Let me start by saying, "I'm a Toys"R"Us kid," Yep, me. I grew up loving that store. I even worked at my local Toys"R"Us store in high school, carefully tying swing sets and turtle sand boxes onto people's cars for the ride home. Now that I have kids, Geoffrey the Giraffe calls each girl on their birthday as part of the kids club and we take them to the store so they can get a crown and have their names announced on the loud speaker. I love that big, goofy giraffe. But I need to confess, I think the head of the company may have taken one too many door busters to the head.
I was surprised to read this week when Jerry Storch spoke with the Financial Times , criticizing online shopping as being very "ungreen" because of the huge carbon footprint associated with shipping goods to people's homes who don't come to the store anymore.
It comes just days before "Cyber Monday," which has become one of the biggest online sales days of the year. I was surprised because perhaps more than any other company, Toys"R"Us blasts me with email after email telling me about their deals and how to get them delivered. The email this morning (I say this morning because I'll get several Toys"R"Us emails before the day is done) had the subject header: "WOW! Super Bonus Deals Just Added! Thursday 8PM-Midnight Only!" Scroll down to the bottom of the email and it said, "Free shipping to your home!" Click the link and it said "Now shipping to over 60 international destinations". Yes, Geoffrey has gone international in a big way. And guess what. Unless he is using wind powered, pollution-free hovercrafts to deliver all that stuff, HE is part of what is making that big carbon footprint.
And even though I can unsubscribe to the Geoffrey emails, I like getting some of them to keep me updated on items. Although if there was a carbon footprint for spamming people's inboxes then the giraffe would be locked up for war crimes. Take a look:
8:04 AM (Thurs)
2:18 AM (Thurs)
9:49 PM (Wed)
8:29 PM (Wed)
3:14 PM (Tues)
1:42 PM (Tues)
And these are just the emails I didn't delete yet so there are more. Trust me.
I agree. We all need to think about what goes into shipping products around the world. I want to teach my kids about caring for the planet and the people on it. I just question the messenger when the messenger is a company which boasts one BILLION dollars in online sales in the past year alone. So in this case, how about Geoffrey puts a sock in it, and just sticks to the business of selling toys?
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