Costco

7/29/10
Costco Corporation
Issaquah WA 98027

Dear Mr. Sinegal,

I’m a long-time member and great fan of your store, Costco. Several unenlightened years ago, I also belonged to Sam’s Club as well. However, I no longer patronize WalMart or Sam’s Club due to their politics, atrocious environmental record, hostility to unions, mistreatment of employees, un-fair business practices, and use of child workers overseas.

Some months back, I bought replacement HP printer cartridges at your wonderful Clifton, NJ store (an attractive and fragrant flower in the sometimes un-fragrant Garden State). As the cartridges were in a preposterously over-sized plastic package, I was surprised to read on the box what a good "steward of nature" Hewlett Packard claims to be. I sent a letter encouraging them to take five from patting themselves on the back for being such great recyclers while still encasing their small cardboard boxes between two large sheets of non-recyclable plastic (which won’t decompose for hundreds of years). Soon after, I received a phone call from the head of their international design team who was upset by my snarky missive. He insisted that the huge, environmentally unfriendly packaging was done by Costco, not HP. I was both stunned and disappointed. I’d fully expect that behavior from Sam’s Club or Walmart, but not from you guys. Say it ain’t so! He urged me to write to you directly, so here goes.

Please stop doing this! There certainly must be better options that still enable you to entice customers through attractive, non-planet-killing displays. This applies to pens, iPods, video games, etc.

Thanks in advance on behalf of myself, Hewlett Packard and the Earth.

Yours greenly,

Jake Daehler

WGA Registered 2010