Skip to content
  • (413) 834-4284
  • [email protected]
  • 21 Grinnell St, Greenfield, Massachusetts
Search
Close
Sprawl-busters
  • Home
  • About
  • Resources
    • Links
    • Books
    • Movies
    • Home Towns, Not Home Depot
    • The Case Against Sprawl
  • Victories
  • Blog
    • Share Your Battle
  • Contact
Menu
  • Home
  • About
  • Resources
    • Links
    • Books
    • Movies
    • Home Towns, Not Home Depot
    • The Case Against Sprawl
  • Victories
  • Blog
    • Share Your Battle
  • Contact
  • Uncategorized

Wal-Mart Organizing Customer Action Network To Lobby

  • Al Norman
  • November 5, 2007
  • No Comments

Want to help fight citizens protecting their homes and neighborhoods? Want to help force huge superstores into tiny communities? Want to overwhelm your neighbors with traffic and crime? If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, then the Wal-Mart Customer Action Network (CAN) is for you. You can win valuable prizes, like a $200 Wal-Mart gift card, just by convincing your friends to join CAN. Based on a model they have been using for several years in California, Wal-Mart has set up the New England Customer Action Network, “a program designed to keep customers informed and involved regarding issues that affect Wal-Mart and its ability to save people money so they can live better. As a member, you will receive updates regarding important issues along with ways you can help!” Wal-Mart says that CAN is a program “to keep customers informed about government issues that affect Wal-Mart and its ability to provide good value for your shopping dollar.” Wal-Mart’s CAN is not just a group designed to battle with grassroots neighbors — it’s also aimed at government officials. “When government tries to limit your shopping choices, or interfere in Wal-Mart’s ability to offer Everyday Low Prices, Customer Action Network members can help by expressing their opinion,” the company’s website says. “CAN members can get involved in a variety of ways. Opportunities to participate in petition drives, public hearings, letter writing campaigns, or even just going to the polls on Election Day can help ensure your access to the savings that Wal-Mart provides. As a member of the Customer Action Network, you will receive: free newsletters with shopping tips, consumer information, and special; important bulletins and email alerts; invitations to special in-store events and receptions; information on important issues affecting us all, and how you can make a difference. Through the Customer Action Network, you can join thousands of other members in New England to help Wal-Mart continue to make a difference in your community!” CAN membership is FREE, and open to all New England residents 18 years and over.” To join, you just go to www.walmartnewenglandcan.com, fill out the membership packet form, or call toll-free 1- 877-859-4555 and ask for a membership packet, and the friendly folks at Wal-Mart will drop one in the mail to you right away. When the membership packet arrives, fill out the postage paid membership sign-up card and send it back so Wal-Mart can add you to our list of supporters. “Rest assured,” Wal-Mart says, “that we do NOT sell or share our list with outside vendors, suppliers, or marketing firms! Your information will be kept for CAN use only, to alert you of issues that affect Wal-Mart shoppers.” Members of Wal-Mart’s CAN receive a quarterly newsletter which features the “Supplier Spotlight,” to profile a different local supplier that provides fresh, quality goods to Wal-Marts in New England.” (Guess that Chinese pet food will never make the newsletter). “We are overwhelmed with the support for this program in its early stages. As part of your membership, you will receive this quarterly newsletter. This newsletter will inform you of important issues, Wal-Mart facts, as well as highlight charitable contributions that are being made in New England.” The Fall 2007 Newsletter includes a testimonial from a store manager in Providence, Rhode Island, who says: “I have been with Wal-Mart for over 11 years and love it! The CAN program is an excellent way for customers to get more involved with Wal-Mart. It shows Wal-Mart’s commitment to community involvement and gives customers a chance to learn how the business is growing. Customers at this location take pride in the store and in the Company. My absolute favorite part of working for this company is having the opportunity to change people’s lives by showing them their inner potential and ability to succeed with Wal-Mart.” Another woman is identified as a “CAN Recruiter” from Springfield, Massachusetts, who testifies: “I love Wal-Mart! We save so much money at Wal-Mart compared to any other store or club. I love the fact that I can talk to all the customers and explain how joining CAN helps.” The New England Customer Action Network is open to residents in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont only. Customers are even encouraged to email in their favorite Wal-Mart story, but they have to sign the following agreement: “I hereby agree that the Wal-Mart Customer Action Network (CAN) or any entity connected with CAN shall have, without further obligation to me, the right to use my Favorite Wal-Mart Story, including my name, voice, likeness, photograph, or any taped appearance or interview and biographical information on the CAN website or for CAN advertising and promotional purposes in any and all media now known or hereafter developed (including without limitation print, broadcast, and Internet) in conjunction with the CAN program and similar promotions without notice to me and without compensation.” Kind of like working at Wal-Mart!

