Why Can't I Just Buy the Part I Want?

The new trend seems to be towards packaging products in giant sets. Gift wrap sets, with multiple rolls of paper, ribbon, and bows. Big sets of tools, etc.

And this is all very nice, if you need all of those pieces. But if you don't ....

My husband owns a battery-powered, hand-held drill. The battery lasted for about two years, then would no longer recharge. So, we set about the task of finding a new battery. At first, we couldn't even find one. Then, he did find a place to buy one, but it was 5x the cost of buying a whole new drill set (which of course comes with a new battery). This is ridiculous. How is it economically possible that it is cheaper to sell a drill + bits + battery than just the battery itself??? This type of packaging and selling is encouraging waste and a throw-away economy; we're filling up our landfills with perfectly good drills because some Marketing Genius (tm) has decided this is the way to price. Insanity.

Another example: We're expecting our first baby. A baby needs a crib, and a crib apparently needs something called a "bumper" that lines the crib and stops baby from bumping into the crib bars when crawling around. Fine.
[NOTE: I'll have whole other posts on the horrors of wading through the baby-product jungle.]

You can buy some very simple, plain bumpers separately. But if you want an interesting bumper, with shapes and colors, you apparently only have three options:

1) Buy a HUGE SET of crap that includes a cool bumper
or
2) Find someone who sews to make you a cool bumper (or learn to sew yourself)
or
3) Find the bumper you want being sold second-hand by someone who doesn't mind splitting up the set.

Let's look at my example:
The Zoofari 6-Piece Crib Set. It comes with:

• The object of my desire: The Bumper. With a nifty giraffe on it.

But it ALSO includes:

• A Quilt (I don't need a quilt. I already have blankets and quilts pouring in so fast that I'm going to need a whole new linen closet just to hold them)
• A fitted sheet (Fine, but I'd be OK with a plain yellow sheet that's less expensive.)
• A dust ruffle (Fine, but ditto above. A plain color would be just great, and less expensive)
• A window valance (I can't really think of anything more USELESS. My windows already have coverings on them. And in fact, how is a valance really going to effectively cover a window, anyways?)
• A diaper stacker (What the hell is a diaper stacker? Cross out my comment above about not being able to think of anything more useless than a valance. This is CLEARLY more useless. In looking up diaper stackers, it looks like something for people who have lots of time to take diapers out of the perfectly good boxes they come in and stack them in a different container)

I've done numerous web searches, checked eBay, etc. And you just can NOT get that bumper separately. You can get almost every other piece separate, as well as a zillion other pieces to the set (hamper, rug, lamp, wall-hangings, mobile, the list goes on and on and on). But that bumper is ONLY in the set.

I guess I'll be setting aside a little bit of drawer space to hold that valance ...

To Fly or Not to Fly [Part 2: The New England Experience]

Flight Problem 2: US Airways, New Hampshire (Manchester) to Washington, DC (National)

Everything seemed fine that bright blue morning when we set out for the airport. For 6 years, I've always taken the EARLY flight -- the first flight of the day -- meaning that we had to get up and start driving to the airport at about 3am. Yuck. This year, I decided to take the second flight of the day.

Bad Mistake.

We called ahead; the flight was on time.
We got to the airport; the flight was now delayed 15 mins.

Then 10 more mins.
Then 10 more mins.
Then 15 more mins.
Then 6 more mins.
etc., etc., etc.

Finally, the flight was 3 hours late.

Then, the desk confirmed that the plane was in the air and coming to us. So, I kissed my husband and headed through security. The plane arrived at the gate, and all was well for 10 mins.

Then they announced that the plane was having technical difficulties, so they pushed it back to let another plane use the gate. Then THAT plane broke and got pushed away from the gate. Then a third plane came up and YES that plane TOO broke ... but not as badly.

So, I'm sitting in the lounge, chugging a lot of water (because I'm pregnant) and here is what they announce:
"Everyone please use the restrooms. The plane does not have any operational lavatories, but we've been cleared for the 70-minute flight to Washington DC"

UGH.

So, I either choose to not go on the flight (and call my husband to drive an hour back to pick me up so we can get up the next day to do it all again), or I cross my legs and hope to survive 70 minutes without using the restroom. I choose the latter.

The flight actually went very well, until we were about 10 mins out from landing and then the Air Conditioning stopped working. So, the temperature jumped up very, very quickly. So I was sweating, ready to throw up, and had to pee. I am happy to say that I did make it, though my bladder was very angry at me for a day.

