Wal-Mart Tweaks Store for Arab-Americans
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Boxes of the date-filled, whole wheat cookie from the Middle East welcomed the 21-year-old Lebanon native into the international aisle of the new Wal-Mart store in this Detroit suburb known as the capital of Arab America. Aisle 3, which also features Eastern European and Hispanic food, represents many of the 550 items geared toward Arab-American shoppers in the store that opened last week.
It might be statistically tiny in a store with more than 150,000 items, but it’s symbolically huge for the world’s largest retailer as it seeks to change from a cost-is-everything monolith to one that customizes its stores to meet neighborhood needs.
Managers say they seek peace with the neighborhood’s merchants—and vow not to undercut them on Middle Eastern specialties. But some experts and observers say Wal-Mart’s well-planned launch in Dearborn is bound to shake up the buying and selling in a community that has long supported its own. Southeastern Michigan is home to an estimated 300,000 people who trace their roots to the Middle East.
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The Dearborn store also sells Arabic music and plans to offer Muslim greeting cards. But the modifications go beyond merchandise: It has 35 employees who speak Arabic—noted in Arabic script on their badges. The store also has hired a local Arab-American educator to teach the staff cultural sensitivity.
It’s clear as soon as shoppers walk in that this isn’t a typical Wal-Mart. Inside the grocery entrance are 22 produce tables filled with squash, beans and cucumbers common in Middle Eastern dishes. The section also features grains and vegetables popular among blacks and Hispanics, two other demographics with sizable populations living nearby.
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More than a year of studying the market and meeting with community groups was put to the test last fall, when Bartell and a Tut’s executive began to work on what would become aisle 3. They set up an 80-foot-long counter in an empty warehouse and hauled out products—date-filled cookies, grape leaves, vacuum-packed olives, chick peas and a 97-ounce jar of olive oil imported from the Middle East. The men spent two weeks working on a way to present a new line of products.
As he recalled their effort, a few women in hijabs—traditional Muslim head scarves—inspected produce. One spoke in Arabic to Mohamad Atwi, the developmental store manager.
Bartell said the store aims to offer convenience—not a comprehensive selection of specialty products.
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At the Super Greenland Market, which Wal-Mart studied to come up with its new store, customers can find one whole side of an aisle with more than 20 different varieties of chick peas and fava beans.
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Still, the lure of everything under one roof could prove stronger than product depth for some who frequent Middle Eastern shops.
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The Dearborn Wal-Mart is part of a two-year-old corporate effort to help sales by tailoring stores to local demographics, said spokeswoman Amy Wyatt-Moore at Wal-Mart’s Bentonville, Ark., headquarters. It targeted six groups: Hispanics, blacks, empty-nesters/boomers, affluent, suburban and rural shoppers.
Dearborn’s store is designed to reflect its neighborhood, not serve as a national template for Arab-American shoppers, she said.
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(Posted on March 18, 2008)
Comments
Just wondering if they do that for Polish, Italian or German-Americans.
Posted by at 6:47 PM on March 18
Folks in another post over a year ago I told you about Dearborn….and how it changed in the almost twenty years I had been there….YOU HAVE NO IDEA…WHAT A PIG PEN IT IS….dirty arabs all over the place….I don’t think they ever bathe….and the streets….Lordy Lordy….crummy as they are….so take it from me….ship those people back….they are here for one reason….to make sure WE DO NOT SURVIVE THE COMING WAR THEY WILL MAKE ON US…it is horrible what I saw….looks like the pics on tv of bombed out Bagdad…nooooooooo lie!!
Posted by lydia at 7:05 PM on March 18
Any “White Nationalist” who still supports “capitalism” and “free markets” after reading this article is in desperate need of a good, hard slap upside his/her head.
Posted by KP at 7:21 PM on March 18
Yet, no Confederate Flags nor Maurice’s BBQ sauce at Wal-Mart, even though WM was “born and raised” in the South.
Posted by Question Diversity at 7:23 PM on March 18
Who cares? Walmart is just doing what they do everywhere, selling products to the community.
Walmart is not in charge of or responsible for our immigration policy or lack of border control. Walmart did not concoct our affirmative action laws.
While it gauls me to walk into a Walmart and see bilingual signs, it is best to focus on the real enemy: White marxists.
Posted by Flamethrower at 7:37 PM on March 18
>>>>Managers say they seek peace with the neighborhood’s merchants—and vow not to undercut them on Middle Eastern specialties. >>>
But the greedy executives didn’t think twice about undercutting hundreds of thousands of Mom and Pop stores in towns across America, did they?
