Strollerderby : commerce

Making Green by Being Green

Amy Kuras — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:03:00 GMT

One of the obstacles I have encountered to raising my kids fully green is that it’s hard to find the stuff you need. The big baby chains do carry BPA-free bottles, but the closest one is a good 20-minute drive away. Cloth diapers? Forget it – I got the ones I have been using from someone selling them on Craigslist. Otherwise, my option would have been to order a few hundred dollars’ worth of stuff online and hope it works out.

My current brilliant business idea is to start a “green living” store that sells everything you need – Earth-friendly cleaning, garden, and personal care products as well as supplies for making your own, a good selection of cloth diapers so you can see and practice with what you’re buying, humanely raised meats, and inexpensive, US-made organic and recycled-fiber clothes for the whole family (a girl can dream, right?).

According to this article from the Calgary Herald, eco-minded moms and dads there already have many such options, everything from organic baby food lines to consultants who will offer up a tailored plan for greening up your home.

I love this idea. I know there are no shortage of green products out there, but for someone like me who needs to touch and fiddle with something before I buy it, buying online isn’t an option and neither is wasting time and gas driving all over looking for someplace that carries the items I want. Anybody out there in the Rust Belt want to start such a business? I’ll let you have my idea for a lifetime discount….

Save the Receipt -- Return Policies are Changing

Madeline Holler — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:25:00 GMT

People are just jackasses … am I right or am I right? I mean, this article in the L.A. Tiimes illustrating why stores are cracking down on merchandise returns had me panicking for a second. I recently returned a set of towels that shredded after one washing – and after I had tossed the tags, receipts, etc. I figured the new policy they would be talking about would have precluded me from getting my money back. Meanwhile, shitty towels are such a rip-off!

But nevermind, I'm off the hook on this one.

Apparently the returns policies that the major chains are revising are ones that let you bring back just about anything, anytime, no receipts, no problem. Stores are promising to crack down on “serial returners” and folks who want free electronics upgrades or larger sized kids clothes in place of the gently used ones because they’re losing tons of money.

One San Diego attorney admitted he took advantage of generous return policy at Costco, buying high definition TVs and returning them as the prices got lower and the technology got better. Once, he waited in line behind a guy returning a grill – complete with burn marks from frequent use.

Or this:

At Shoe Pavilion … One women came back with a $9.99 pair of shoes three months after she bought them, demanding a refund because, well, they looked as if someone had been walking in them for three months, he said. "Basically, she wanted us to give her a free pair of shoes."
I mean, when you go out and buy the first version of an iPod – or iPhone or latest gadget – you have to know it’ll be one bettered in about five minutes or during the next quarter, whichever comes first. Nobody owes you an upgrade!

And yeesssss, for all my sanctimony here, I’ve pushed it on returns a time or two (yeeeeeears ago, in my youth, I swear), taking back a coat that I said wasn’t warm enough (wore it and didn’t want it anymore) and shoes that pinched when I tried them on and – surprise! – continued to pinch when I wore them home and the next day.
So yeah, it’s probably good that they’re changing the policy. What will those people who buy and use rugs from Ikea -- and then return them -- ever do?

How about you? Do you take advantage of store return policies? Do you do it in front of the kids?

Is Wal-Mart Too Evil for Parents?

JasonAvant — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 10:34:00 GMT

Those who travel through the parenting territories of the Blog-O-Sphere know that there are a number of hot button topics, which when brought up tend to lead to discussions bearing an uncanny, almost eerie resemblance to the one depicted here. Absolutism, in case you haven't noticed, is the bread-and-butter of many a parenting blog, and Evil can be found everywhere, from parents who (gasp!) give their babies formula to a certain cadre of happy-go-lucky Australian entertainers who extoll the virtues of fruit salad and New York firefighters.

One big (big, as in "makes more money than most of the nations on Earth" big) target of derision is Wal-Mart. Full disclosure: I rarely shop there, for a number of reasons (chief among these - the greeters, with their empty smiles and lifeless eyes...black eyes, like a doll's eyes...when they come at you, they don't seem to be living...), and I don't really have an opinion of Wal-Mart (other than "the greeters, they ain't right") either way. But a lot of parents choose not to shop there, for reasons that are decent ones: the company has a reputation as a low-paying, small business-crushing behemoth that's made its fortune on the backs of sweatshop slaves. Thus we have the argument over Wal-Mart - whether or not it's morally right to shop there. So is Wal-Mart really evil?

Perhaps not, suggests Jeremy Siegel in this article. Siegel brings up some good points: Wal-Mart's average salary hovers at the $10 an hour level, higher than the Federal minimum wage and that of most states; the company is moving to offer a variety of health care plans; and (this is his weakest argument, and in no way excuses the often horrific conditions found in many overseas factories, but he does have a point) the inclusion of overseas manufacturing provides for jobs and growth in developing nations. But perhaps the most compelling reason why Wal-Mart isn't all bad: the fact that it enables a sizable percentage of people to buy products - stuff as basic as groceries to "luxury items" like PC's - that they might not otherwise be able to afford.

I'm pretty happy that I can pop on down to Whole Foods or Bristol Farms for a six pack of Saison Dupont and a pound of lox flown in from New York the night before. I'm also pretty goddamn lucky that, financially speaking, Wal-Mart's just one of my many shopping options. So does this mean that Sam Walton should be put on the fast track to beatification? Probably not - the monster he spawned still has a way to go before it becomes a model company - but it's interesting to consider the other side of the Wal-Mart argument. It is an argument. Yes it is. It is. Is!