Chapter 4
The Educational Campaign
Once the baseline surveys were administered, the educational materials were ordered, and arrangements were made with the test stores’ management, the educational campaign could begin. Though extensive efforts had been made to research optimal methods of presentation of the educational materials, it will become evident that the actual implementation can be fraught with pitfalls and unexpected developments that can have significant impacts on the campaign’s effectiveness.
The active educational phase ran from November 1, 1993 until January 17, 1994. During this phase all the educational materials developed for the campaign were placed in the stores. Since there was so much information to present, it was decided that the educational materials would be deployed in a staggered fashion, to keep awareness and interest in the program at a higher level. The educational materials for both stores included posters, brochures, and some shelf cards. The posters and signs went up November 1, as did the bags, the diaper offers, and the first brochure. The cotton bags with the project's logo were sold at the checkout counters at both stores as an alternative to disposable grocery bags. The west-side store had an environmental shopping video playing at the checkout area and volunteers distributed brochures at a literature table.
It was expected that once the initial installations were made, there would not be much need for frequent maintenance visits. This was not the case. It was necessary for someone to check the installations frequently to make sure that there were enough brochures, diaper offers, and bags, and to check that the displays were intact and that the posters were still up. Volunteers were solicited for this task, but just one assisted a few times with the east-side store. On average, to maintain the displays, each of the stores was visited every three days for the duration of the campaign.
An important factor, which must have affected the ability of shoppers to receive the educational messages, was the size and layout of the two stores. The east-side store is larger, with higher ceilings and wider aisles than the west side store. But compared to a typical supermarket in the suburbs, both stores are cramped. The stores are small, with narrow aisles, and no extra room near the checkout counters. The daily receipt of boxes of inventory and the perpetual shelf-stocking process further reduced aisle width, and was most certainly a distraction to store customers. The use of the large educational posters was not maximized, what with the shortage of wall space, and the difficulty of hanging posters from ceilings in these stores.
Another factor that affected shoppers’ exposure to the educational treatments was competition for their attention from other advertising and distractions. Holiday promotions and decorations competed directly with this project for space on the walls and ceilings. Competing images and decorations for the Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and New Years holidays were present throughout both stores starting a few weeks after the beginning of the educational phase of the project, and this probably had some impact on shoppers' ability to focus on and remember environmental messages. Special holiday sales competed for attention. Christmas music was also a factor, as is described below in discussion of the video education. Perhaps the most important factor of all influencing the success of the educational campaign was the degree to which the store managers and staff facilitated or interfered with the transmission of the environmental messages.
The first installation of brochures and signs began on the morning of November 1 woth many interruptions, and was completed later that day. The day manager, was initially amenable to the project, but the day of setup (November 1), was hectic. The storefront Environmental Shopping posters were placed back to back on the outside window near the store's entrance, in the deli and meat/fish counter areas, the bakery, and the manager's courtesy counter. But it took hours to get the posters, brochures, the first gerry-rigged bags, and bag signs installed. At one point he provided ideas for placing the signs and stacks of brochures in several parts of the store, including deli and meat/fish counters, which were adopted for the west side store. After a couple of weeks his enthusiasm waned considerably, and he mentioned that the cost of the bags was too high and none was selling. He broke his leg at the store the end of November, so the assistant manager took over for the rest of the project.
The assistant manager was extremely supportive and forthcoming with clever ideas, some of which were used in the west-side store. These included cutting down small cardboard boxes to use as brochure holders, and innovating permanent installations for the display of the cotton bags. He took notes when he was asked to put up posters or replace brochures, and twice requested the head cashier to see to it that all cashiers knew to distribute diaper offers. Despite this, the next week the posters were not put up, the brochure racks were largely empty, and a check of the deli/meat/fish counters showed no brochures left, and the ‘Bring your own bag’ signs were down. The assistant manager did assign a cashier to put brochures into the racks, and a chief cashier to hand out more diaper offers to the cashiers, which he had done once before. Once the snafu with the code number for the bags was cleared up (latter part of December), the assistant manager kept statistics on bag sales, which he provided to the project on January 11.
