I'm freaking out right now. No kidding. Okay, so I know I've already posted about how important it is to choose wisely where you shop and what you buy. My handy-dandy book that tells of socially responsible stores/products helps with that. But today was an epic FAIL.
Tomorrow we leave for our trip to Europe. As we're packing John realizes he only has like one pair of shorts and it's gonna be like 87 degrees in Italy. So we head out to pick up another pair. First, we go to REI, as they sell Patagonia, the MOST responsible clothing company on the planet. But I say (yes, me) that we should just grab something cheap at Old Navy. Despite my eco-ness, I still LOVE cheap clothes, and the Gap was listed as like a "B" in the socially responsible book. Not too bad. Apparently, Old Navy does NOT fall in the same category.
After we successfully find some reasonably cheap shorts, we head to the checkout. We're just casually making conversation with the check-out girl and she asks if we want our hanger. We say, "no" and ask her what they do with the hangers if people don't want them. I'm assuming she'll say they reuse them or send them back to the company to be reused. NOPE. They THROW THEM AWAY!!! Not recycle, not donate to goodwill or something, or logically, reuse them. They trash them. Can you IMAGINE?!?!!?! I bet they go through 300 hangers a day! I can't even fathom what Christmas or big sales are like!!
Needless to say, we returned the shorts and went next door to Kohl's, where they reuse their hangers, and told the girl (nicely, I really was super nice- it's not her fault) that we would no longer be shopping at Old Navy because of their throw-away policy with the hangers. She kinda smirked and didn't seem to care at all, so I'm probably going to have to email Old Navy so that they will know that they are losing customers due to their laziness and unethical practices. sigh. And they make such cute stuff.
Anyway, there's my story. And I had to share it because if we all just keep supporting companies that do that crap then we'll never make a difference. And that's what we're here for, the reason we are put on this planet, to make a difference!
