Is Wal-Mart Coming Around?

I've never been a huge fan of Wal-Mart, and after watching various documentaries of years past exposing their cut-rate exploitation of their employees and the overseas production workforce, I decided never to shop there again.

But then I saw a segment on the news about Wal-Mart's new "made in America" campaign while waiting on an oil change.  They claimed to already carry many items made stateside, and plan to add more.  Apparently the rising cost of fuel makes it more worthwhile to invest in domestic production than to go overseas.  Maybe the mantra about Wal-Mart's "cheap Chinese crap" no longer applies.

Just to see for myself, I put Wal-Mart to the test yesterday before our big road trip.  I was originally planning to go by three different stores - Petco, for disposable puppy pads, Target, for a travel cooler, and Trader Joe's, for healthy snack food.  Instead, I swung into the Wal-Mart lot to see what I could find.  

The disposable eco-friendly puppy pads AND the cooler were quite affordable and both stamped with "Made in USA."  While I was at it, I picked up some chewing gum and 100-calorie nut packets.  Shopping done.

Very interesting.  I will have to investigate this further.