The west side manager was quite innovative, and by November 1 had taken the initiative to design and put up two arrangements of posters, signs, and bags, on the walls on either side of the escalators/stairs. The store manager was so supportive that he suggested the diaper offers should be taped to each package of diapers on the shelves. The assistant manager was also supportive, helping late at night on December 6 to hoist the TV's and VCR's into place.
Two 'welcome to the project' letters were distributed to store managers and staff describing the project and its purpose (one for the cashiers, instructing them on bag sales and diaper offer distribution, and the other for the managers and the rest of the staff) were distributed at the start of the project. Follow-up questionnaires for the cashiers for both stores were prepared for distribution in the middle of January, after the campaign was finished, to learn to what extent the cashiers actually gave out diaper offers. These orientation and follow-up letters to the Gristede’s managers, staff, and cashiers are located in Appendix M.
For the east side store 2500 of each brochures was allocated; for the west side store, 4500 of each brochure was allocated, in view of the planned tabling and more intense brochure distribution efforts. The brochures were introduced in a staggered fashion to keep awareness and interest in the program at a higher level. Distributing just one brochure during a two-month campaign would become old quickly, so it was decided that one of the three project brochures should be brought out every couple of weeks. Each of the brochures was done in a different color: cream, apple green, and goldenrod, with two size formats, to signal to shoppers that they were different brochures with different information.
At the suggestion of the store managers, the project brochures were placed in magazine racks which happened to be empty at the time the materials were first set out, and in Plexiglas brochure holders affixed to the wall in a couple of cases. One complication arising from the strategy of using magazine racks was noticed early. Magazine vendors paid for the racks and for the right to place their magazines there. Piles of brochures were seen to have disappeared entirely from the racks upon periodic inspection. Rarely were individual stacks of brochures depleted only partially, which might have been the case if shoppers were removing them one at a time. A few times all the brochures were gone when the magazines were freshly stocked, implicating the vendors, so a new strategy was devised: a smaller number of brochures were placed in a larger number of locations -- sometimes partially covering up magazines, particularly if there were no open locations. Keeping enough brochures displayed at all times required constant attention, and the stores had to be visited frequently to make sure that each of the brochures was available at each checkout lane.
Another location for display of brochures was the deli counter in each store, and the meat/fish counter in the east-side store. Initially, brochure holders, fashioned from empty cardboard boxes, were placed on top of the counters so that the brochures could be visible to customers while they were waiting for their orders to be filled. These installations lasted anywhere from a week or two to a month or two, but eventually, all had to be replaced. Since no one from the project saw how these or any of the other educational devices came down, it is left to speculation as to who took them down and why. It is possible that such a display might have impeded the view over the counters in both stores. In the west side store, it is also possible that store personnel in the deli area, who once expressed the desire to throw out the boxes of project brochures being stored there, might have removed the display. It was possible to keep small piles of brochures at a few of these counter positions. A successful location was a rack holding pantyhose next to one of the registers. The vendors apparently did not come to the store on a regular basis since the materials never disappeared from there. Appendix Z shows some photos of the educational campaign setups in both stores.
In both stores management offered space near where the store flyers containing discount coupons were kept. To attract attention to the brochures in the deli counters, the magazine racks, and other brochure locations, 4 x 6 inch “Take One” signs, with the project logo printed on bright pink, orange, and neon yellow paper, were taped (and retaped) wherever brochures were displayed, initially and for the first few weeks of the educational program. However, since the locations of the brochures in the checkout magazine racks migrated regularly, and the “Take One” signs frequently came down (or were taken down by the vendors), it became difficult to continue using these signs.
At first the brochures, signs, posters, and extra bags were stored in the locked managers' courtesy counters. But as these are extremely cramped and busy spaces, measuring 3x8 feet, after a few weeks all the boxes of brochures, diaper offers, bags, and posters were moved to the deli area in the west side store, and to an auxiliary, unlocked area outside the courtesy counter at the east-side store.
