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Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Letter to Wal-Mart on Going Green
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
Dear Wal-Mart:
I live in Cincinnati, Ohio—which is HQ for the Kroger Corporation. Locally, I know Kroger fears competition from Wal-Mart, particularly in the grocery business.
I also know Wal-Mart has done some good work and earned positive publicity by making some decisions which have an environmental basis.
Recently, I suggested to Kroger that they try putting doors on all their refrigeration units. I suggested this move could get them some free positive publicity, and it’s possible that the energy savings (besides being good for the environment) could save money overall.
Kroger responded with a note from their customer relations department which avoided the issue entirely.
I don’t know if some people will avoid buying string cheese if they need to open a door, but at the same time one must wonder how the overall experiment would raise customer awareness and save money overall in energy savings.
I suggest, therefore, that you implement a pilot program in Cincinnati to see what happens when you retrofit your open refrigeration units with doors.
If this move turns out to be profitable, it will also be good for the environment, earning Wal-Mart great publicity for being a leader in going Green.
Respectfully,
[The Dean of Cincinnati]
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30 Jan 2008 at 11:35 am | #
.
What ?
Has the dean jumped into bed with union busters to retaliate against 3CDC corporate cronies ?
‘Mean Green’ ?
A Coaster ?
We wonder whom shall be most embarrassed ?
.
30 Jan 2008 at 06:11 pm | #
Are you saying you’d start shopping at Wal-Mart, complete with slave labor from China, and their efforts toward destroying unions domestically, over UFCW-represented Kroger employees?
30 Jan 2008 at 06:33 pm | #
Wal-Mart’s initial response:
Thank you for your message.
30 Jan 2008 at 06:34 pm | #
I did not say I’d start shopping at Wal-Mart. But Kroger would not consider the idea. So I’m taking it to their competitor. If their competitor takes the idea, then maybe Kroger will follow suit.
Despite insults in the previous strands, I think the idea perfectly logical.
30 Jan 2008 at 06:55 pm | #
Are you really so naive as to think that WalMart, who has a specific, standard site, building and interior plan for every single store worldwide cares what you think? What’s your interest in trying to sway opinion in favor of WalMart? If WalMart has plans to put doors on their refrigeration units--the units that house the products packaged by children in third world countries that should be in school, picked by farmworkers in fields sprayed with lethal chemicals, that come from Mexican villages whose farmers are starving because WalMart won’t pay a a fair wage for their product, checked out by cashiers that are subject to discrimination based on race and gender--would putting on doors earn WalMart the Dean seal of approval? WalMart could install a green roof, a grey water system, solar panels and be certified by the Green Building Association and I still wouldn’t spend a dime there. I would know it’s a gimmick. It’s a moral decision.
Why are you so worried about conglomerates bending to your will? They won’t. Start with yourself at home. Change all your lightbulbs to energy savers, stop using plastic water bottles and other plastic products, use non-polluting cleaners and laundry detergents, cut back or stop eating meat, take your own canvas bags to the grocery, take shorter showers, recycle, buy used merchandise from e-bay or thrift stores, and DON’T SHOP AT WALMART. That would be a good start and more attainable.
30 Jan 2008 at 07:11 pm | #
1. I have changed almost all of my lightbulbs. The ones I have not changed have dimmer switches, or are a type for which I cannot find the energy savers.
2. Though we still have plastic products, we are avid recyclers. My son is actually very interested in recycling. In the proverbial race with the Jonses we have more recycling each week than the neighbors.
3. I have not tried the laundry detergents. Maybe it’s time I do.
4. I have cut back my meat eating habits in the past couple years.
5. We have canvas bags. If we forget them, we reuse bags and recycle them.
6. I don’t buy used clothes, but among my friends and family I have a bit of a reputation for keeping the same clothing items for longer than others.
7. I try not to shop at Wal Mart. My wife does not always share my opinion on this, and I do not fight her (not too much, anyway) when she insists we go there.
Now, what has any of this to do with saving energy by putting doors on open refrigeration units?
Do you think it’s a bad idea?
31 Jan 2008 at 06:40 am | #
Study on the subject:
http://www.ecn.nl/docs/library/report/2007/e07098.pdf
31 Jan 2008 at 05:31 pm | #
I understand the subject quite well thank you. Installing doors on their refrigerators wouldn’t fool me. Why would anyone with half a social conscience insist of shopping at racial discriminating, union busting, main street ruining, third world country exploiting, Walmart? It’s not like they specialize in some rare herbal cancer cure that you can’t get anywhere else. They sell ill-made, mass produced junk, and lots of it. It’s a no-brainer for people that oppose the inhumane actions Walmart is well known for and anyone that walks in the door condones Walmart practices.
31 Jan 2008 at 07:08 pm | #
What are you talking about? If an industry leader like Wal-Mart installed these doors, other grocers, like Kroger, would follow suit.
