Alliance unholy, unhealthy

Great! Now the White House is promoting a big-box retailer. The first lady has joined Wal-Mart executives in announcing their plan to limit sugar and salt (“Wal-Mart to limit sugar, salt,” Spokesman-Review, Jan. 21).

Let me try to understand this. Michelle Obama is promoting the world’s largest retailer, the same company that has, with the cooperation of the American consumer, devastated small-town businesses and independent retailers nationwide. Behind the welcoming smile of the Wal-Mart greeter is a company that has no conscience when dealing with suppliers and competitors, and its own employees. By putting tremendous pressure on suppliers’ wages and salaries, American manufacturing jobs have been moved overseas to Asia. And inside each store are American workers, trapped in low-pay, dead-end jobs. That’s a pretty high cost for the “everyday low prices” at Wal-Mart.

While the president struggles with his domestic job creation package, I would suggest his wife not mingle with the executives of China’s largest trading partner, who have demonstrated that they are out to crush competition worldwide with total disregard for local or regional businesses or the loss of local jobs. Perhaps Wal-Mart’s smiley-faced mascot, not Michelle Obama, would be a better corporate spokesman.

Bernie Korth

Spokane