In the west-side store in December, as an element in the intensive educational effort, brochures were placed into filled grocery bags waiting near the elevator for home delivery, as another means of getting the word out. During this cold, snowy winter, more customers were taking advantage of the store's free delivery policy. Management was asked if the cashiers could hand brochures out to each customer on a few occasions. This turned out to be a limited effort; there was one complaint about brochures being thrown on the floor, so this practice was quickly halted. It had become apparent by mid December that it would be difficult to give out all the brochures by the scheduled end of the educational period with the mainly passive measures of distribution used in this study.
Environmental Shopper Bags
Giving the customer a clear choice in bags near the checkout counters, in the vicinity of where the bagging operation takes place, was seen as very important. Gristede’s previous failure with marketing heavy canvas bags may have influenced Red Apple's initial insistence to sell these bags at the manager's service counter instead. Selling bags at the manager’s box would have made it impossible to get the same volume of sales possible at the checkout counters, because the managers’ areas are built like impenetrable fortresses, customers would have had to wait in line there, and advertising the bag would have been difficult. The courtesy counters are intended for other purposes, including vendor delivery accounting, customer - store manager interactions, and refunds for bottle deposits, among others. Sending customers there to buy a bag would likely have been fruitless. But the store managers eventually agreed the bags could be displayed at the checkout lines.
The placement of the Environmental Shopper bags was immediately behind and/or above the cash registers. This afforded the bags good visibility and increased the likelihood they would be sold. The store managers suggested using “shelf extenders”, or short metal rods which are able to swivel, and which attach to the shelves. However, the “shelf extenders” were not sturdy and two were required to display each set of bags properly (to have the logo and the size and shape of the bags clearly visible). This early experiment did not work out, since these installations stayed in place for only a matter of days. Also, finding adequate space for such a display near the cashier was difficult in the east side store and nearly impossible in the west side store.
Bag installations
Initially, the cloth bags were gerry-rigged using “shelf-extenders” (long, delicate, steel hooks which clamped onto existing crammed magazine racks as the framework. ). Checking every couple of days on these installations showed that they were not going to be a good long-term solution. After a couple of weeks, the east side store’s night manager devised a solution (a pole extending upwards from each cash register) for a more permanent installation. A hose clamp fixing two long brackets, from which bags were suspended about six feet off the floor (with each bracket going through one handle in the bags), was found to be satisfactory and inexpensive, not only for the east side store, but also for the west side store. The poles extend higher in the east side store, and the installations remained in place for the rest of the campaign. With regard to maintenance, it was difficult to keep bags in stock prior to installation of the brackets. After that time, all the installations were easy to keep stocked.
In the West side store the cash registers did not have a vertical pole from which to attach hose clamps and brackets, but there was a part of the cash registers on a few of the checkout lines that could accommodate the bracket pairs. Once these were set up, maintenance of the bags and the displays was not as difficult, though the bags were affixed immediately behind the cash registers, facing the customers in line, and hanging, to some extent, over the conveyor. A couple of times one display seemed to be bent out of shape (perhaps an impatient cashier or customer?). In early January two of the four bag racks were down (lost without a trace), and no explanation was given. The assistant manager suggested the customers had gotten annoyed -- that the bags got in the way.
For the latter part of the educational campaign store manager recommended that a new arrangement taking less space was needed, and so one using bent coat hangers attached to the magazine racks for display of the bags balled up in their pouches was devised. Most of these remained in place until the end of the campaign.
Initially, since the objective was to sell as many cloth bags as possible, the price was set at $4 (wholesale cost). Within a week of the start of the campaign, the day manager at the east-side store made negative comments about the bags because they were not selling. He told of the experience Gristede's had three years before, when they tried to sell hefty canvas bags for $4, and didn't have success. Some of the cashiers were enthused to some degree about the campaign, but became less so as time went on, perhaps because the bags didn't sell. The cashiers seemed to think the bags would sell if we lowered the price to $2 or $3. It took longer to get feedback regarding bag sales from the west-side store on this issue than the east-side store, but the word eventually came through that the bags were too expensive. Cashiers and store managers agreed that the price should be lowered a dollar or two.
