Retail Waste

I work a retail job, are you surprised? I spend about ten hours of my week working at Ann Taylor. It's a women's clothing store. Although the back of the bags say "please recycle" there is a lot of waste going on.

I noticed this on a weekend recently when my manager and I were throwing away all of the holiday marketing material.

"We waste a lot, there is so much we cannot reuse because corporate is always sending us new stuff," manager Amy Kish said out by the trash compacter.

There it all was sitting in front of me and the only reason we were throwing it away was because it the bags were gold for the holiday season, not the normal gray for the rest of the year.

In the back room I began to notice all of the unused fixtures and mounds of marketing material stuffed behind every crevice.

Now, I understand the need to perpetuate a brand, but does it really have to come at such a wasteful cost? I take bags from my work and reuse them as lunch totes or even wrap gifts in them. Why can't the company take the same measures to reduce their own waste?

It runs along the practice what you preach lesson. It's like don't tell me to recycle and then waste so many resources. The website says that they are concerned about the environment I think I need to see it in a more direct way. The company does do great charity work and does list the environment as one of their top concerns, but I'm having trouble figuring out how they are reducing the impact on a smaller scale, store to store.

I would imagine that not many shopping centers have much of a choice about how they dispose of their goods. I have worked two retail jobs in two different malls and it's not the case. There is one giant trash compacter and only god knows where it ends up after you fling all that cardboard into the compacter.

I think if companies could put some of their power into trying to reduce their marketing material it could make a big difference, especially in chain store retailing. Ann Taylor takes up a very small chunk of the retail spectrum, who knows how Target or Wal-mart disposes of their trash?

I just think that instead of just planting a seed in the customer of a store to reduce their impact retail stores should start doing it too. I mean I really don't think we need a new window hanging every couple of months. This season Ann Taylor is rocking transparent red sheeting.

If you are going to tell me to recycle my bag, you should recycle some of your marketing. I think everyone would be happier in the end.