The Boston Globe yesterday broke the story of Wal-Mart’s CAN in New England. According to the Globe, New England CAN has 26,000 members, with 7,500 iin Massachusetts. The newspaper quotes one woman who signed up for CAN “because she expects to get tipped off to secret sales.” The paper then quoted Sprawl-Buster Al Norman as saying the effort to mobilize Wal-Mart shoppers was unlikely to succeed: “Their supporters like cheap underwear, but they’re not likely to come away from the TV set long enough to lobby for it.” This CAN effort is similar to the largely unsuccessful organizing effort Wal-Mart created called “Working Families For Wal-Mart,” which never really got any traction. CAN is just the latest manifestation of what we for years have called “astro-roots” organizing — when a corporation hires public relations firms to create groups that are financed entirely by the corporation, and do the bidding of the corporation. Readers are urged to call the New England CAN phone number at 1-877-859-4555 and ask for a membership packet. Anti-Wal-Mart activists should join the CAN in droves. This will help you keep up on Wal-Mart’s messages to its ‘astro-roots’ shoppers. While Wal-Mart shoppers are busy looking for secret sales, you can be watching for local battles to support. The address for the new shopper’s rights group is: Customer Action Network New England, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., P.O. Box 231113, Boston, MA 02123-9902.

Like this article?

Share on facebook
Share on Facebook
Share on twitter
Share on Twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on Linkdin
Share on pinterest
Share on Pinterest
Al Norman

Al Norman

Al Norman first achieved national attention in October of 1993 when he successfully stopped Wal-Mart from locating in his hometown of Greenfield, Massachusetts. Almost 3 decades later they is still not Wal-Mart in Greenfield. Norman has appeared on 60 Minutes, was featured in three films, wrote 3 books about Wal-Mart, and gained widespread media attention from the Wall Street Journal to Fortune magazine. Al has traveled throughout the U.S., Barbados, Puerto Rico, Ireland, and Japan, helping dozens of local coalitions fight off unwanted sprawl development. 60 Minutes called Al “the guru of the anti-Wal-Mart movement.”

Leave a comment

Find Us

  • 21 Grinnell St, Greenfield, MA
  • (413) 834-4284
  • [email protected]

Helpful Links

  • Terms
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
Menu
  • Terms
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy

Recent Posts

CHRISTIAN SMALLS, FIRED AMZN WAREHOUSE WORKER, FILES RACE DISCRIMATION LAWSUIT. …

November 16, 2020

DUE TO THE SURGE IN CORONA CASES, WMT IS LIMITING SHOPPERS TO 5 PER 1,000 SF. A…

November 16, 2020

AMAZON RECENTLY ANNOUNCED FREE 1 HOUR GROCERY PICK UP FOR PRIME MEMBER ORDERS &g…

November 15, 2020

AFTER BEING REJECTED BY THE DEERFIELD, MA PLANNING BOARD, DOLLAR GENERAL APPEALS…

November 15, 2020

WILL TRUMP ALLOW ORACLE & WALMART TO INVEST IN TIK TOK? The deadline to ban …

November 14, 2020

AMAZON ACCUSED OF BREAKING ANTITRUST RULES IN EUROPE. “Data of 3rd-party sellers…

November 14, 2020

WALMART PET CARE NOW SELLING PET INSURANCE. My 3 year old mixed breed cat would …

November 13, 2020

WALMART’S GOING TO THE DOGS. 90 M OF ITS CUSTOMERS HAVE DOGS. You’d be Goofy not…

November 13, 2020

WALMART CASHIERS STILL LOOKING FOR A SEAT. They won a $65 M lawsuit in 2019, but…

November 12, 2020

4 DAYS BEFORE THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION,THE CO-FOUNDER OF HOME DEPOT SAID: “Pres…

November 12, 2020

Recent Tweets

Al Norman 3 hours ago

IN TWO county elections, “controlled growth” voters on Maryland’s shore tossed out a “slew”of pro-sprawl county commissioners. Anti-big box sentiment reaches political “fervor.” https://t.co/FpCFl6T090

Read More
Al Norman 3 hours ago

AMZN offers warehouse workers $3,000 to quit their job—in the middle of a union vote in Alabama—so they can hire anti-union workers. Illegal bribes. https://t.co/lCRJ5du4uX

Read More
Al Norman 1 day ago

WALMART mini warehouses are coming. No shoppers. The mini uses “robots & employees to quickly complete online orders for delivery or curbside pickup.” “WMT will be seen more like a service,” with health clinics & financial service. WMT just copies AMZN. https://t.co/kA2jOQY8p2

Read More

Ⓒ 2020 - All Rights Are Reserved

Design and Development by Just Peachy Web Design

Download Our Free Guide

Download our Free Guide

Learn How To Stop Big Box Stores And Fulfillment Warehouses In Your Community

The strategies written here were produced by Sprawl-Busters in 2006 at the request of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), mainly for citizen groups that were fighting Walmart. But the tips for fighting unwanted development apply to any project—whether its fighting Dollar General, an Amazon warehouse, or a Home Depot.

Big projects, or small, these BATTLEMART TIPS will help you better understand what you are up against, and how to win your battle.