Vlasic Pickles Vs. Wal-mart

On Fridays we make our usual trip to our local Wal-mart Supercenter to buy groceries. It's convenient since we can get everything we need there and it's open after 9pm. Well, when we returned home my mother-in-law called us and told us about Vlasic pickles' bankruptcy.

This came as quite a surprise since they have so many great pickle products. But, the reason they went bankrupt is because of Wal-mart. Apparently they signed a contract with them years ago, before they were famous. In that contract, it stated that Vlasic must sell their pickles to them for less than $1.00 a gallon.

So because of this, they must still sell there pickles at the insane price per a gallon. Wal-mart also threatened that if they backed out of the contract, they would take their business elsewhere. So even if Vlasic takes their pickles elsewhere people will still buy from Wal-mart because they are cheaper.

But apparently this isn't new news. Wal-mart has been doing this for years to other companies as well. So now what? Where did Vlasic go from there? Just recently they sold their pickle company to Heinz. Hmmmm. So I wonder will Heinz be the next one to go bankrupt?

I really wish we could shop at another reasonable store in this town. Unfortunately, there is no where else to shop and we can't drive out of town. And with the rise in food prices we can't afford it. We spent almost $200 alone in groceries this week and that was barely enough. Plus, the hubby's truck is acting up again, so we'll need to put money into that as well.