Eric Waldbaum, entrepreneur in financial services and information technology ...
22.05.12
Mr. Waldbaum drew public attention from 1971 to 1976 as chief executive of Greenbelt Consumer Services, one of the largest co-ops in the nation. The cooperative operated supermarkets, service stations, a furniture store and drugstores in the Washington-Baltimore corridor.
Mr. Waldbaum was publicly outspoken on energy legislation and other topics of the day. Under his leadership, Greenbelt Consumer Services paid for advertisements that strongly criticized pricing and food-dating policies at competing markets such as Giant Food and Safeway.
Mr. Waldbaum was dismissed by the board for reasons that were never publicly stated. He brought an unsuccessful libel suit against Fairchild Publications, whose Supermarket News wrote that the cooperative was losing money and retrenching under Mr. Waldbaum.
A federal trial judge ruled in 1979 that Mr. Waldbaum was prominent enough in his profession to be considered a public figure and did not prove Supermarket News deliberately published false information — the standard for public figures. The judge dismissed the suit.
Source: Washington Post
