Old Navy’s Sneak Attack…20% More Annoying…And that Bag Count Thing
Oh…they are good. Evil…but good. As many of you may know, we have put a ban on plastic shopping bags coming into the house. This has since been extended to produce bags and now that I am actually baking my own bread, yes take some time to ooooo and ahhhhhhh, bread bags as well. I must say….these changes have required little to no sacrifice…perhaps just a bit more consciousness about what we are doing. Well, today I opened my mail box and what did I find? Old Navy had mailed me a fricken bag? Are you serious I thought? Now the gimmick is that you get 20% off anything you can stuff in the bag…but you don’t really need the bag. There is a coupon code on the bag that they use at the register. So why the bag? Gimmick. Now their gimmick is sitting in my closet. They must have sent out 100,000s of these things. Direct mail is considered effective if 3 to 5% respond. So how many thousands of these plastic bags will be received in the mail and just tossed out? My mail feels so violated and dirty…and not in the fun good way. I think I need to clean my mail box….twice.
*Oh…as for the bag count…I stopped counting. It is about 40-50 a month in shopping bags alone, plus at least 10 produce bags, and 8-10 bread bags. So….60 a month, x 12…720 bags a year? Pretty gross, huh? (I am going to go with a yearly guestimation method rather than an actual count.) Yeah…lame…but I just have to be me.*
Gah! And they won’t even make organic jeans. Bad Old Navy! Bad!!
Do like Beth at fakeplasticfish does and write them a letter! Tell Old Navy what you think of their plastic bag gimmick. If enough people complain, perhaps they’ll stop doing it.
To blogger extraordinaire out there, whoever you maybe, could you create letter templates for different occasions? For instance, don’t sending me junk, your packaging is ridiculously wasteful, go organic, etc. etc. I would so appreciate it…
How does Old Navy Suck? Let Me Count The Ways:
Those hangers they use to hang up their clothes on? They don’t re-use them! They don’t even send them back to the factory so someone else can re-use them. They put ‘em in the frickin’ dumpster! Then they require their manufacturers to ship them the garments already hung on hangers so that their associates don’t have to hange them (and to avoid wrinkles). Because if there’s one thing middle class American will not abide it is wrinkles. I’m going to be doing a little expose post on this soon…
F’ em. Never shop there again.
A little letter writing is definitely in order. That would make a cool eco-blog, Cindy,…just letters & responses.
Burbarino…I had no idea about the hangers. I don’t do much Old Navy shopping…but I buy from Baby Gap and Banana…which is the same company. I wonder if they all have the same policy. Oh…I am so torn. Knowing my luck I would put on the ban and then they would make my organic jeans. I look forward to your piece….your post that is.
I work for Old Navy. I’m very much against plastic bags, but the one that you received in the mail was for something we do a couple times a year called stuff and save. If you don’t get a bag, you aren’t able to get the 20 off on everything you can get in the bag. And also about the hangers, we do reuse more hangers than you might think. For example on the returns during the day that aren’t folded and need to be re hung. The trash that is collected is picked up and after inspection is burned. Hope that helped turn your thinking around about Old Navy just a bit =)
It is always good to hear another point of you. But…..the bag is completely unnecessary. They do not have to use that concept as their promotion. Plus, there is a code at the bottom of each bag that actually gives the discount…so the bag itself is just a gimmick.