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Show March Organic Continued from D6 shape their goods,if they want them on the shelves of Wak Mart’s nearly 4,000 U.S. stores and more than 2,200 interna- tionally. “They have hugepotential because it's not just Wal-Mart we'retalking about, it's their entire supply chain,”said Jeff Erikson, U.S. director of London-based consultancy and “Welove to see companies like Wal-Mart taking a big step and making pronouncements as they have, because their tentacles are so large.” Jeff Erikson U.S. director of a research group research group SustainAbility The group says it does not do any consulting work for Wal- Mart. Erikson said Wal-Mart could bring the same pressureit has exerted overthe years on prices and apply that to pushing manufacturers and competitors to adopt more sustainable business practices and larger organic offerings. “We love to see companies like Wal-Mart taking a big step and making pronouncements as they have, becausetheir tenta- cles are so large,” Erikson said. Wal-Mart plans to doubleits organic grocery:offerings in the next month andcontinue looking for moreproducts to offer in areas such as grocery, apparel, paper and electronics. Stephen Quinn,vice president of marketing, told an analysts’ conference this month that WalMart would have’400 organic food items in stores this summer“at the Wal-Mart price.” Some Wal-Mart critics call theeffort just a public relations job. But others say Wal-Mart could makea real difference if the retailer bringsa critical massoforganic products to market and pushes enough sup- pliers to adopt green practices. Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope, who is a board memberof the union-backed group Wal-Mart Watchthatcriticizes the retailer,saidit is too soon to tell if Wal-Mart will deliver but that the impact could be good for the environment. “] think the direction they've saidis a positive direction. The questionis, ‘Are they are going to go there strongly enough?’ ” Pope said. Someofthe new items will be seafood caughtin the wild. WalMart last month announced a plan to haveall its wild-caught fish, which accourits tor about a third of seafood sales, certified by the Marine Stewardship Council as caught in a sustainable way. The London-based MSC, founded in 1997 as a venture of the conservation group World Wildlife Fund and global consumer products company Unilever, issuesthe certificates to let consumers knowwhich fisheries avoid overfishing and use methods that don't damage the ocean environment Sustainability experts say what makes this program interesting is that Wal-Mart will work with its suppliers to get more fisheries around the globe certified by MSC,insteadofjust buying up the existing stock of certified fish. Wal-Mart saysthis means there will be moresustainable fish that will also be available to Wal-Mart's competitors, such as Whole Foods Market, which alreadysells about 18 MSC certified items, according to the MSC Website. Wal-Mart plans RICHARD DREW AssociatedPress Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates stands in Times Square to promote the new WindowsXPoperating system Oct. 25, 2001, ina New Yorkfile photo. In the morethan five yearsit's taken Microsoft Corp. to develop a newversion ofits Windows computer operating system, Google Inc. has grownfroma little-watchedInternetsearch engineto one of the most powerful companiesin to offer between 200 and 250 items. the United States, and potentially one of Microsoft's biggest threats. The way Wal-Mart hatched the fish planis typical of howit operates. Peter Redmond, vice presidentand divisional merchandise managerin charge of deli and seafood, said he Windows the introduction of (Windows Vista),” said Brad Goldberg, conceived the idea after meet- Windowsreleases. (A version ing MSC board chairman Will Martinlast fall. Wal-Mart and MSC worked out details and then Wal-Mart calledin its 25 to due out in November.) The delay, which the com- 30 fish wholesalersin January to tell them it was switching to MSC certified seafood. Wal-Mart developed a plan to workwithits suppliers to encouragefisheries to adopt MSC practices. Theplan includes bar- ring its suppliers from switch- ing fisheries in the first yearto 18 months, giving the suppliers more reason to promote the changes. “Wedon't wantto walk awayfroma fishery just becauseit is in fairly poor shape or poor shape,” Redmondsaid. “Wewantto try and recover that (non-certified) fishery to whereit becomesa sustainable fishery. Our point being that if we just go for sustainable fisheries, it won't be enough at the end of the day unless we forlarge business customers is panysaid resulted in part from efforts to improvesecurity, is the latest in a series of hiccups for WindowsVista. The release of Vista was thrownofftrack in early 2002, | when Chairman Bill Gates ordered the entire company to | focus on improving the secu| rity ofits existing and future | products, following series of | embarrassing breaches. The time-consumingeffort, | | whichincluded a major security update, Service Pack2, for | focused on that goal, which we Continued from D6 pany spokesman Bruce Hicks. general managerof Microsoft’s Windows client product management to demonstrateourunity and Pack 2 release — as well as versions of Windows for Tab- the company must ensureits Jet PCs and computersthat are printers, photo-editing software show Delta management what will happenif they choose to reject our contract,” Collins wrote. Ina telephoneinterview, Collins said a few hundredpilots are expected to gather for a demonstration, possibly picketing or a march through the airport, though what the exercise will entail has not yet been workedout. Thepilotsalso will get information on the communications that would be set up in the eventof an actualstrike, Collins said. “They don't stop flying or anythinglike that,” Collins said. “They volunteer to come.It won't interrupt service.” wrapped up Thursday. A threememberpanelhas until April 15 to decide on the company’s request to throw outits con- meant to be media hubs — as and hundreds