Someone posted this disturbing article to Facebook. I won't go into all of the details, since it's too long and the author goes into far better detail than I can here, but it's about brands that used to be small, niche brands for sustainable and ethical companies and how they're being swallowed by corporate giants (like Coca-Cola and Hershey's). You think Burt's Bees is small and ethical? They're owned by Clorox.
Once again I'm reminded that if I'm seeing it in a big store like Safeway or Fred Meyer's, it's almost certainly not a small brand. It's not profitable enough for the big stores to deal with small brands. It's yet another reason for me to "shop lower on the money chain" and choose local stores over national ones.
Ugh is right! Oh well, maybe we can find something better or DIOurselves. Solidarity!
ReplyDeleteJust because the company was bought by Clorox doesn't mean that they're nasty and non-green...Clorox just owns controlling shares in the company. For a lot of small companies, acquisition by a larger one usually means more access to resources for things like marketing and product research...it's not always a bad business (or environmental) decision.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of formerly small "green" companies that are owned by large evil, environment-destroying conglomerates are trapped by an unfortunate and often untrue stigma that they have been sucked up by The Man and are now just a cog in the machine. BB still makes a quality product, and I'd bet they still adhere to their original green standards.
This section of their website has more info: http://www.burtsbees.com/u/root-company-faqs-burt-s-bees.html
(Also, in case you were wondering...no, I do not work for BB or Clorox.)
It's not *Clorox* that I'm necessarily against, although they do have a long history of environmentally degrading products. It's more the fact that I don't like the massing of corporations into giant entities. There's no oversight because it's hard for an outsider to truly penetrate their cogs and know what goes on in them. Many companies will give lip service to going green and being sustainable. But a product which is mass produced almost can't be sustainable by definition. (I'm leaving room here for the idea that an item like that could be sustainable, but I've never seen one.)
ReplyDeleteAlso, in the last few years corporations have been given almost unlimited political power in the form of money and lobbying, and that I absolutely do not agree with. The policies that have been formed are bad for small businesses. Small businesses are the ones which employ most Americans, so what hurts small businesses hurts the economy and hurts the people in a community. I'd rather support the small businesses in my community. Denali Dreams is a local-ish company that makes a lot of things like lip balm and hand lotion so I'd rather give my money to them than Clorox.