Marketing Help
jenni0597
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What’s your feeling about plastic shopping bags? Blessing? Necessary evil? Costco, a large discount wholesaler selling everything from pharmaceuticals to television sets and backyard storage sheds, does business in forty states. Costco doesn’t give their customers plastic shopping bags. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Search the Internet for a case against shopping bags and provide a brief summary. Respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts. Personally I think that it is a great thing not to use plastic bags. The county I live in just started the ban on plastic bags, and it was a little hard to get used to at first but now it seems odd when I travel other places that do give plastic bags. “The purpose of this ordinance is to maintain and enhance natural resources by reducing the negative environmental impact of single-use carryout bags”(cawrecycles, 2012).Most people fought it when it first came, but now it is just second nature to either bring your own bag or buy less. The whole argument against the ban on plastic bags was not only the wasting part of using so much plastic, but also the littering. There is a noticeable difference in plastic bags on the side of the road and that is just the visible part. Who knows how much we are saving by not putting as much into the dump. http://www.cawrecycles.org/issues/plastic_campaign/plastic_bags/local |
My feelings regarding the use of plastic shopping bags are somewhat middle of the road. While they are convenient, they do have negative impacts from the use of them. Some say that they never decompose and others say that they actually do. I happen to think even further such as what happens when they wind up in the water. This is the part that bothers me because it affects the fish that have to live in that water. This in turn affects humans.
The fact that Costco doesn't use plastic bags and therefore does not offer them to the consumer is a great thing in my opinion. I think it is smart that they take and reuse the boxes by offering them to their customers. Not only do they avoid the costs associated with the use of plastic bags, but they also appear to be green. They are avoiding the produce of extra waste and recycling at the same time.
This proves that we actually do not need to use plastic bags so they are not necessary. We could use the reusable shopping bags. I have a few but never remember to take them with me. For this reason, I would rather use the boxes and then just recycle them. I have a hard enough time remembering my shopping list!
After searching the internet for a case against the use of plastic shopping bags, I found this article that talks about California putting a ban on the use of them. It states that most stores will offer paper bags and reusable bags for a small fee of ten cents. They are hoping this will make the consumers' remember to bring their own reusable bags. Often times, plastic bags end up in places they do not belong, and this is the reason that places such as California are wanting to completely ban the use of them. Places that have already placed the ban have seen positive results thus far, so it is likely that the other states will follow suit.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/26/us/plastic-bags-come-under-siege-in-california.html?_r=0
Discussion 2
Natale and Sora conclude that “empathy, if rightly considered as one of the variables in the process of accounting, can be used for calculating the performance and wealth of a corporation. Empathy must be used to make the stakeholders of a corporation better when unfortunate events occur to these stakeholders – employees, suppliers, and other non-stakeholders who have a relationship directly or indirectly with the corporation.” Assess the validity of their conclusion, and generate both a likely positive and a negative response from business.
· Assess the validity of their conclusion, and generate both a likely positive and a negative response from business.
To start with we define the phrase “empathy” to come up with “the feeling that you understand and share another person's experiences and emotions: the ability to share someone else's feelings.” Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/empathy
Without having the ability to possess empathy an organization has no way of interacting with the people involved whether they are customers, employees, or shareholders, this I know firsthand from a previous employer, their empathy rated right down there with a dirty diaper. “Being able to relate and feel for another person allows one to form a connection that may develop into a healthy relationship, whether it is friendship or more. With any other social behavior, relationships are formed based on feelings. When an individual is able to empathize then it leaves room for him/her to form positive relationships. Alternately, lack of empathy leads to unhealthy relationships or more commonly none at all.” Natale, S. M., & Sora, S. A. (2010). Ethics in strategic thinking: Business processes and the global market collapse. Journal of Business Ethics, 94(3), 309-316. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0270-2.
A positive aspect would be keeping the shareholders involved in the case of any situation change as well as not keeping employees and anyone else involved in the dark. This was evident during the mortgage situation that pooled mortgages together in a risky operation, again first hand here as Country Wide ripped us off with our situation by putting us in a 9.6% fixed, 30 year term only to find out the rate was illegal and the mortgage was pooled with the adjustable rate group which meant no over seer was doing their job and there was no empathy for our or many other clients situations as we strived to fix their errors.
A negative situation is the bad report that the company could get for not having any empathy in their business practices making a conflict with employees, a possible call out by the shareholders, and a possible government intervention as well as inquiries and audits.
Positive shows those involved that you are attempting to repair the situation whereas a negative appearance shows that you are attempting to hide the facts which usually leads to problems with the organization down the road from audits, fines, or bankruptcy and closures.
I completely agree with the statement that Natale and Sora make in this article regarding empathy and business. It seems as if you would not have to think about this much but when you hear of all these scandals that some of the big corporations have been consumed in, it puts up the caution and yield signs. If a corporation takes the time to include empathy in the steps to success, this has a trickle down effect which affects everyone who has anything to do with that corporation. If empathy is used in the process, and something unfortunate does happen, the corporation and/or anyone involved should be affected differently because of the use of empathy early on.
The positive of using empathy is that if an unfortunate event were to occur, the corporation would not have as big of a negative impact on the people directly or indirectly involved with the corporation. This means that the corporation has to be careful enough to use empathy in their processes. If people feel that this corporation has used empathy, more people will have a positive view of that corporation naturally. I think the use of empathy is smart because it can lead to ways for the corporation to protect the ones involved both directly and indirectly. It comes full circle.