of thousands of other non-Microsoft products. appearto be a longstretch be- baggage they drag on,” Gillen beenbusy despite what may tween WindowsXPandVista. tract with its 6,000 pilots so it can impose up to $325 million in long-term pay andbenefit cuts. Theunion has saidit will strikeif its contract is voided. The panelurged both sides to cometogetherto reach a deal said. “Weactually feellike we've Security and compatibility released lot in the last five aren't all to blame. Microsoft also is trying to makelongoverdue improvements to the architecture of the operating system. Over manyreleases, analysts say, the system became unwieldy, making simple jobs complex because various pieces of the system were so which analystssay arelikely because the company wants to makefurther, aggressive improvements. For example, the newver- moresophisticated ways to preventpeople from downloadwith IDC,said the improvement is important but also quite. dif- Goldbergsaid the efforts to reduce suchtechnical depen- not connected to a broad range than $200 million on charities of opposition expected at the last yearin the United States. FDIC hearings from groups including bankers, community activists and unions. branchesin its stores run by “We had alwaysfelt that weshould compiy (with CRA) is scheduledto testify against theplan at the first FDIC hear- fromthe beginning. But be- Opponents have argued Wal-Mart’s size meansit could put community banksout of business by opening branches in its stores. They fear this would concentrate too much leaning this wayfor a long time,” Wal-Mart spokesman economic powerin a single to fully demonstrate our com- seled us against that, we took that counsel. But we have been MartyHeires said. “The reason wedid that was could be disastrous to the 77- communities. Wal-Mart said the decision to mitmentto the community,” he said. Heires said Wal-Mart has year-old airline, which says it drop the exemption request in a history of supporting local communities, spending more will be forced out of businessif a March1 letterto the FDIC is Associates. It already has about 1,150 bank about300 institutions and does not want to compete with them,Heiressaid. WakeUpWalMart.com, a union-funded campaign group cause so many people coun- ing April 10 in Arlington, Va. Alongthe way, Microsoft has scaled back expectations for Vista, most notably by deciding not to ship Vista with WinFS,a highly sophisticated system for storing and organiz- ing data. That will be added later, and analysts point to it as an example of how Vista may not offer enough whiz-bang features to compelpeople to immediately upgrade. “This issue may be that people look at this version and say, ‘WindowsXPis enough.’ ” Enderle said. “That's probably a bigger problem for Microsoft.” Looking ahead, Microsoft might have even thornier problems. The industry has changed and analysts saythat online offerings from companies such as Google and Yahoo Inc. could eventually call into question the need for a pricey Windows security of our existing prod- ReinvestmentCoalition, which dowstakestime. grown into an enormoushairball over time,” said Roger Kay our customersto improve the tive of the National Community later on. But untangling Win- dramatically since Windows with Endpoint Technologies AlGillen,a research director dencies inside Windowswill help Microsoft moreeasily add moresophisticated functions interconnected. “Windowsitself has just sion of Windowswillinclude companywith noties to local on their own,sayingits decision “Theyreallydo havea lot of years,” he said. Efforts to further improve security in Vista continue to be a factor in morerecentdelays, | | } compatibility with existing evidence that the companyhas Bank tion hearings in Washington Whena new versionis released, Goldberg counts the Service believe is achievable,” said com- | Continued from D6 Nearly two weeksofarbitra- easily use legitimate programs. It's one of many waysthat Windows’ vast popularity can be botha blessing anda curse. ing dangerous software. “We madethe decision that it was moreimportantfor recovera lot of these thatare in trouble now,” he added. Delta the current WindowsXP,has helped keep Microsoft customers safe from Internet attackers. But the workalso took engineers away from developing Vista. | ficult because Microsoft must makesure that users can still ucts thanit wasto accelerate Continuedfrom D6 that opposesthe banking plan, said Wal-Mart's reversal on the CRAis not enoughto calm critics. “Noneof the changes ad- dress the key point that a ‘Wal- Mart bank’ wouldresult ina dangerous concentration of economic power which is bad for consumers,small business andournation’s economy,” said Chris Kofinis, communica- XP cameoutin October 2001, operating system at all. tions director for WakeUp- WalMart.com. Taylorsaid his grou, ould not dropits testimor against the Wal-Mart pln. “This (CRA: uupliance) is not the action we want. The action we'relookingforis for them to keep their greedy hands outof the banking business,” Taylorsaid. Taylorsaid his group does not believe Wal-Mart's pledge thatit will only operate an inhouse bank. Instead,he saidit will be just a toehold so Wal-Mart can expandintofull-service banking later but without the local roots to serve a community adequately. its pilots strike. AsofFriday, however,there | ! was noindication of exactly whenthe two sides would meet. A strike authorization vote Generations of Sewing Experts by rank-and-file pilots is scheduled to wrap up April 4. Such votesif successfultypically give unionleadersthe right to set a A Delta spokesmanindicated the demonstration wasnot a majorissue for the company. strike date, but do not necessar“There's no disruption to our ily meana strike is imminent. serviceor to our customers. Atlanta-based Delta, the Ourfocus remains on doing nation’s third-largestairline, everything we can do to reach filed for Chapter11 protection a consensual, comprehensive agreementwiththe pilots union. ’ fromits creditors in New York Ourenergies will continue to be on Sept. 14. 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