FU, corporate.

This past Saturday was Earth Hour, and it was asked that everyone turn off their lights from 8pm to 9pm. Now I must say that I am very disappointed in my work for not participating.
I understand that an hour of only working on a generator would piss a few people off, but we're supposed to be a company that cares about the environment and no one even batted an eyelash.
To hell with the customers, I say. We've worked under worse conditions and still business went on as almost usual, in that no one decided to halt the process of draining their bank accounts to shop at our store, and generally everything went off without a hitch.

Now I don't know if it would have "counted" if we still ran on a generator and just shut off the electricity, and I can understand - though I do not like this fact - that corporate would not be on the side of closing an hour early, but no one even made an effort. They didn't so much as dim the lights to give the impression that we were participating in this world-wide electricity conservation initiative.
I can't remember the exact square footage of the store, but if memory serves it's somewhere in the neighbourhood of 250,000 sq.ft. Yeah, that's a lot of friggen electricity.

Something I found interesting is what's posted on the IKEA.ca website:
"Climate change is happening now, which is why we at the IKEA Group are determined to play a part in preventing it by improving our overall energy efficiency and reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases."
So why the hell didn't we participate in Earth Hour!?
All of the information IKEA.ca provides on their environmental efforts can be found here.

Poor form, IKEA. Poor form.
And after all the harping they do about plastic bag consumption and the "efforts" they make to recycle old batteries and light bulbs they let Earth Hour pass by without so much as a second thought. It all makes them seem so hypocritical.
Yes, we'll save the environment, but only when it doesn't potentially interfere with sales.

I put efforts in parentheses when referring to the battery recycling because not once have I ever seen those batteries be taken to a recycling facility. The bin has never been emptied (to my knowledge) in the nearly three years I've worked there.
But then again, having them in our store is still better than having them in landfills, so I can't really complain, especially since the majority of batteries that are said to be recycled don't actually see that fate and are shipped off to landfills anyway.

I really shouldn't watch those CBC docu-news shows; they just make me angry at people.

Anyway...
A few customers asked me why we weren't participating and the only answer I could give them was that I assumed it was due to the fact that people would probably complain.
I know we have enough generator power to run the store for one piddly little hour, so they really had no excuse.

I guess the environment is really only important when sales aren't involved, eh, IKEA?
Never mind the fact that hundreds of dollars would have been saved on electricity, since it costs thousands to run the store for just one day.
But hey, who am I to apply logic to a situation, I'm just a measly little cashier who gives a shit.

I've emailed corporate under the guise as a customer, as I don't feel like being harped on for mentioning that I am an employee, and requested that they send any answers to my question to my email.
The message I sent them reads as such:
"As a customer who is very environmentally conscious, I am interested to know why IKEA Canada chose not to participate in Earth Hour this past Saturday the 29th of March, 2008.
IKEA claims to be at the forefront of environmental issues, yet no efforts were made to participate in this world-wide initiative to reduce electricity consumption.
I hope someone can offer some reasoning as to why IKEA ignored Earth Hour, despite their apparent concern for the environment.

I have chosen not to include my full mailing address, and encourage that a response be sent to my email."

I'm putting my money on receiving nothing more than some uninterested auto-response from corporate.
You can colour me surprised if I receive anything more than that.

Any response from IKEA corporate will be posted here.

Juicy Arachnids

A few nights ago, nearly a week prior to today, I dragged my weary self into the kitchen for a late-night glass of Five Alive before heading off to bed.
Little did I expect that there would be an uninvited guest to this party.

Upon pouring my drink I noticed that something had left the carton with the beverage, but at first thought it was a small glob of un-mixed juice and left it at that. It wasn't until this foreign object floated to the top that I got a sense of what it really was.

"Is that...? No, it can't be."

So I fished it out.
It was.
A spider. A common house spider, but a spider nonetheless.
I fished it out with a spoon, dropped it in the sink, and poured my drink down the drain.

A few days later I decided that I needed to inform the good makers of Five Alive of this incident. Not to complain or shout via internet, demanding free whatnots, but rather just to inform them of what I found in my juice carton.
So off I went to the Minute Maid website to frustratingly navigate through their poorly designed tom-foolery just to find a contact link.
Eventually I found the complaints form, and while I wouldn't consider it a complaint, I filled it out in full, informing them of exactly what had happened.
Much to my dismay, however, once I went to submit the form I was told that being a Canadian citizen, my complaints and/or concerns were to be directed to them by way of their toll free number.
Now, I already felt like the thumb-in-the-chili lady for writing the letter, so I didn't want to make the call and have to have this conversation with a live human being.
Call me timid but it just wasn't on my list of things to do.
So I changed my postal code to my friend's zip code in NY, but also made note of this in my now revised letter.

The very next day, after the initial Thanks for your concern auto-email, I received a reply from Minute Maid. Much to my shock it was not another auto-response, but rather something that seemed to have come from an actual human being.
Now, whether or not this email was as scripted as any auto-response I don't know, but so far it seems as though Minute Maid is on top of their game.

