For some reason this morning I had my good citizen cap on my walk to work down Broadway between Union Square and SoHo I went into two stores to complain that they had their doors open and their air conditioning on. The reason I chose these two stores rather than the Best Buy or Urban Outfitters was that these brands (American Apparel and Body Shop) both trade on their conscious credentials.
There’s an element of ‘doing good’ in both retailers’ brand values. Body Shop has a ‘Protect Our Planet‘ mission. American Apparel doesn’t talk much these days about it’s eco credentials but it has major concerns for what it considers as the community.
Some of you might not know but there is a strong debate in New York about stores that leave their doors open while their air conditioning units were going - and some officials in New York have suggested a law against it. Saying that, maybe the debate is all in the media and none in the street: when I asked the assistants in both stores if anyone had complained before about their open doors and they said no. The Body Shop girl seemed fairly concerned about the idea, the American Apparel girl and her manager seemed to just see me as somebody ten years too old in the store and not minding his own business. Well, at least some brand values ring true.
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I hadn’t considered this until you mentioned it.
My pet peeve is Fresh Direct vans leaving their engines running constantly when they park up.
Simple economics will change this I hope - in the same way the UK is apparently slowing down to conserve energy.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:43 am
Good for you, man! Couldn’t agree with you more.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Given that The Body Shop happily gave itself up for purchase by Loreal, a company that actively tests its products on animals, clearly the environment (and corporate hypocrisy) is no longer of much concern.
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Fantastic! I will do the same if I see it elsewhere :)
July 4th, 2008 at 11:42 am
I definitely agree with the need for actions to follow brand values.
There is a website dedicated to outing stores like the ones you passed by. Ultimately, the goal of the site is to slap the wrists of offenders in some way.
http://racked.com/tags/this-store-blows
I hope that positive action can follow this as well. Something like a Carrot Mob (http://www.carrotmob.org) maybe? Providing positive feedback for desired behavior.
July 6th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Great Point, Never thought of it either. I guess i would if i was a store owner, but the staff probably think along the lines door opens = more sales like i was taught, door closed = not my problem. Untill someone complains.
July 7th, 2008 at 5:14 pm