To optimize sales of the cloth bag, another strategy, including a coupon ($1 off) in the advertising flyer for the two stores was discussed with management. Red Apple did not agree to the request to subsidize the bag sales, so it was decided this would be done at the cost of the project. By mid-December, in an attempt to increase sales, the price was reduced to $2.50, in part based on the feedback from store managers and cashiers. At this time a replacement sign using brightly-colored neon pink or orange paper was deployed. The timing of this price change was originally planned to take place towards the end of November, but it took Red Apple two weeks to change the cash register code for the bags. Therefore the signs advertising the reduced price could not go up until December 14. Once this change took place restocking was necessary more than once a week in both stores.
In each store the bag displays employed two types of signs to advertise the bags at the checkout counters. The 8” x 11” NYCDOS’ plastic “Bring Your Own Bag” signs were placed and maintained on the side of every cash register in both stores, and in the west side store, these signs were also part of the displays in the lobby and escalator areas. Additional signs, in green with a cardboard backing, and developed especially for the project, included a picture of a hand holding the environmental shopping bag, in its pouch, with the slogan, “It's convenient, it's portable, it's the environmental shopping bag, and it's only $4”. The latter sign was used separately, and in some cases, stapled to the bottom of the DOS sign for each display. Though the signs themselves were sturdy, most of those attached to cash registers or in that vicinity, did not stay in place because of the awkward location. The plastic DOS signs were hardest to keep up. This was one of the educational materials that had to be mounted and remounted on a frequent basis, in slightly different locations, trial and error, to determine where they would not block the cashiers’ access to the credit card machines at the rear of their registers, or be knocked down by customers. They required constant monitoring. By end of December, most had come down. The pink, 4x4 inch $2.50 signs stayed up in both stores, perhaps because they were lighter and smaller.
Some promotional materials were sent by Compak in December to advertise their environmental shopper bags. These were taped up in a few locations in the east side store, but, being on brown paper they were just not flashy enough to attract attention; and some just fell down. On the other hand, one shopper from one store called Compak and complimented the bags.
Vendors of everything from pantyhose and disposable shavers to magazines pay the stores to have their racks full of their merchandise, all crammed in together right at the checkout counter. DOS' plastic sign, admonishing shoppers to bring their own bag to prevent waste, was initially taped to a vertical metal edge of the merchandise display or to the cash register itself. The green signs developed for the project were sometimes stapled to the bottom of the DOS sign, or just taped to each register. It took a few weeks of trial and error to find places to tape these where they would not be in the way of cashiers or customers or merchandise sold near the register. Often the best place was up out of the way on an advertisement provided (paid for) by Marlboro, or away from places of activity, for example, at the back of each cash register) proved somewhat more durable. In early December, the marketer of the Compak bags, recommended that a few bags be balled up in their pouches and taped to the walls and advertisements next to the price sign. This was soon done, and augmented in late December. In addition to the cashier area displays, bag signs were also put in one or two other locations in the store (e.g., taped to walls).
Posters
Two full-size, 3-color, storefront Gristede's posters “The Earth is in your Shopping Cart” were mounted the first day, back-to-back on the window immediately to the left of the entrance in the east side store, and along the escalator in the west side store. The smaller, 3-color Gristede’s signs were put up near the shopping carts, in the deli and meat/fish counter areas, the bakery, and the manager's courtesy counter.
