Toys R Us CEO: Online Shopping is "Very Ungreen"

weirdee

Swamp Weather Balloon Gas
Apr 11, 2011
2,634
0
0
Andy Chalk said:
Most consumers aren't driving big, diesel-sucking UPS trucks. Individual product deliveries eat up a lot more fuel, spew a lot more carbon, etc., than picking up all your shit in one or two trips to the mall. Carbon footprint doubles or triples if the UPS guy has to make two or three trips to deliver your shit. You're probably driving past the mall anyway, so why not nip it and pick up your shit rather than having a delivery company make extra, unnecessary trips?

I'm not saying he's right, but I don't think he's quite so obviously wrong either.
Welllllllll

take into account that those diesel spewing trucks are already a factor even before the consumer reaches the store (because they have to get the product to the store), and that shipping now uses a complex logistics network to reduce inefficency in freight usage as long as you've selected a large enough timeframe (your overnight or one day shipping does more damage), i think i could trust that to be better at judging the cost as opposed to going to a store and hoping that everybody who goes to the store is individually efficient enough to balance the cost out

if you operate under the assumption that the truck coming to your house for the delivery is in the area just for you, you've either paid more for the service, or aren't considering that the truck also carries shipments for other customers, on a planned route that goes as far as to avoid making left turns so that the trucks aren't idling

free shipping programs operate under a larger timeframe and encourages you to stick to larger shipments as opposed to separate things so i think that goes a long way towards making things better
 

Frostbyte666

New member
Nov 27, 2010
399
0
0
Well neither Toys'R'Us or Amazon could be unbiased in their opinions here and they will try to plug that their business is more green but personally I'd have to take amazons side because I'm stuck on a little island just off the coast of France. So most major retailers aren't here and amazon is SO MUCH cheaper than local stores, also the postman delivers by bicycle for most stuff, though large packages get the van.
 
Sep 14, 2009
9,073
0
0
he might possibly have an argument...

HOWEVER

99.99% of the time, buying online is much much cheaper for me, not to mention i have damn near free shipping on everything, why in the fuck would i spend my gas money to go stand in an annoying ass line for something that MIGHT not be at the store dealing with annoying ass other customers wasting so much time, when i can do a few simple clicks online and be done?
 

Formica Archonis

Anonymous Source
Nov 13, 2009
2,312
0
0
Andy Chalk said:
But there's a downside, according to Toys R Us Chief Executive Jerry Storch, and that downside is that every time you click your mouse, a baby seal dies.
I would click more if that were true. Gods, do I hate seals.

Andy Chalk said:
"People are going to start realizing, wait, I'm already ... taking my children to school," he said. "The store is right there. I can just pick it up."
The Toys R Us is next to a school? Put a wet bar in the AA meeting, why don't you.

But seriously, who has a store that convenient? Commercial zones big enough for a big box store aren't usually sandwiched right in the middle of a residential area, and when they are they tend to be supermarkets rather than specialty outlets. Or are some city planners a little more crack-headed than mine?
 

faefrost

New member
Jun 2, 2010
1,280
0
0
Thi sis the dude that intentionally marks all of his stores products 10-20% above MSRP. Online merchants aren't cheaper. They just price the product at the actual fair market price as evaluated by the producer. The "Toy's R Us Tax" is not because the stores are "greener" They are because the stores are operated by poor excuses for businessmen and human beings. This attempt to scam the consumers with "OMG! Amazon polutes more than we do!" is just another example. It's a lie. But enough morons will believe it to drive an extra .005% sales to his stores on Friday and thereby guarantee him his fat bonus. It's simple self serving greed. Nothing even worth our time debating.
 

Gormech

New member
May 10, 2012
259
0
0
The carbon footprint reasoning is invalid. The distance can be traveled by your car along with 100 others all going to the store to pick up the toys, or having the delivery trucks drop it off while they also carry around a few other people's packages. It makes sense that the CEO of a commonly-known walk-in store to make this statement however as a lot of their items only tend to be noticed by the kids themselves as their parents walk them through the establishment. Kids begging for toys = sales. Parents guessing on something online while comparing with competitors, not so much.
 

BeerTent

Resident Furry Pimp
May 8, 2011
1,167
0
0
Fuck, Gormech, just ninja that whole paragraph. It's okay.

Prettymuch, dragging your kid through a store is a much better idea from their prospective, as the kid's going to point out and beg for more shit. And considering the parents inability, they're likely to cave and overspend. (Like grocery shopping while hungry.)

On top of that, it's easy to talk about the dangers of environmental impact, as, well... Environmentalists aren't exactly well known for utilizing scientific methods to prove themselves right. Parrots, really, which will repeat articles like this one.
 

WhiteTigerShiro

New member
Sep 26, 2008
2,366
0
0
Andy Chalk said:
Most consumers aren't driving big, diesel-sucking UPS trucks. Individual product deliveries eat up a lot more fuel, spew a lot more carbon, etc., than picking up all your shit in one or two trips to the mall. Carbon footprint doubles or triples if the UPS guy has to make two or three trips to deliver your shit. You're probably driving past the mall anyway, so why not nip it and pick up your shit rather than having a delivery company make extra, unnecessary trips?

I'm not saying he's right, but I don't think he's quite so obviously wrong either.
He isn't nearly as right as he likes to think he is. There are variables in both cases that make it 6 of one, half a dozen of the other. If his point was that online ordering "isn't as green as you'd expect", then fair enough, but he's trying to take things further than that. Him saying that online ordering "isn't green" is really no different than when Obama goes on about how everything is the Republican's fault. If online ordering wasn't there, he'd probably be telling us that buying from general stores like WalMart or Target is somehow "less green" than buying from a specialty store like Toys'R'Us.

In reality all he's saying is "I wish people would buy from my store instead of the other guy's" using a catchy excuse from the list of current buzz terms.
 

Daverson

New member
Nov 17, 2009
1,164
0
0
Well, so long as it's not very plus ungreen, I'm ok with it. Sidenote, when did we start using newspeak? I was expecting to be told or something. I'm... I'm not angry. It's just, I'd like to know. That's all.