Whats the Nestle "hate" all about?

[Matryoshka]

The Body Shop give the impression that their products are made from mostly natural ingredients. In fact like all big cosmetic companies they make wide use of non-renewable petrochemicals, synthetic colours, fragrances and preservatives, and in many of their products they use only tiny amounts of botanical-based ingredients.
They also hide ingredient labels on alot of their products so it makes it hard to read whats in the product which is wrong.

That's all I'm gonna say on that one....

Your're right....

they also changed their slogan from "not tested on animals" to "animal friendly" some time in the 90s i believe.

The Body shop, and MOST other companies are out to make money, it all comes down to sales. Yep, the body shop does do some community stuff but i can tell you the focus on that is minute compared to the focus on sales. Daily sales targets, constant training in pushing add ons, up-selling.... etc.

Maz, apart from working there i did ALOT of online research when i started to question their ethics at the time.

In essence i try to support local products where i can, organic products... and follow Failsafe where possible. But sometimes living with such limited options is way too time consuming when you have demanding fussy toddlers.

As i said do what you can, you're no less a person if you have nestle in your home than someone with a nestle free home. Maybe you donate to charities, maybe you save second hand water for the garden, maybe you just use light saver light bulbs... whatever.

We can't all be nestle free, i admire those who can, but also expect admiration for the ethical environmentally friendly things i do do, nestle aside.

[Lulu]

Your're right....

they also changed their slogan from "not tested on animals" to "animal friendly" some time in the 90s i believe.

The Body shop, and MOST other companies are out to make money, it all comes down to sales. Yep, the body shop does do some community stuff but i can tell you the focus on that is minute compared to the focus on sales. Daily sales targets, constant training in pushing add ons, up-selling.... etc.

No they didn't change to "animal friendly". Yes they are a business and upselling is expected in any retail store. Of course you have sales targets - who doesn't?

"Some" community stuff? Every person that works at the Head Office is expected to do Community Service as part of their contract. Do you know how much they raise for Domestic Violence in Australia on a yearly basis? No "administration" costs involved.

You wouldn't believe some of the thing I have seen TBS employees do on a community level - in their own time.

[Matryoshka]

No they didn't change to "animal friendly". Yes they are a business and upselling is expected in any retail store. Of course you have sales targets - who doesn't?

"Some" community stuff? Every person that works at the Head Office is expected to do Community Service as part of their contract. Do you know how much they raise for Domestic Violence in Australia on a yearly basis? No "administration" costs involved.

You wouldn't believe some of the thing I have seen TBS employees do on a community level - in their own time.

Okay just double checked, i stand corrected.

They changed their slogan from "not tested on animals" to "against animal testing".... not sure of the exact year, but something to think about.... GOOGLE it if you want more info. Why the change, if not testing on animals?? hrm??

Also i know full well about the community service, I WORKED THERE, remember? I don't know how much head office does, but each employee at each store does ONE DAY per year of community service. They receive their usual pay rate for that day. One year it was planting trees, another year i worked with a woman from a woman's shelter.... its always different, and yes it is nice of them. BUT its still overly exaggerated in my opinion. I can also give plenty of examples of wastage and unethical things that occurred within the company but obviously won't do so on a public forum as i don't want to be liable for slander. I think i've said enough.

[suse]

Out of curiosity - when did you work there Matryoshka? I also worked for TBS, but it was close to 18 years ago, so perhaps their way of operating has changed? I know that when I worked there the business overall was incredibly conscious about sustainability and fair trade issues on such an overall level (I gave a few examples in the other thread about it, won't repeat myself here).

Also, TBS never actually marketed themselves as using wholly organic or even natural ingredients, or at least they didn't when I worked there. We were encouraged to inform people of what went into the products - a particular example of it was the White Musk perfume - which was intentionally marketed as a synthetic alternative to natural musk. But as this was at a time when there was little demand for organic, synthetic free cosmetics, they were groundbreaking simply for their stance on using animal cruelty free ingredients (and demanding transparency from their suppliers too).

To be honest, I think that a company like TBS is a poor comparison to Nestle. Nestle, like certain petroleum distributors whom we won't mention, are concerned only with their bottom line and making a profit. Generally, if they implement a sustainable or ethical policy it is an inherently marketable one - something that looks good in the public eye but doesn't make any impact on their overall behaviour (or profit margin). TBS spent a lot of money on sustainable infrastructure and developing fair trade relationships etc, long before anyone even knew what that meant, and some of the strategies they implemented meant a reduction in profit margin. They also funnelled profits back into education and campaigning.

I think it's utterly unrealistic (and counter-productive) to expect that any company operate in a way that is not mindful of profits. A business that is as sustainable or ethically conscious as they can possibly be whilst still maintaining a profit (ie: is still in operation), is of far greater value than a business that cannot make a profit because it costs more than they can make to be ethical. What's the point of a company being wholly ethical if it can't influence the marketplace by staying in business?