"Thank you for contacting The Minute Maid Company. We appreciate your taking the time to make us aware of your experience and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
We are very interested in this unusual situation and would like to obtain additional information, so we can provide a complete report to the appropriate management. We would like to request the following:

• Your address and daytime telephone number;
• The date you purchased the product and the date the incident occurred;
• The name, street address, and city of the store where you purchased the product;
• The number of ounces contained in the package and the type of packaging (for example, 64-oz. carton) and the multi-pack size (6-pack, 10-pack or individual);
• The complete best if used by date typically located near the top of the package.

Please feel free to reply directly to this message with the information and you should expect a response soon. We do ask that you hold on to the packaging until you hear from our representative.

Please include the following reference number in the subject line: 1-**********
We appreciate your cooperation and look forward to hearing from you again.

C********
Industry and Consumer Affairs
The Minute Maid Company"

I responded to their email and provided all of the information they requested. The part about keeping the carton seems odd to me, since I can't think of any reason for doing so, but I'm agreeable and will do what they suggest is best.
My original message to them was,

"This past Saturday on March 16 I poured myself a glass of Mango Citrus Five Alive, only to watch a spider slide out of the opening and into my juice glass. Not sure that it was in fact a spider, I fished it out to take a better look.

Well I was right. It was not a spectacular spider - nothing more than the common house spider - but I was a tad concerned.

I've since disposed of the arachnid, and as well I promptly disposed of my beverage, along with the remaining contents of the carton.

Surely it was no ones intention that a spider make its way into my juice, and quality control must be a very serious matter for your company, but I felt it was important to bring this to attention.

Do with this information whatever you feel necessary."

I didn't ask them for compensation of any kind, nor do I expect any, and I'm interested to see how they treat a situation like this.
So far I'm impressed with their speedy response, as I originally expected to never hear from them, or rather get an awkward unexpected call from them like I did from Kraft when I emailed them to ask about the shelf-life of Pop Tarts.
That was related to the fact that I had intended to buy a box of Hello Kitty Pop Tarts to add to my collection of useless HK what-have-yous, and was none too keen on the notion of having rotting toaster pastries in my house.
Needless to say I felt like the biggest dork on the planet when I explained this to the Kraft representative on the other end.
But I digress.

Updates will follow once I hear back from Minute Maid.
In the meantime I've not been deterred from drinking the sweet goodness of Mango-Citrus Five Alive.

Green is the new black

When left bored and with no one to shoot the shit with at work I'm tempted to doodle. And doodle I do.



Likely this is something that will only be funny to someone at my work, or anyone else who works in retail and has had to put up with customers whining about efforts the store is making towards a better environment.
I cannot for the life of me understand why people are so reluctant to shell out a meager five cents for a plastic bag. It's not as though we're asking for their first born, though perhaps we should start. These children can become the mystical cashiers we pull out of thin air when customers start ranting about lines and how we must have more people floating around to open up for their convenience, as though we haven't already exhausted every other option in that department.

Not one to ignore other options, I should point out that my work offers - and has for some time - reusable bags, even before they were all the rage.
So what is the issue here?
Am I supposed to care that you're constantly forgetting your reusable bags in your car?
Do you feel that your forgetfulness will somehow coerce me into feigning sympathy for you enough to hand over a free plastic bag?
Surely no one would expect such a thing from me.

I'm not what you would call a tree hugger, per se, but maybe a tree admirer.
I care about environmental issues as much as the next gal, and do whatever I can to keep things green, but I'm not as "up there" with my efforts as some people.
My home has no solar panels, I own nothing made of hemp, and I've been known to accidentally put recyclables in the trash. Forgive me!
However, this doesn't mean I'm going to hold someone's hand through excessive plastic bag consumption.
It's damn unnecessary.

There are more than enough alternatives to plastic bags, especially now that so many stores are offering their own reusable bags that can often be purchased at beyond reasonable prices. I don't think $1 is a lot to ask for something you're going to use all the time.
Not only are these reusable bags becoming more accessible, they're also becoming more fashionable, for those fashion-forward tree huggers, or admirers.



Anya Hindmarch is the designer behind this bag, which originally retails for £5, but has been auctioned on eBay for as much as £400, thanks to its Hollywood exposure.
More about this bag can be read here.



Envirosax.com has a whole line of environmentally friendly bags, and although they go for $24.95 AUD, they're still worth the buy.

For more local options, most grocery stores here in Canada (and I would assume all of North America) have their own line of bags.
The President's Choice Greenest Shopping Bag is indisputably the most popular here, and as an incentive to use their bags President's Choice offers 50 of their PC points for every PC Green bag you use each time you shop.
These points can, as I understand it, be redeemed for groceries at PC participating grocery stores. How nice, you get to help the environment and President's Choice rewards you with food. Sign me up!
Oh wait, there are already about 15 of those bags in my house.
President's Choice also has some great green tips and products listed on their website here.

I have seen a few people with large black canvas totes that say This Bag Is Green, and through some internet trolling have learned that Canadian Tire once offered these. I'm hoping they still do, because as far as looking good while doing good for the environment goes I think that one is top notch.
However, should I not be able to get my hands on one, Coca Cola has a reasonable facsimile in their online store in their classic red and white.




Plastic bags are so 1970, and not in that hip vintage t-shirt sort of way. It's about damn time people got hip to the enviro-jive and started carrying around a reusable alternative to the landfill heathens.