Easy Going Green

Eco-Retail Furniture OSS Shopping...?

Shopping for Eco-RTA furniture at the OSS channel has turned out to be frustrating, to say the least, but  surprisingly so has shopping for a simple eco-friendly pen, pencil and highlighter! What is the deal with the office superstores - are they giving up to Wal-Mart without a fight? I did find two bright "green" spots out there, but not without a lot of digging and without any useful help from the sales floor. Although I would like to say that the salespeople at Staples and Office Depot fell over themselves trying to find anything they could that was eco-friendly for me, even after their managers laughed at them for even thinking that the store would carry such things. Office Max, cut back on useless overhead, they just stood around chatting with each other and didn't even bother to greet me or anyone else in the furniture department. I had to help some guy figure out that the hutch was not really attached on a Z-Line desk or he was ready to walk out and find another product. I think I deserve a commission to cover my gas.

Anyway, remember the on-line/catalog ranking from my previous posting - first Staples (thanks to the Eco-Easy icon), then Office Depot for having two Green products (Global's Genoa & OD's Quantum Realspace), then Office Max for having nothing. Well, things fell dramatically different after the in-store visits...

Is Retail Eco-RTA Office Furniture a Reality?

In advance of the much-hyped Vegas Market "Living Green" Pavilion", I decided to do a product survey of how easy it is for consumers to find Green-marketed RTA office furniture products at retail. I began with the wholesale clubs because of the recent Neilsen survey citing that 10% more green purchases are made at those outlets, with my rationale being that those buyers would have gotten wise to the idea first. Next I worked my way through the office supply chains, then mass-merchants and finally at IKEA where I expected it to be easy to find eco-friendly RTA office furniture. I checked first on-line, then the catalogue and finally in the store - after all a true green consumer would not waste gas without checking to make sure it was worth a trip first. Here's what I found: