Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Nested Bags

I like a lot of things about Target, but unlike some people, I do not view them as significantly different from Wal-Mart or any of the other big discount chains. They have a slightly different product mix emphasizing design and style (though in my experience, this has not resulted in uniformly superior goods), and their store layout is nicer, but mostly I think they have benefited from brilliant positioning. (And as an aspiring marketing guru, I'll give them big kudos for that.)

In addition to positioning themselves as the inexpensive store that status-conscious yuppies can feel good shopping at, they also attempt to look more environmentally-friendly than the competition. While I can't speak to how they are doing overall in a comparative sense, I really was not impressed by this instance of waste:

Robert stopped at Target to buy 3 summer squash and in the produce section, tore off a plastic bag for them. But each squash came individually wrapped, which neither of us have ever seen before. Then when he bought them, the clerk put the plastic bag of individually wrapped squash into yet another plastic bag, a gigantic one into which a plus sized sweatsuit would fit.

It looked like this when the parts were un-nested from each other:

Untouched by human hands?

It was like the Russian Matryoshka triplet dolls of plastic wrapping.

I suppose they could have done worse by taking the individually wrapped squash out of the produce bag and putting each one in its own Target bag.

By comparison, at Wal-Mart (or HEB or any other grocery store I know of), two bags would have been used, with the outer one smaller and made from thinner plastic. At the farmers market, no plastic bags would have been used at all (too bad summer squash aren't in season in central Texas).

The rug in the photo is also from Target, bought several years ago when their rug selection did not totally suck.

(Note: I chose this post's title particularly for you math/computer science nerds to enjoy. So notice it, OK? It's not every day I can throw you guys this kind of bone.)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice title. :) The Target we go to doesn't have produce, but it is great for e.g. getting decent drapes that don't cost a fortune. It's also not as scary as Wal-mart tends to be here.

cartaufalous said...

I like Target because the people are nicer. Unlike the stressed, unhappy people in Walmart, they never seem likely to pull out an automatic weapon and start shooting. And no one ever hit-n-runs my parked car, which always seems to happen in Walmart's parking lot.