Unfortunately, the use of the large educational posters was not maximized, because of the shortage of wall space, the large size and weight of the posters, and the difficulty of hanging posters from ceilings in cramped stores where other signs were already hanging from the ceilings. A few of the Minnesota SMART posters, which used the technique of extrinsic motivation by showing the economic benefit of buying concentrates vs. non-concentrates, for example, were placed in each store at the outset. Unfortunately, most did not stay in place for long (one to two weeks). In the east side store, since there was an almost total lack of wall space, the Minnesota posters were taped, using cardboard from used cartons as backing, to the permanent “aisle number signs” which were hanging from the ceiling. This arrangement lasted a couple of days. The posters were never put back up, even though the managers had agreed to do it. Four of the EPA posters, featuring kids playing with earth balls, were taped to the walls in the produce section, a pillar in one aisle, at the manager's box, and at the cart storage area. Most of these stayed up; only the manager's came down after a number of weeks, due to heavy traffic.
In the west side store, a few of the Minnesota posters, interspersed with the Environmental Shopper bags and DOS’ bag signs, were put up along the escalators. These also came down a week before Hanukkah, December 8, replaced with cardboard toy soldiers. In the first few weeks (until a week before Hanukkah) the cubbyhole on the left side of the stairs heading downstairs was occupied by the manager's arrangement of the project’s materials (including bags, bag signs, brown Minnesota signs). The store manager explained early on that the menorah setup always took precedence for that spot at Hanukkah, so that installation was also short-lived. At the same time the larger environmental shopping displays were removed at the west side, the manager designed and put up a smaller arrangement on a less noticeable spot high up on the wall, on the right near the exit for the remainder of the campaign.
The week before Thanksgiving, the one facing out came down so that the store's Thanksgiving day hours could be advertised. It never went back up. The one facing inside came down a week later. All of the smaller project posters remained up throughout the campaign. At the west-side store the manager indicated that he would put up more posters after Christmas, then after New Years (replacing the Coke Christmas display down the escalator wall). He didn't want to have any other signage up, except the ones above the exit on the ground floor, until then. But by January 2 the replacement posters were still not up.
It was a challenge to get more posters up on the walls. Aside from the few used in the storefront displays, it was difficult to contemplate asking either of the store managers to put more of these up, with all the other demands this project was placing on them. An additional problem was there was almost no wall space in the stores, and the suspension from the ceiling was not a sturdy solution.
At the east-side store the manager affixed these small shelf cards to the metal brackets holding spools of produce bags above the produce. Since this wasn't too visible to shoppers, they were subsequently taped flat to the metal produce cases immediately adjacent to the bag spools. These largely stayed in place.
At the west-side store the shelf cards were taped to the four metal vertical floor stands from which customers would pull off plastic produce bags. These stayed in place, though the metal stands were sometimes rotated so that the cards faced away from the aisle. (These were rotated back whenever out of line.) The cards largely stayed in place and did not need replacement, though they were well worn by the end of the campaign.
Diaper Service Brochures
The diaper offers were to be handed out by the cashiers to those who bought disposable diapers. For the first few weeks of the educational campaign cardboard holders for diaper offers and “take one” signs were affixed to shelves stocked with disposable diapers, and were stocked with offers periodically, but they were gone within a few weeks without explanation. At the beginning of the active educational phase the store managers were given a supply of background letters about the project for distribution to each of the cashiers and other store personnel. The letters were designed to introduce them to the research program, indicate Red Apple headquarters' support, and express our desire that they hand out diaper offers to all who buy disposable diapers, and to sell the reusable bags. The diaper offers were distributed to all the cashiers at both locations during store maintenance visits every few days. In the east side store the assistant manager asked a chief cashier to make sure that each cashier passed out the diaper offers, and supplies of these offers were gone before the end of November. The DOS volunteers made a special effort to give them out when they were tabling. GHCC sent two boxes of diaper offers to each store by November 1 and sent another two boxes for distribution starting December 4.
The east side cashiers made frequent comments that the bags were too expensive. In certain lines, they frequently displaced the DOS bag sign because it interfered with using the charge-it machine, kept behind the register.
