Apartment Therapy Chicago | Wal-Mart's Plan to Light the Way

We spotted this bit on Treehugger this morning: Wal-Mart's push to sell one compact fluorescent bulb (CFL, swirl bulb, anything else we can call it?) to each of its 100 million shoppers this year.

Treehugger points out that while greening up their image and the market, Wal-Mart can only succeed if it also shatters its own lightbulb business and all the other lightbulb manufacturers out there (CFLs last several times as long as incandescents, so the hope is that staying power + energy efficiency = good sales).

Conserving energy is surely worth this dilemma in the marketplace; we are just interested now in seeing Wal-Mart's selling strategies (ie. what exactly is their 'typical' buyer concerned with when shopping, anyway?).

These are all interesting questions, and we're curious to see the rippling effect this plan has not only on the lighting industry, but on widespread green business plans.

Check out a broader look at the history, impact, and future of CFLs and Wal-Mart's plan too sell 100 million bulbs in Fast Company's article, "How Many Lightbulbs Does it Take to Change the World? One. And You're Looking at It".

So we have to ask, with this bold bulb initiative in place (and any other past opinions you have tucked away): What's your opinion of Wal-Mart? Do you shop there? Pros/Cons in general?

(Photo via Fast Company)