Wal-Mart taking on Whole Foods and TV

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Wal-Mart is in the news today:

The retail giant has a program called Heritage Agriculture that’s bringing local and organic produce and meat into its stores. So, the Atlantic’s Corby Kummer bought a big supply of ingredients from Wal-Mart’s local selection, bought the same ingredients from Whole Foods, and staged a blind taste test with a bunch of foodies. Read the rest:

Meanwhile, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Procter & Gamble Co. announced plans to produce “family-friendly” television programming that will serve as a vehicle to advertise dog food, batteries and cereal sold by the companies. The first venture -- first reported by the Wall Street Journal -- will be a two-hour movie that will air on NBC on April 16, Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, and P&G, the biggest packaged goods company, said Thursday in a statement. Bloomberg reported that the adventure movie, “Secrets of the Mountain,” features a single mother and her three children who use P&G’s Duracell batteries for flashlights and feed their dog the company’s Iams pet food, said Jeannie Tharrington, a spokeswoman for Cincinnati-based P&G. The family eats breakfast cereal from Wal-Mart’s Great Value private-label brand, Tara Raddohl, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman in Bentonville, Ark., said by e-mail.