Monday, April 30, 2007

They just don't get it....

There are a number of things I could write about in this entry....the amazing women's retreat I led last weekend (Gift of the Sea, which I'll write about tomorrow - I promise!), my retreat coach certification (which happened in Colorado in March), the horrible Nor'easter we experienced here in Maine two weeks ago tomorrow...but this is what I'm writing about today:

We need a new refrigerator, and so while at Home Depot to get a couple of adaptor plugs, I wandered over to their appliance department to check out their fridges. There were quite a few: this is Home Depot, after all. While walking past the absolutely huge double door fridges, I happened to put my hand on one. It felt cold. I stopped and opened it, to find that it was in fact plugged in and running. I went to another refrigerator...same thing. I didn't check every single refrigerator there, but the 6 or 7 that I checked were all plugged in...nice and cold, as a refrigerator would be in one's home. I was incredulous. I couldn't believe that these refrigerators - all of them empty - were plugged in and running. Can it be that Home Depot has not heard about global warming? Do they know where electricity comes from? Are they unaware of the concept "carbon footprint"?

When I told my husband I was going to find the store manager to register my complaint and request that they sell their refrigerators at room temperature, he decided to pay for our purchases and wait by the door. He was, in a word, embarrassed. Undeterred, I went to the customer service desk and requested to speak with the manager. When she arrived, I politely told her about the refrigerators and that I thought this blatant waste of electricity was insanity. As far as I knew, millions of refrigerators had been sold without being plugged in and using electricity unnecessarily, and that I thought this practice was irresponsible on their part. She told me that many customers like to see how cold a refrigerator is before they purchased it.

I can't add anything to this statement. I think it speaks for itself - and the consumers who need to have a refrigerator plugged in to see how cold it is before they buy it.

This is only one Home Depot store, but, tonight I'm wondering - is this common practice? So, this is my challenge to you readers: go to your Home Depot, or some other big box store, and see if they have their empty refrigerators plugged in. See if they have them plugged in and running for the consumer who has to see how cold a refrigerator is before they purchase it. And, if they are (senselessly) running all 20 - 30 models, 12 hours a day, 7 days a week - perhaps you could complain to the manager or the district manager or the regional manager or whomever it is that thinks this makes sense, or is justified by the profit from selling a refrigerator.

While the rest of us are shutting off lights in rooms as we leave, reading from the cold orange or green light that comes from energy saving bulbs, driving low mileage cars, recycling and generally trying to reduce our carbon footprint...isn't it great to know there's enough electricity being generated to chill empty refrigerators and freezers for endless American consumerism? Isn't it just great to know that our finite, non-renewable fossil fuels are being used so judiciously?

P.S. The store manager I spoke to said she agreed with me and would pass my complaint on to the regional manager. We'll see what happens.