So, what do I take away from this experience?
- I will definitely fly US Airways, again. They still have the best flight schedule for the places I want to go.
- I will NOT take the second flight, again. It seems clear that only the first flights of the day have a chance to be on time. After that, given the current atmosphere of historic delays, it is too risky.
- I will NOT fly again while I am pregnant, unless I have no choice. At least in a car, if I'm really desperate, I can pull off the road and find a tree.

To Fly or Not to Fly [Part 1: The England Experience]

China labels 2007 as the Year of the Golden Pig; I believe that I shall name it as the Year of the Delayed Airplane. Recent headlines have been trumpeting the fact that airline delays are the worst in 13 years and passengers are frustrated. There has been some coverage regarding this new Passenger Bill of Rights concept, but I highly doubt that this Bill is making the people stuck on the tarmac for 3 hours feel any better. There have been hearings on the Hill regarding the issue, and even President Bush is saying that delays need to be addressed.

I travelled a lot this past summer; thus my lack of posts for many weeks. During my hiatus, I had two flight experiences, and both of them left something to be desired. I am somewhat undecided as to how harshly I am going to judge each airline over these encounters. My parents have sworn they will never fly British Airways again as long as they live based on the July experience, but I am as yet undecided. I am also undecided regarding my US Air experience. Perhaps those of you reading will have an opinion to share ...

Flight Problem 1: British Airways, London (Heathrow) to Washington, DC (Dulles)

To set the scene: My parents (in their late 60's), my husband, and I (2 months pregnant) were going to the airport directly from a cruise ship. We had no way to check-in online online for our 5:30pm flight, but as we were arriving over 8 hours ahead, we had no concern about this.

9:30AM
We arrived and immediately encountered the first issue; there were about a thousand people waiting to just get inside Terminal 4. As it turned out, there had been a
Fire Alarm earlier that morning, and there were now just too many people to fit into the building.

10:00AM
After about 30 mins of effort, we got into the building, only to discovered that British Airways was only allowing people into the queue lines -- including the kiosk lines -- based on their flight times. They told us to come back at 1pm. We had nowhere to go, so my parents huddled miserably on a bench. But being pregnant, I needed to get to some food so my husband and I painstackingly began to weave our way, with our 4 bags, through the mass of angry flyers, to the pub on the lower level.

10:45AM
We finally make it to the Pub. Ate some food. Sat.

12:45PM
We trudged back up to the4 massive lines of BA queues. BUT NOW, you can't queue until 3pm, the BA attendants told us. However, the kiosks were now available. My parents had no interest in trying to use the 'computers', so my husband and I queued up for the self-service kiosks.

1:15PM
After meandering through 10 different verification screens, our efforts were rewarded with the message:
"Go see Customer Assistance."

1:30PM
So, with our 4 bags in tow, we located and then entered the "Customer Assistance" queue.

2:00PM
After 30 minutes, it was our turn. In about 2 minutes, she declared that she couldn't help us and that we needed to get into the "Customer Service" line. No joke. Assistance and Service are two different queues.

2:02PM
So, back into the queue we go. At the same time, my parents have finally been allowed into the normal queue. So they are watching us nervously from their own line as we are playing musical-queues.

2:30PM
So, after 30 more minutes, we make it to Customer Service.
Frown.
There are no seats for you, she tells us matter-of-factly.
"We give priority to those checking in online, so I'm afraid we can't currently assign you seats. The flight is very overbooked. Here's a coupon for a coffee. Come back to this counter at 5pm."
Wait ... our flight is at 5:30
"Oh, no worries. You'll make it."
My parents were still in their line, and got the same news about 15 mins later. We let them have the chairs at the coffee shop, while my husband and I sat on the floor.
They were nervous wrecks; I wasn't feeling all that well at this point.

4:45PM
Back in queue at Customer Service.
YES! We have seats!

4:55PM
Off to Expedited security. This means that the queue is 100 people, not 1000.

5:30PM
By the time we got through, the board said "closing gates"
My husband and I ran as best we could to the gate. Then we tried to be very slow, as my parents were behind us. They made it to the gate, but my father was white as a sheet, the running wasn't really what he needed with his health issues.
white as a sheet

So, we got into the plane, and that's when we discovered the silver lining of the day. BA upgraded us from "World Travellor" to "World Travellor Plus", which had been a $1000 difference when we priced it online. Unfortunately, my husband and I had been placed on opposite sides.

