News Watch 2007-10-01 (2)

WAL-MART: CONCENTRATED LIQUID DETERGENTS ONLY

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Come May, only concentrated liquid laundry detergents will grace the shelves of Wal-Mart Stores and Sam's Club locations. The transition will begin in the Southern region in October, extending to the North and Midwest by February and finishing in East Coast locations by April. Wal-Mart, which sells about 25% of the liquid laundry detergent purchased in the U.S., hopes the move will incite an industry transformation. “People expect businesses to step up and work together to help solve the big challenges facing the world,” Lee Scott, president and chief executive officer of Wal-Mart, said at the Clinton Global Initiative last week. “What we have done is work with suppliers to take water — one of our most precious natural resources — out of the liquid laundry detergent on our shelves.”