Or don’t you care about taking care of the Earth for future generations. Why are you such a self-centered egomaniac?
31 Jan 2008 at 09:07 pm | #
First of all they haven’t and they won’t. And you’re the one that sounds like the self-centered egomaniac, not me. If you’re going to bother with a letter to WalMart why not ask them to stop exploiting Chinese, Mexican and Indian workers including children? Maybe you should, very politely, ask them to stop intentionally underselling, targeting, and bankrupting small businesses by the thousands in the areas where they plan to open stores. Remind them that they’ve lost numerous lawsuits for this very unfair business practice, the subject of many articles and books. Should I give you one of the hundred links citing how much better the world would be without WalMart?
The real question is why are you such a poser pretending to have a social conscience and then trying to sneak in little efforts to lobby for THE worst exploiter on the planet just to justify your Sunday family outing at WalMart? You’re so transparent.
01 Feb 2008 at 04:55 am | #
I do not make family outings to Wal-Mart. In fact, my wife shops there significantly less now than, say, two years ago when I started telling her things about the place.
I am very aware of what Wal-Mart does. I do not support Wal-Mart overall, and if you search the archives here you will find evidence of that.
They did, however, get my interest when they started pushing for environmentally friendly initiatives. I wondered what impact they could have, as an industry giant, on corporate consciousness as a whole.
At the same time, I realize they are just reacting to the pressure put on by activists whose criticisms have finally started to break into the mainstream.
Anyway, as you are fully aware, Wal-Mart will not stop exploiting workers because I drop them a note. If they don’t stop after the issue has been documented in films (I forget that last one that came out, but I have the DVD upstairs), then I think my letter will have no impact.
However, I am not aware of anyone trying to convince Wal-Mart to retrofit open refrigeration units with doors to save energy and help the environment. So for all I know, they will like the idea.
Call me all the names you want: I sent the suggestion to Kroger, and they wouldn’t let me talk to anyone outside of Customer Service. And that person just sent me a flyer about not obstructing air flow in open refrigeration units.
Do you actually think there is a problem with the concept? Do you oppose less carbon emission in the atmosphere, or something?
01 Feb 2008 at 06:44 am | #
You called me a self centered egomaniac first. I applaud environmental activism. Green buildings and sustainable design is the direction we need to go in. Does Walmart even have open refrigeration? Is it a large percentage of their refrigerated product? How does it compare with the major grocery stores? I don’t know any of this because I don’t shop there. But I do know that Walmart is devious and diabolical. They’ve, of late, had a few over-publicized environmental initiatives for PR purposes. Nothing significant enough to touch the damage caused at each and every development site, much less that caused by all the goods they sell. The WalMart legacy remains. There is only one way for WalMart to stop negatively impacting the world, including the environmental component which I feel is part of a package, and that’s for it to disappear. That can only happen if people take the hard line and refuse to shop there and tell their friends not to shop there. It’s amazing that people who legitimately expose and condemn other people and businesses, circumstances for discrimination, take a hands off policy when it comes to Walmart? Is it an addiction of some kind that people can’t kick so patronize the oppressor? Say No to Walmart.
01 Feb 2008 at 06:56 am | #
Wal-Mart has entered the grocery market. Kroger was afraid of competition locally, and started buying properties near highways to insure that Wal-Mart would not do it first. Wal-Mart typically locates most of their stores right off highway exits. Consider, for example, Kroger moving to Brentwood Plaza in Finneytown, right off cross-county.
Any major grocery chain (and even the independent grocers) has open refrigeration units, and they are all blowing cold air right into the store as a tax to the environment.
I wonder, cincysue, why you insist on changing the subject all the time.
I just want grocery stores to put doors on their open refrigeration units. If this is a good idea, why not help me? Why not write to Kroger with the idea? Maybe you can get past Customer Relations.
01 Feb 2008 at 08:49 am | #
#13 Jason: “I wonder, cincysue, why you insist on changing the subject all the time.”
She isn’t so much changing the subject, as she is questioning your lack of self scrutiny on the ethical front.
By the way my reading of Wal-Marts response to you, seems almost identical to what Kroger gave you. It boils down to; Thanks for bothering us with your trite suggestion, but our marketing people tell us we’ll sell more with open units; we’ve directed your suggestion to the correct department for disposal.
01 Feb 2008 at 04:43 pm | #
Just shop at findlay market and make wal mart and Kroger go away.
01 Feb 2008 at 08:05 pm | #
Nice idea, but Findlay market is not big enough to service the entire region!
01 Feb 2008 at 09:24 pm | #
Again, a subtle plug for the big box stores. It’s realistic to believe that Walmart will change the way they do business on the basis of a letter but just a pie in the sky notion to think that it’s possible to find independently owned, non chain outlets for most all, if not all of your retail needs? Odd position for a guy that runs a local, successful, respected independent blog. Seems like you would not only see the value but preach it. Duh.