The west side store managers were asked if cashiers could hand out the overall brochures to every customer on about four occasions starting the last two weeks of November. This continued once or twice a week until the first week of December when there was a complaint that brochures were found on the floor. Cashiers made frequent comments that the bags were too expensive. One said a customer thought the bags should be free. Cashiers frequently displaced DOS bag signs and price signs because they interfered with customers’ seeing final sales figure on cash register.
During December and January the environmental shopping videos played continuously on two TVs above the checkout area at the west-side store. Two different videos were shown during the period, each for two to three weeks. Since it was crucial to design a video display system that could run unattended, a VCR with auto-repeat feature was selected. Using such a VCR, the tape automatically rewinds at the end, and restarts itself, resulting in a continuously playing loop. The first two videos were copied in alternating fashion onto a two-hour VHS tape, and the third was copied sequentially onto another two-hour tape. Since continuous operation of VHS tapes for such long periods (weeks) can lead to tape stretching and degraded video or audio quality, a number of copies of the two-hour tapes were made. Again, to maintain a greater shopper interest, the Florida tape was used from December 6 until December 29, and the Ulster County tape was used from then until the video display was removed on January 17.
The installation of the video equipment also presented unexpected challenges. After an initial 6-day delay (the store chain's only installation person was involved with a number of store openings), the VCR and two 19"/20" television monitors were installed on December 6. The store manager agreed that they could be mounted near the ceiling on a large, square concrete pillar situated between the two center checkout lines. Two wall-mount brackets, which permitted swivel and tilt for the TV's, and a VCR bracket suspended from one of these, were used. About five minutes after the TV's and VCR were placed on the brackets, a store employee noted that one was starting to come off the wall. This was a lucky find, since, in addition to possible injury to cashiers and customers, and damage to equipment, a mishap with this installation would probably have ended the educational campaign instantly. It was another week before that auxiliary TV installation was restored.
The operation of the video setup was smooth insofar as the functioning of the equipment was concerned. However, it was a constant challenge to find a volume level that would attract viewers from the checkout line, but not drive the cashiers and managers to distraction. During the first month, almost every time an unannounced visit was made to the store, the volume on the TV's had been turned down to a barely audible level. Both store managers were asked to keep it at a reasonably high level -- enough to attract customers' attention. Although the sound level was restored after each subsequent visit, subsequent to January 2 the sound level was found to be entirely off at the time of each visit. On one occasion the auto repeat lever had been turned off, and the video was not playing. The managers usually disavowed knowledge of the tampering, though there was evidence they had received complaints that the volume was too loud. It turned into a running battle; it was never clear who turned off the volume. On January 9 the store manager was shown that the video volume was essentially off, and he apologized and let it be turned on low. On January 11, not only was the audio off, the picture was off too. Someone had switched the auto repeat lever to off and had turned off the switch that prevented tampering. Both were switched back on, the video was set to play, and the volume was raised to a low level. Photos of the setup are located in Appendix P.
A new problem was introduced in mid-December. The store's own audio system was playing music and interfering with the ability of shoppers to hear the project’s video. A request to have the store's audio system shut off was only partly successful. Several days later the store manager asked if the store could use the equipment to advertise the video movies it was marketing, but just on Christmas Eve. On the December 26 visit, “Free Willy” was playing, and it appeared that customers were paying more attention to it than they had been to the project's video. Two store personnel corroborated this conclusion.
One night a few days after the initial video installation, a customer was heard to ask the cashier whether she knew her 5 “R”'s and then rattled off three of them. Immediately thereafter, the person behind in the line then rattled off a fourth. A couple of days later, a cashier mentioned that a customer purchased a bag after mentioning the video. The first day the new video from Ulster County was played (December 29), one person in line commented he liked the program.