Everyone looked tired and worn out; a lot of people had been running like us. Some random man sat next to me, while some woman sat next to my husband, not looking all that happy. The cabin was quiet.

I stood up, and called across the aisle, "Excuse me, would you mind changing seats with me? That's my husband; we've gotten separated."
She immediately perked up, "Oh, OH YES. YES. You're next to MY husband, yes I want to change seats with you!"

In a blink of an eye, we had each darted across the aisles to the other side.
There was about 5 seconds of silence and then EVERYONE was asking EVERYONE ELSE to switch seats, and it soon became very obvious that nearly every individual in that section had been bumped into new seats, and the seats had been assigned completely randomly. In about 10 minutes the dust had settled, and everyone seemed very happy. If we could do that ... why couldn't' the computer?

The rest of the flight was uneventful.

But ... the stress leading up to it was no fun at all. Would YOU fly BA again? My parents won't, but I'm not so sure ...

Made in the USA: Your 'vote' counts

I'm trying to "Buy Local;" I am trying to support manufacturing in the USA. It is very hard.

I've been wearing Jockey underwear for over 20 years. Most of my collection is "Made in the USA," So when I set out to buy more, just a few weeks ago, I crossed my fingers that they hadn't outsourced their operations. As I riffled through the racks at J.C.Penny, I was pleased to see that Jockey still manufactured in several countries -- including the USA -- and clearly marked the country on the package. It only took me about 5 minutes to find my size that was "Made in USA."

Thrilled, I decided that this stroke of good luck was worth some positive consumer feedback. I went to the Jockey website and sent them this:

I just wanted to send a quick note of feedback to praise the fact that you've continued to use USA manufacturers for your women's underwear, and that you so clearly note this on the labeling. I spent about 15 minutes in the store the other day, picking thru the Elance bikinis to find a set that was Made in the USA as opposed to in El Salvador, or Honduras, etc. I want to support american manufacturing, and I appreciate Jockey continuing to do so, as well.

Within about 24 hours, I received this response:

Thank you for contacting us.

It was very kind of you to take the time out just to tell us how much you like the fact that our Elance Bikinis are made in the USA . My manager said he would include it in a special report he sends thoughout the company documenting consumer feedback. So, hoping you don't mind, we'll be sharing your kind words with many other people here at Jockey, and I'm sure they'll find them most gratifying.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if I can be of additional assistance.

Sincerely,
Tamara Crane
Consumer Relations Representative

Wow. Is it just me, or do you get the feeling that they are perhaps questioning their continuation of USA manufacturing? That perhaps this feedback is really important, and that it will become part of the bigger decision as they weigh the pros and cons? That's certainly the way I feel, and I'm thrilled that someone is actually listening to my opinion as a consumer. It is always said that you vote with your money, but I think that words can cast a vote, too. I imagine that they must be wondering how many people really care vs. how many people just randomly pick up a package. This feedback helped them.

I imagine there are other companies in the same situation. If you care about the decisions they make, I suggest taking 10 minutes to send an email. It appears that our consumer vote does make a difference.

More on COOL, China Imports, and FDA Resources

I've been travelling for a few weeks, and will soon be making a post about my exciting experiences as a Nitpicky Consumer on a major airline, but I wanted to make a quick post about country-of-original-labeling (COOL) and recent issues with China imports.

Back a few weeks ago, I talked about how it was pretty easy to find China import info now that the press has jumped onto the topic. We've now definitely made the leap to people-food with the recall of Veggie Bootie by Robert's American.

Although the FDA's release doesn't peg the source as China, a subsequent July 3, 2007 Wall Street Journal article does. As WSJ links tend to disappear and become protected, here is the key sentence: The "veggie" seasoning's ingredients came primarily from China, the company said.

My entire office loves Veggie and Pirate's Booty, so it is just happenstance that I didn't pick Robert's American as one of the companies I emailed a few weeks ago -- when I did Route 11, Del Monte, Stonyfield, and Kashi -- to ask them about COOL. It would have been interesting to have their response before all this came out ...

In the bigger picture, the FDA's home page has a big new link to "Recalls, Product Safety" and they describe a new enhanced pilot program and RSS feed to help keep consumers informed. This sounds like a good step in the right direction.

