Clean And Green
Trader Joe's Kitchen Cloth helps save paper and their Multi-Purpose Cleaner is natural and comes in a fresh smelling cedarwood and sage scent.
Private label cleaning products allow consumers to be green while still saving some green.
As green buying continues to be on the rise, earth-friendly cleaning products are growing on the shelves. Stores are able to offer both eco- and budget-conscious consumers more options with private label cleaning products.
“Going green is bringing in the green,” says a recent report put out by Grant Thornton LLP’s Corporate Advisory and Restructuring Services (CARS). Retailers “should review their product lineup strategies and analyze which green products to offer and emphasize.”
Fabric Softener
A&P, Montvale, NJ, offers their Green Way brand as an eco-friendly laundry option. An 80-count package of Green Way Free & Clear fabric softener sheets is priced at $4.49. They’re made from renewable fibers and packaged with 100 percent wind energy and 100 percent recycled paperboard. To an eco-conscious consumer eying up the shelf that Private Label saw on a recent trip, this should seem like a steal compared to the adjacent, 70-count package of Downey Simple Pleasures dryer sheets for $5.49.
Walgreens, Deerfield, IL, packages their store brand Dye and Perfume Free Fabric Softener dryer sheets with 100 percent recycled paperboard and signaled they’re “earth friendly” in yellow on the $2.99 price tag. The package compares it to Bounce, which, located further down the aisle, was on sale for $3.99 for the same size and wasn’t marketed as earth friendly.
Whole Foods Markets, Austin, TX, a go-to for consumers looking for a plethora of green products, offers a biodegradable liquid fabric softener in their 365 Everyday Value brand. Whole Foods Markets ask customers to recycle the plastic container, and according to their website, “use Polyethylene Terephthalate, or PETE (the most widely recyclable plastic) whenever possible, and we label our products with the appropriate recycle number to encourage proper recycling.” The fabric softener bottle carries a numeral two recycle number indicating it uses High Density Polyethylene, which, according to www.Greenlivingtips.com, is “also readily recyclable” and “mostly used for packaging detergents, bleach, milk containers, hair care products and motor oil.”
Labels and Tags
Trader Joe’s, Monrovia, CA, employs a similar labeling technique to make green factors a quick read on their products. Their multi-purpose cleaner under their Next to Godliness line for $2.99 carries a recycling logo with a number one, signifying the bottle is made of PETE. In addition to this symbol there were two more: a black leaf with the word “biodegradable” in it and a picture of a rabbit in a crossed out circle with the words “no animal testing” and “no animal products” scrolling around it.
Handwritten colorful cards adorn the Trader Joe’s shelves with the product price and key points about the product. “Cruelty free” was scrawled on the price card above six faces of the cleaner when Private Label visited recently, and the tag for the Next to Godliness line of automatic dish soap in tee tree lavender and mandarin orange scent for $3.49 read “environmentally sound.”
Trader Joe’s Super Amazing Reusable Kitchen Cloth, $3.99 for two 14-inch by 10-inch towels, were marked to let the consumer know they can “save paper” with the product. The towels are made from 100 percent Viscose, “a miracle fabric that absorbs over 10 times its weight in any liquid,” and bear the Confidence in Textiles logo, which lets the consumer know the product has been “tested for harmful substances according to Oeko-Tex Standard 100.” In addition, a Save the Earth Foundation Approved logo is found on the left of the package.
Even More Green
While some stores are beginning to cater more to environmentally conscious consumers, many continue to offer choices in their private label products. A&P offers paralleling laundry products in both America’s Choice brand and the eco-friendly Green Way brand. On a recent trip to K-Mart, Hoffman Estates, IL, Private Label found American Fare Active Oxygen Bleach, which claims to be chlorine free and biodegradable. The 32-load bottle cost only $1.85, while the nearby, same-sized, scented American Fare bleaches were higher priced at $2.09. On the shelf next to the biodegradable bleach were 60-load bottles of chlorine-free Ultra Vivid brand bleach for $7.25.
Target, Minneapolis, CA, offers an array of private label cleaning products from disinfecting wipes to laundry detergent. A 64-load Up & Up brand Liquid Baby Laundry Detergent follows the biodegradable trend and reads, “small doses, big jobs” on the bottle to reflect that its 2x concentrated. Target compares it to Dreft, which they sold for $15.99, while the same size Up & Up brand was $11.39.
While consumers might enjoy the ease of cleaning floors with the Swiffer Sweeper or Pledge Grab-It, the cloth refills can start to add up in price over time. Target’s Up & Up cushiony thick (cushionyTHICK) mopping cloths help their consumers save cash in the long and short run. The cloths contain no phosphates and a 12-count pack retails for $3.84 and compares to Swiffer Sweeper Wet Mopping Cloths priced at $4.49. Swiffer’s 24-count pack was $8.49, while the Up & Up option was $5.99 and came in Target’s “exclusive lavender scent.”
As eco-friendly private label cleaning options grow, retailers are challenged to decide what products are the best choices to offer as a private label product and how “green” they want an eco-friendly product to be. If the right decisions are made earth-friendly products can help consumers clean up and bring in the green for retailers.
Pink and Clean
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and to raise money to support the cause pink products are popping up everywhere. Private Label spotted a center-aisle display stand at A&P filled with these pink America’s Choice surface scratch free sponges to support The A&P Foundation for the care and cure of breast cancer.
According to www.aptea.com, The A&P Foundation, formerly known as The Waldbaum’s Foundation, has raised more than $500,000 to battle cancer impacting the lives and families throughout the Northeast since its establishment in October 1999. In-store sales promotions, like these sponges, special discounted products and other fundraising events have contributed to this effort. The A&P Foundation has been able to keep its expenses to less than one percent raised.
