Friday, May 1, 2009

Marriott Is Ummm...Saving the Earth

TW: This goes in the category of gratuitous aggravation. I read that Marriott is getting rid of those newspapers outside your door (unless you request it). There really is nothing wrong with the concept, I am sure many folks either ignore them completely or will barely miss them (thereby putting another nail in the coffin of the newspaper industry).

But the smarmy press release from Marriott touts the move as a green initiative- "Based on preliminary data, the company projects that newspaper distribution will be reduced by about 50,000 papers daily or 18 million papers annually, thereby avoiding 10,350 tons of carbon emissions (calculated by Conservation International assuming an estimate of .5 pounds per paper)." Right...am sure it has nothing to do with cutting costs amidst the Great Contraction.

Another one is our local Jewel grocery store, which is on TV congratulating themselves for "slashing prices" by 20% to help hard hit consumers. Of course, when I went to the store the other day I noticed much of their usual feature pricing had been removed. The result, many items net price is now HIGHER than before their "slashing price" initiative. Nice.

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