Blog de Puree

As the summer ages into the late July months, the bounty of our farm share grows with each passing week. So much so, that we’ve started making tentative plans for potluck barbecues with friends so that we can go through all the vegetables that we’ve been receiving.

Man, am I glad we only bought a half share.

This week, we need to eat our way through beets, Swiss Chard, two types of beans,
scallions, a lettuce, two cucumbers, two zucchini, a ridunkulously large yellow squash
and a heretofore unknown item for us: a few garlic scapes*.

* From wikipedia.org: Immature scapes are tender and edible. They are also known as ‘garlic spears’, ’stems’, or ‘tops’. Scapes generally have a milder taste than cloves. They are often used in stir frying or prepared like asparagus.

Have you ever been to the store to purchase a couple items only to walk out with a receipt that’s actually longer than the itemized one you get at the super market? Sadly, it’s a trend that’s becoming all too common these day.

Ironically, these are often given to me by stores that purport to be green and environmental, or from places that “pledge” to reduce the cost to customers by reducing corporate waste.

These receipts also have advertisements or appeals to participate in surveys that lure you in with promises of being a grand prize winner in some lame contest or getting a percentage off your next purchase—of at least $1,000. Honestly, how often am I going to drop that kind of dough at Staples and what kind of schmuck would do so just to be entered in a drawing to win a shopping spree?

Here’s a list of stores that give me obnoxiously long receipts and what they purport to do in the name of environmentalism:

• Staples. The receipt is long, but the store is committed to a seven percent reduction in U.S. carbon emissions by 2010, starting in 2001 by partnering with the EPA. Seven percent in nine years. Oooooh, you guys are really gunning aggressively for change, aren’t you?
• In 2003, Lowe’s installed a solar energy array on the roof of one of the company’s stores in Los Angeles. Michael Chenard, director of environmental affairs for Lowe’s, said, “Environmental stewardship is at the core of Lowe’s operation…” That’s great. Let’s start with not wasting what we already have, such as trees to make paper for your crazy-long receipts.
• In 2007, Home Depot started selling, promoting and labeling products that are environmentally friendly. But they’re still going to bury you with enough receipt to insulate your house with
• Target has an environmental policy that focuses on waste reduction and energy efficiency. And while they recycle tons of plastic and metal from hangars, it’s not doing anything to save trees or keep my wallet from looking like an overstuffed piñata.
• BJ’s Wholesale Club’s corporate community relations page is all about clean efficient energy. And awareness education. The problem with BJ’s is that you can’t get out of the store quickly because some poor slob has to make sure that you’re super-long receipt coincides with what’s in your cart. Do they not trust their cashiers?
• Ecoshopper.net blogged that Banana Republic’s parent company Gap is looking into using organically grown cotton for its clothing products. This was in 2007. Wow, you guys are truly environmental front runners. Didn’t they have organic cotton decades ago??
• And J. Crew? I couldn’t finding anything even remotely positive about them when it comes to the environment. PETA is bearing down on them for using real fur instead of synthetic fibers and Coop America reports that the company silently supports sweatshop labor. It looks like long receipts are the least of their worries.

The irony here is that I happily admit to shopping at these stores. Sadly, it’s damn near impossible to buy what you need in America today without going to a retailer that has a perfect environmental record from start to finish. But here’s some unsolicited advice to these store executives from an annoyed consumer.

Newsflash to you corporate marketing gurus: You don’t need to advertise to me. I’m already in your store. And I’m there for either a sale or because you have what I’m looking for, not to drop stupid money so I can enter your sweepstakes contest that makes your receipts three times as long. And I’m certainly not going to your website to register all my personal information so you can have marketing information in the name of a “contest.” And if thousands of Americans are doing that, that’s kind of sad.

And here’s a financial question that I hope will make sense to the corporate executives: Think about how much money you’ll save on paper by shortening your receipts?