Dear Gap:

You frequently tout that you are an "environmentally friendly" company . As we’ll see, I guess that depends on how you define "friendly". You do realize that wasteful plastic policies doesn’t exactly hug the earth, right? Luckily for you, I am here to help you out. You might ask why I take time out of my busy schedule of wiping snotty noses and administering time-outs to give prono bono advice to a global corporation? Because honestly I would like to continue shopping in your stores for the pure convenience of it. But I can’t do this in clear conscience if you don’t reconsider some of your policies.

To make life easy for you, I am going to point out some things that you have perhaps overlooked and some really easy solutions that could make us all happy and maybe earn you the label of environmentally friendly.

1. Plastic Shopping Bags…Ditch ‘em. You already offer paper bags in your store so there is no new technology required. Follow the path of WholeFoods and just stop handing them out. The advertising campaigns practically write themselves. Make a big PR stink like WholeFoods did and get yourselves on the cover of the Wall Street Journal. You could even offer people 5% off their next purchase for bringing in their own bags. (You know perfectly well those coupons lead to more sales when people come in to use them). You could even make your own cloth reusable bags and sell them for $5 and on top of that offer 5% off each time it is used. Call it…The Gap Gives 5 to its Customers and the Environment Campaign. Pure genius. Very little work…huge rewards both in terms of reducing the plastic and increasing your sales.

2. Mail Order Bags…Replace the plastic outer mailer with a recycled paper envelope such as the USPS offers. You could have your big ol’ logo printed on the side with something like GAP Cares; We Use Recycled Envelopes. It’s free advertising. ( I realize that the clothes themselves are stored in a warehouse and are kept in little baggies to protect them. As better alternatives become available this should be looked into further.) The outer mailer, however, is a lot of plastic that just doesn’t need to be there. You can still have the double strip on the paper envelope to allow returns as you do on the plastic. You have "environmentally friendly" designers…I’m sure someone could think of something better than what you have.

3. Hangers…Reuse them or give them away. Why are millions of hangers needlessly hitting our landfills? Either have your distribution trucks pick them up when they drop off clothes so that they can be reused or create some sort of OFFICIAL give away program. (One of your own store managers claimed to give them away by the bagful to whomever wants them rather than contribute to your very wasteful practice, but she also noted that it was not part of company policy.) I’m sure many small businesses with tighter margins than yours would love to take your old hangers. Or have you considered shelters, donation centers, and 100 other groups could find uses for them? Being "environmentally friendly" takes a little more work than just having your PR firm put out a press release claiming you are "environmentally friendly". What PR could be better than giving something away for free to people who need it? Just takes a tiny bit of effort on your part.

Well…I have given you so much to think about. Why should you care about what I think? I am just one customer. One who has spent thousands of dollars in your stores. One who, after hearing of these practices, has stopped purchasing from you all together. And one with a lot of friends…okay acquaintances…okay people I can actively annoy until they do my bidding. I don’t like to toss around words like boycott lightly…..but……oh…..and did I mention I have a really big mouth.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 7:26 pm and is filed under blogtastic, random rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.