Posted by James at 8:08 PM on March 18
I can’t stand Wal-Mart or anything it stands for…
Whatever happened to the good old days when Americans in America could simply buy American-made products?
This is all thanks to our globalist elite traitors in office who sold America out all for the sake of cheap labor and cheap votes!
Clearly, this “globalization plan” is destroying America as we know it; but yet, our “representatives” continue to push for MORE free trade, MORE cheap labor, the TTC, the SPP, the NAU and then eventually the TEC (a new Trans-Atlantic trade deal with the EU)…
All of this greatly enhances the wealth of the top 1 percent (our globalist politicians and corporations) to the complete detriment of all Americans.
And who do we have to vote for? McCain? Clinton? Obama? What a JOKE! This political system is rigged to let us suckers think that we still have a voice… Unfortunately, all of these candidates were selected by our “international” corporations; and none of these candidates will protect America or the American people!
This is truly a sad time for America…
Posted by Jackers at 8:30 PM on March 18
“The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.”
Lenin
Posted by sbuffalonative at 8:31 PM on March 18
What’s really gauling is that most of these exotic imported ethnic specialty foods can by purchased with our USDA Food Stamps. Our meat and potatoes aren’t good enough for the rest of world anymore.
Posted by Flaxen-headed Strumpet at 8:31 PM on March 18
No, white capitalists have done far more damage than “marxists.”
Walmart and all of corporate America are responsible for the demographic transformation of this country. Who do you think gives money to politicians so that they won’t enforce immigration law? Who lobbies for more immigration? It’s not “marxists.”
Posted by Joe at 9:30 PM on March 18
Flamethrower is right. There is nothing wrong with Walmart catering to the local community and we certainly have bigger fish to fry than worrying about what Walmart stocks their isles with. On another note, ethnic diversity is, overall, a bad thing - but it certainly doesn’t hurt to try something new once in a while when it comes to cuisine. Pick up something that looks interesting while you’re there. Who knows, you might like it.
Posted by jewamongyou at 9:44 PM on March 18
-Yawn-
They can have the third world area formerly known as Detroit.
Posted by Glenda at 9:55 PM on March 18
“While it gauls me to walk into a Walmart and see bilingual signs, it is best to focus on the real enemy: White marxists.”
They’re not really marxists, marxism was actually ‘discredited’ in the eyes of the world right according to plan, they’re really just citizens afraid to take any other course of action. In other words, they’re just following directions they’ve been given.
Posted by at 10:51 PM on March 18
What? Now they sell larger tents, camel food, large knives and cheap SKS ammo!
Posted by Trisket at 11:04 PM on March 18
This is blowback for intervening in Arab countries. Look at the history.
— We invade Korea, now NYC and LA are filled with filthy Koreans.
— We invade the Dominican Republic, now NYC and PA are filled with filthy Dominicans.
— We invade Vietnam, now Minnesota and Wisconsin are filled with filthy Hmong.
— We invade Somalia, now Maine and Minnesota are filled with filthy Somalis.
— We invade Iraq, now Michigan is filling up with filthy Iraqis.
If we want to stop these people from coming here, let’s stop the wars, huh?
Posted by at 11:08 AM on March 19
This is just Walmart doing what they do best. Selling merchandise to mindless buyers whose only interest is in getting what They Want at the lowest possible price without regard as to how their purchase impacts anyone else in the United States. Someday and soon the chicken will come home to roost. I hope you enjoy your new minimum wage job when America treats your job the same way.
Posted by T Rexx at 11:14 AM on March 19
I would imagine that if some dirty rotten scoundrels were to repeatedly shoot out all of Wal-Mar’s expensive plate glass windows when the store was closed it might inspire them to stop pandering to our enemies. Those security cameras are cheap ones with poor resolution and they are essentially useless especially at night…
Posted by at 12:17 PM on March 19
What about this “melting pot” and assimilation they always tell us about? Aren’t we all supposed to become “American”? What does that mean? Oh, we are all the same…but diverse…equal, but multicultural….no difference….but different….
Anyway, I just got back from Saudi Arabia and enjoyed the American neighborhood in Mecca. The Methodist Church was great and I enjoyed a cold beer and ham sandwich at the “All American Cafe” on Nassar Blvd. I am so happy the world has embraced tolerance and diversity. We can all get along….