02 Feb 2008 at 07:10 am | #
cincysue, I shop at Findlay Market, and love going there. I protest Wal-Mart as much as I think it appropriate as a point of my relationship with my wife, and she goes far less than in years past.
But I happen to think it more realistic to get big box retail to have less an effect on the environment than I think we can make people stop going to big box retail.
What is so wrong with that?
02 Feb 2008 at 09:05 am | #
I don’t think we fundamentally disagree on this. Walmart is a hot button issue with me and I believe a lost cause.
The only action it takes to stop patronizing big box stores is simply not to pass through their doors.
02 Feb 2008 at 09:16 am | #
Fine, but in the meantime, there is a lot of carbon being released into the atmosphere due to all those open refrigeration units.
Don’t you agree that they should all have doors on them?
02 Feb 2008 at 12:57 pm | #
Grrrrrr.
02 Feb 2008 at 01:39 pm | #
I’ll take that for a “Yes.” Now why not join me in writing letters to major grocers, giving them the idea. Why don’t you start with Krogers, from Cincinnati with unionized workers?
02 Feb 2008 at 05:40 pm | #
You misunderstood. It was frustration about how dense you can be.
02 Feb 2008 at 10:38 pm | #
Please answer a simple question. I have answered your questions.
Do you think it would be good for Earth if big box retail released less carbon through putting doors on open refrigeration units?
03 Feb 2008 at 11:30 am | #
Dean loves Wal-Mart! Hah! I bet the Dean wants to have like 10 thousand of Wal-Mart’s babies!
Seriously, I applaud your tactics of trying to turn competitors against one another. I applaud the fact that you want a world for your great-grand children to grow up in. But seriously, open versus closed refigeration units? Say it with me-Who Cares? Fight an environmental issue that will actually see results. Wal-Mart, Kroger, and no other store care about what you have to say. You would be better off trying to convince people to ride the bus or organizing car pools. Start a recycling program where you work. Those are major issues that help the environment now and can actually be achieved.
03 Feb 2008 at 01:57 pm | #
Here’s my answer. Yes I think it would be fine if they decided to enclose their refrigeration units. Here’s another answer. NO. I won’t be joining in your Lone Wolf, piss in the wind waste of time letter writing campaign.
What I will do is what I have been doing. First, support financially and through letter writing, Ohio Citizen Action’s very effective environmental actions across the state to address the problems with coal mines, steel plants, coke plant emissions, noxious fumes, chemical plants and Ohio River polluters. I recommend that everyone else do the same. Visit their website to see the incredible successes. Among others, I’ll continue to support the Sierra Club, participate in various environmental efforts spearheaded by Robert Greenwald and support many other actions that I don’t have at my fingertips right now brought by GROUPS that leverage the opinions and pressure of large numbers of people to get results. That’s what I’ll do. But you keep writing a letter to WalMart and a letter to Kroger if you think that works.
03 Feb 2008 at 02:32 pm | #
Did you know, at least last time I checked, that the petition gatherers for Ohio Citizen Action—who also solicit for donations—keep HALF of the donations as their payment for collecting signatures? So the more a petition gatherer raises, the more he or she gets paid! And if someone gets tons of signatures but less donations, then no paycheck for that gatherer!
You’d figure they’d at least map out areas in which they were permitted to solicit, and not assign workers to areas outside the jurisdiction. For, if a collector follows the assigned route and unknowningly crosses jurisdictions, s/he will be subject to arrest for “solicitation without a permit.” That charge sticks permanently!
03 Feb 2008 at 02:33 pm | #
cincysue, with half the time you have spent complaining at me, you could have sent a simple email—furthering awareness of closed refrigeration units among big box retail employees…
03 Feb 2008 at 05:17 pm | #
Okay you win. Will this do?
Dear WalMart --
Even if hell should freeze over, I wouldn’t shop at any of your stores. Despite that, please seriously consider my request to enclose all of your refrigerated food units (If you have any. I have no personal knowledge that they’re door-less).
Until the day comes that my prayers are answered and you go out of business and are no longer a bain upon the earth, please consider my request.
Sincerely,
Cincysuz
Dear Kroger:
Would you please put doors on your cold food units? Pretty please? I don’t actually shop at your stores. I don’t like the bogus card that has to be used to bring your prices down to just overpriced vs. outrageously overpriced. And since I’m writing, please stop sending me coupon incentives and telling me how long it’s been since I’ve shopped with you. It creeps me out that you’re tracking me. Deal with it. I’m not coming back.
But still, I hope that the intense pressure of two letters, one from me and one from The Dean of Cincinnati, are sufficient to cause you to redesign all of your stores, both locally and in California.
Sincerely,
Cincysuz