Nola.com: NewsFlash - Using big-box store technology, charities provide Katrina aid

Nola.com: NewsFlash - Using big-box store technology, charities provide Katrina aid: "Using big-box store technology, charities provide Katrina aid
10/22/2005, 9:16 a.m. CT
By CARYN ROUSSEAU
The Associated Press

WAVELAND, Miss. (AP) — Conglomerate-sized charities providing humanitarian aid on Mississippi's hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast have taken efficiency lessons from corporate America's big-box stores.

For nearly two months since Hurricane Katrina, the world has watched the Salvation Army and other charities respond to the hungry and homeless. But how do such major relief organizations function?

'It's very similar to Wal-Mart,' says George Hood, a spokesman for the Salvation Army."