Tabling
The original intent had been to have a permanent table installation in the upper lobby of the west-side store. In early discussions with the store manager, it turned out that this would have been unwise because the homeless and other vagrants might have disturbed, destroyed, or stolen the table and any displays attached to it. Similar incidents had happened, and everything in the lobby (e.g., candy dispensers, children's' rides) was chained down. The table size was limited to something the size of a card table, which could be stored downstairs in the store. In fact, the store's own metal table with wheels, used for moving dairy and other products through the store, was used for the tabling effort. The store manager agreed in the third week of November to permit table setup in the deli/produce area, but eventually the lobby was found to be a better location (all shoppers pass through the lobby twice each visit to the store).
As a prelude to the full tabling effort, brochures were handed out by volunteers inside the front door beginning in November (13th, 26th, 28th). Since this store’s campaign was designed to give shoppers the intensive educational treatment, most of the volunteer time was committed to this store. (Appendix V includes the advertisements for volunteers.) A high school student handed out brochures on one of these occasions, towards the end of November. One volunteer from the Manhattan Citizens’ Solid Waste Advisory Board also passed out brochures (December 10th). An ad to a volunteer organization, called Recycle Boost, attracted the chief attorney from NYS Department of Environmental Conservation's regional office, who lived nearby. He handed out brochures on two occasions in mid-November.
The full tabling effort took place for a couple of hours on each of five occasions, with the first occurring December 1. Two new tabling volunteers recruited by EAC began December 1. NYCDOS provided one of their waste prevention staff and an intern on two occasions in mid-December (December 14th, 15th).
Literature contributed by other jurisdictions was on hand for the table stationed in the store lobby. (Most of the following materials were available for distribution; a few were on hand as display copies.)
· EPA's environmental shopping booklets for children and their waste prevention booklet.
· Broward County, Florida Cooperative Extension Service's table display
· Broward County Cooperative Extension Service 'Enviroshopping Makes a World of Difference' pamphlet
· Broward County Cooperative Extension Service Enviroshopping and Precycling pamphlet
· NYCDOS (Waste Prevention booklet, recycling program flyer, junk mail reduction post card, and Household Hazardous Waste brochure)
· San Francisco Environmental Shopping Guide
· Pennsylvania Resources Council (PRC) Shop for the Environment pamphlet
· PRC Become an Environmental Shopper: Vote for the Environment booklet
· PRC Become an Environmental Shopper: It's Fun (coloring book)
· Hillsborough County, Florida Cooperative Extension 'You can become an Enviroshopper' brochure
· Dade County, Florida 'Earth buying: A guide to smart, ecologically safe buying' brochure
· National Consumers League 'The Earth's Future is in your Grocery Cart' booklet
· Onondaga County, New York, Resource Recovery Agency's 'Hey Lighten Up! Operation Separation's Guide to Waste Reduction' brochure
The project's own brochures and cotton bags rounded out the selection at the table.
Implementation of the environmental shopping campaign in New York City supermarkets was a challenge. The cramped layout of the test stores, the competition for space throughout the store, and the modifications to the materials setups by store personnel and vendors made deployment and maintenance of the educational materials in an optimal configuration difficult. The time of year that the campaign took place also turned out not to be optimal. On the other side of the coin, the video was heard by at least some of the customers, and as the next chapter illustrates, several thousand brochures were distributed, several hundred cloth bags were sold, and the bag signs were noticed by many shoppers.
The differences between the deployment of the educational campaign in the two stores had been intended to be considerable, since the west side store would have videos at the checkout counter, more brochures available, and volunteers tabling. But the videos became almost useless after a short period, and volunteers distributed literature on a relatively few number of occasions, perhaps not enough to be significantly different from the east side store. The east side store was more spacious, possibly making the campaign materials easier to pick out of all the competing messages there. So, as a result of situations encountered during the campaign, the differences in the educational treatments from one store to the other were not likely to be as great as had been planned.
In the next chapter the results of the baseline and follow-up surveys will be presented, and various statistical techniques will be used in order to elucidate findings. In Chapter 6 these will be compared with the findings of research previously conducted in this area. In the final chapter the conclusions and recommendations for future use of environmental shopping campaigns will be based on the findings and their significance.
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7