Follow-on to COOL: Current USA legislation

After I posted yesterday, my husband said to me "Isn't Country-of-Original-Labeling required in the USA?" My response was, No.

Apparently, others are asking this question, and we are both right. COOL isn't currently required, but may be in Sept 2008 or sooner ... but not for processed foods with are generally our biggest concerns.

But it again comes back to whether or not government regulation is the answer. I believe that the Food Marketing Institute is working on an analysis of the costs to retailers/wholesalers and thus consumers. Is it worth the cost? Probably. However, we all need to understand the costs because it will start to make a big price gap between fresh vs. processed/packaged and need to all understand why.

Wouldn't COOL labeling be Cool? [a.k.a. trying to find out where the ingredients are from]

Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) has become quite a big topic in recent months.

Although I usually criticize the Media's tendency to jump on each other's bandwagons, sometimes it works in the consumer's favor. Take this recent publicity -- just in the psat month -- regarding the safety of imported food, particularly from China. Now that the media has it in their teeth, you can't turn around without reading some new, horrific article on the topic: China Food Fears go from Pets to Public, China to Start Mobile Food Testing, China probes tainted toothpaste, US checks toothpaste for toxins, Killer Banana Rumor Grips China, Fixing the Food Fiasco, Wary of Food Safety, China Consumers shop with care, Pet Food scare raises concerns about food safety.

After reading all of this, the first question on any rational person's mind is: where is the stuff I am eating grown? While it is easy to look at a clothes label to see where it was made, and about 70% of the fresh produce in stores now is COOL, pre-packaged food is not-so-cool.

Of course all of this publicity is forcing major food packagers and distributors to take notice, and the more of us who write to our retailers and wholesalers, demanding better COOL and more local food, the more that will happen. Some are calling for tighter government controls; I am not sure that this is the solution. Government controls tend to add bureaucracy and cost without much end result. Consumer-driven movements can often have better effects. i.e. If all consumers decide that they want food grown in their local country (e.g. the USA) and they all flock to buy from Company A who provides this, then Companies B, C, and D will soon follow suite.

In the spirit of buying locally for environmental, economic, and now safety reasons, I wrote to four of my favorite brands to (try to) find out how many ingredients in their food products are grown in the USA.

Here is what I basically sent to each of them:

The recent coverage of safety and health issues in food products imported into the USA has prompted me to start questioning some of my favorite products, as there is no country-of-origin labeling on much of anything except fresh produce at this point.
-- Where do your ingredients come from? All USA suppliers, mostly USA suppliers, or mostly overseas?
-- Would it be possible for you to add this information to your labeling?
-- Would you consider adding a "100% USA-grown" line of products? I know that many of us out here would pay more for 100% USA-grown over imported foods. It supports our own farmers, we know our own safety standards and regulations, and it is a good anti-terrorism move (i.e. it's going to be easy for a terrorist in a foreign country to tamper with ingredients than it would be here in the USA, and there would be little way of tracking down the source of the issue)

And here are the four responses that I got, in order from the ones who made me the happiest to the responses that didn't make me as happy:


ROUTE 11 CHIPS

Best response, by far. These are real people, just as concerned as I am about what in the world is going into our food.

Thank you for your email and your concerns. What's coming out of China is really scary. All of our potatoes and sweet potatoes are from the good ole USA, specifically the eastern seaboard, from Florida up to NY. Our oil is also domestically produced. Occasionally, we'll get peanut oil from Argentina and that's when there's a shortage here. The sunflower oil is out of North Dakota. After the stories about the tainted dog food and some other horrifying things I heard on the radio about food stuffs arriving from China, I also am planning on further researching the origin of the ingredients in our seasonings. If you're interested, I should have a list in a month. Please know that we share your concerns and also are committed to using the best ingredients grown in the USA. Again, thanks for your email and feedback.

KASHI

Although it took them a few sentences to get to the point, they say that all of their ingredients are made/grown in the USA, so hurrah! I'll keep munching on my Go LEAN! crunch.

Thank you for contacting us with your concerns regarding the safety of the ingredients used in our products. We understand your concerns over the safety of your food, especially in light of the recent events. We want to assure you that we have complete supplier approval programs. All of our suppliers must meet stringent requirements which include third party audits, food safety and compliance to all applicable regulations. All of our ingredients are from the United States. Thank you again for taking the time to e-mail us.

