Wal-Mart:
Really Out To Save You Money? [CNBC Retail Detail]

Wal-Mart announced
today that it is rolling out a second round of pre-holiday price cuts this time
on an additional 15,000 items. The cuts are 20% more than last year, according
to Wal-Mart public relations. Many of the analysts I spoke with dismissed the
move as a marketing tool for the retailer to gain “mind share” (translation:
have consumers think of shopping there first.) But even if Wal-Mart’s message is
something that the retailer wants Main Street to think of, WMT’s aggressive
pricing strategy is also something that some on Wall Street like to hear

Little
Green Lies [BusinessWeek]

Auden Schendler learned about corporate
environmentalism directly from the prophet of the movement. In the late 1990s,
Schendler was working as a junior researcher at the Rocky Mountain Institute, a
think tank in Aspen led by Amory Lovins, legendary author of the idea that by
“going green,” companies can increase profits while saving the planet…Wal-Mart
Stores (WMT ) helped spark the market for energy-saving fluorescent bulbs by
giving them top billing, even though incandescent bulbs are more
profitable.