
If your dinner recipe calls for grouper, monkfish, or red snapper, you'll have to shop somewhere other than Safeway. The grocery chain announced that it will stop selling this particular fish fare because these three species are on the list of consumable aquatic creatures that are currently identified as being overfished. This is part of a larger sustainable seafood policy that Safeway is developing in partnership with FishWise, an organization that was formed to educate both food retailers and consumers about sustainable seafood and create accountability for seafood suppliers.
The fact that an organization like FishWise even exists is a reminder to the American consumer that those who retail food are not necessarily experts in food, which is a common misperception. By giving attention to its seafood selling practices, though, Safeway is proving to its customers that it is more than just a seller of stuff. Consumers who care about things like ongoing food supplies for future generations can feel good about shopping at Safeway.
In another notable piece of protein news, a Louisville Safeway employee was arrested after a shopper reported that he was indecently exposed when she approached him for help. Ironically, or not, the man was working behind the Safeway meat counter when the incident occurred. Insert your own punchline here. If it wasn't true, it wouldn't even be funny.
Target (TGT) Goes Wild Over Salmon Sales
Target is another U.S. retail chain that is raising its seafood standards as well. The company has announced that it will no longer carry farm-raised salmon, and will only sell wild caught salmon - fresh, frozen, and smoked - in its U.S. stores. As a consumer I am thrilled at what I hope is a safe seafood trend. While I enjoy shopping at Whole Foods, I don't enjoy making a one-hour round trip there just because they seem to be the only retail food supplier in the city that sells fish that doesn't cause cancer and sterility.
So why do food retailers sell products that are part of a compromised food supply chain anyway? The obvious answer is because it sells. And in the case of farm-raised salmon, the reason it sells is because consumers aren't aware of the hazards.
If retail restaurants are being forced to label their menus with ingredients, then certainly grocery stores should have to label its raw food products as well. The sign on the farm-raised salmon in a majority of the grocery stores in America should read:
- Farm-raised
- Artificially colored
- Antibiotic-pumped
- Stewed in its own excrement
Customers may still buy the farm-raised salmon after reading that label because it's cheaper, but at least they'll know what they're putting into the mouths of their children. Personally, I'll be making my seafood purchases at Target. Or else I'll be moving so that I can be in closer proximity to a Whole Foods store.
The trend indicates that the U.S. retail industry will continue to go green and get healthy by choice or by force. It won't be an option much longer. Sustainable retailing demands a shift to green and healthy practices because otherwise, you'll eventually kill off a big piece of your target market.
More Lawsuits and Judgments in the U.S. Retail Industry >>
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