Notice, for some reason, it is only the WHITE RACE that must tolerate, enjoy diversity, accept, understand and take in millions upon millions of others? Ever wonder why?
Posted by LOGIC at 1:28 PM on March 19
Hopefully Wal-Mart will, despite their promises to the Arabs, undersell the local rug merchants and drive them out of business.
Posted by Schoolteacher at 2:14 PM on March 19
Joe is right!
Jewamongyou and Flamethrower are WRONG.
In case you guys haven’t noticed it’s the Wall Street Journal and people like Alan Greenspan and Bill Gates who are demanding that our borders come down, not “White marxists.”
Do you really think that “White marxists” have more power and control over our lives than the WSJ, Alan Greenspan, and Bill Gates do?
You two better think about that. Or you could always just go hang around the “conservatives,” who clearly haven’t figured out yet that capitalism has absolutely nothing to do with conservatism.
In fact, capitalism is by its very nature … ANTI-CONSERVATIVE!!!
Even Sam Francis had doubts about capitalism: http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3978d9e947e9.htm
Posted by KP at 3:36 PM on March 19
if WALMART catches Arabs stealing, will they cut their hands off ???
Posted by H.Wallacher at 4:20 PM on March 19
Walmart sucks!! Mr. Sam Walton was a Christian during his life here on Earth. I think he would roll over in his grave if he knew how his company was being run. I honestly don’t think Mr Walton would put up with this diversity garbage if he were still here today.
Walmart was a pretty good company when he was still alive. It goes to show you when businesses get too big for their britches, the company goes downhill.
Posted by Krisite at 5:57 PM on March 19
Has Wal-Mart tweaked any stores to ” cater to any Euro-Christian ethnic group” ? If not, why not ?
Posted by Michigan patriot at 12:19 AM on March 20
Everytime I go to Wal-Mart, I see the women’s section with the underwear and bras…. what do they do about that at this one in Arab Michigan? They’ve started gearing toward the Mexicans in my local Wal-Mart. They’re selling tripe and pigs necks next to the ground beef. Blech.
Posted by at 7:06 AM on March 20
“Just wondering if they do that for Polish, Italian or German-Americans.
Posted by at 6:47 PM on March 18”
Nope…they ran them all out of there 30-40 years ago. Check this out: The Ruins Of Detroit
Posted by Wild Eyed Charlie at 1:36 PM on March 20
Since visiting Detroit is at the top of my “To Don’t List”, I regard this as a non-issue.
I still shop at Wal Mart, mainly in the interest of saving money, but also because within two miles of me, a Safeway, two Alberson’s and two Long’s Drugs have closed down in the last 18 months. The talking heads like to speculate as to whether we will have a recession, but that’s obviously already here. Whether we will have a depression seems the operative question to me.
A former research chemist with 79 US and foreign patents and dozens of articles published in peer-reviewed journals, I am now taking welding classes at the local community college in the hope of getting work in the oil and gas industry out on Colorado’s eastern plains. Not suprisingly, the petroleum industry is doing very well, even though the microelectronics industry here has completely tanked, with even Intel scheduled to pull out.
Don’t blame Wal Mart for everything. They sell the same Chinese-made running shoes as Famous Footware, and the same Japanese and Korean-made electronics as Best Buy.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 1:40 PM on March 20
Even into the early seventies our s/w Georgia town(pop-4to5000) , 72% black , had a half dozen grocery stores , three pharmacies , three hardware stores , a general store , a drygoods store , a half dozen clothing stores ,two dry cleaners,three auto dealerships , a Western Auto , a couple of furniture stores , two veneer mills , a sprawling lumber yard , of course many service stations and cafes,a Coca-Cola plant,a fully staffed hospital(my brother had his appendix taken out there in ‘58),dryers and silos for agricultural products, all either on the town square or within walking distance of it . Each tinier community in the county would have a club house at which get-togethers could be held; dances ,parties , dove, quail and fish fries , peanut boils . As a 6 year old white kid in the 50s I could leave the theater on Saturday, walk the two miles home through a teeming crowd 90% black , through black neighborhoods and no one was going to lay a hand on me .95% of the citizenry , black and white , were employed by the local economy,nearly all privately owned- few chains . Go there now , deadsville , service oriented offices and second hand stores . Most if they have a job , work out of town .The chains are part to blame , but curiously the decline also seems to be connected to the first serious implementation of Brown versus Board in 1970 . We’ve lost something .
Posted by Palmetto Reb at 5:39 PM on March 20