STONYFIELD FARMS

They CLEARLY spent a lot of time crafting a response to this type of question. To be fair, it would in fact be nearly impossible to find some things like bananas in this country. But I am somewhat dismayed by the strawberries coming from China. Still, I am happy with the depth and honesty of the response.

Thank you for taking the time to contact us. We’re always happy to get comments and questions from our yogurt lovers and are grateful when someone takes the time to let us know what they think of our Company and products. Sourcing We source over 200 million lbs of organic ingredients annually – milk, fruit, sweeteners, grains, spices, etc. Those ingredients annually support over 50,000 acres of organic production. We always source locally in the US first. Some ingredients such as organic cocoa, banana, and vanilla do not grow in the US so we import them. Only a small amount of organic sugar is grown in the US, so virtually all organic food companies import organic sugar. How do we ensure other countries’ ingredients meet US organic standards? By USDA law any organic ingredient we use in our products must meet the US standards. That means the products must be grown and processed under the same practices required in the US and inspected and certified by a certifier who is accredited by the USDA. Due to the lack of US supply, in 2005 and 2006, we bought strawberries from a Chinese source. Because of concerns regarding cultural differences in business practices between China and USA, we chose to take our due diligence beyond the existing quality systems that we have in place or are required by statute, and implemented additional audits and inspections. Our concerns were three-fold: quality, social and organic integrity. We had 3 separate inspection agencies perform audits ---one in each area ---so that we could have additional assurances that we are getting a product that we could feel confident met our standards. Although the strawberries were already certified by a USDA accredited certifier, we hired our own USDA accredited certifier and had them perform a separate additional inspection, including a surprise inspection. The experience was very positive, and we are confident that the operation is in compliance with USDA organic regulations. From a quality perspective the results were excellent. Because they’d already been selling to an international clientele, they had very high quality standards. The social audit was also a very positive experience for our company as well as the supplier. While we did find some minor non-compliance with Chinese law (such as limiting bathroom breaks) there were no egregious violations such as child or slave labor or unsafe work conditions. The supplier welcomed the feedback as no customers had previously instituted such a rigorous review of social conditions, and has rectified the violations. We are proud that we played a role in improving worker conditions as part of the review process. Our imports of organic ingredients that could otherwise be grown in the US, make up less than 2% of our organic ingredient purchases. In other words, 98% of the ingredients that could be grown in the US, we buy here in the U.S. Only 2% are bought from outside the U.S. Why do we sometimes look elsewhere when items can be grown in the U.S.? 1) They are not available. 2) They may in fact be geographically closer to us than most US suppliers. An example is Quebec-grown organic blueberries, which account for one-third of our imported ingredients, and are close to our region (New Hampshire). 3) We cannot be dependent on one geographic area for all of our fruit needs. If there were a freeze in California where we buy organic strawberries, and that was our single source, we would not be able to make strawberry yogurt for a year. We intentionally work with growers in multiple geographic areas to reduce our risk. We greatly appreciate the concern and passion that people have for these important issues of organic and social integrity. We do our best to set the highest standard and act in an ethical manner. Sincerely, The folks at Stonyfield Farm

DELMONTE (CANNED VEGETABLES)

This response makes me the least happy. It doesn't really tell me anything more than I already knew; some of the vegetables are grown here, some are grown other places. And for me, the consumer, there is no way to pick them apart. Also, I bet if I had written the pet food producers, prior to the recent issues, they would have said the SAME THING. i.e. We have strict quality control, blah-blah-blah, it's all safe no matter where it comes from, blah-blah-blah. Talk is cheap.

Thanks for visiting our Del Monte website and for your email. We appreciate the opportunity to respond. Most of our products are produced in the United States; however, due to the tremendous amounts of products produced, we sometimes have to purchase fruits and vegetables outside the United States in order to have a continuing supply to offer our consumers. To provide the very freshest product possible, this must be harvested and packed immediately. This process will continue to provide our consumers the finest quality products available. Regardless of the country of origin, Del Monte's strict U.S. quality and operations standards apply. Our pesticide practices, water purity standards, sanitation requirements, finished product quality, and all other standards and procedures apply equally to our U.S. and non-U.S. products. There is no difference in the "Del Monte Way" just because a product may be produced outside the United States. In compliance with all FDA rules and regulations, our labels state when a product is produced outside the US. I hope this information is helpful.