April 2, 2005 12.00 PM – Kleercut activists adopt the London Drugs on Granville and Georgia. Activists: Eve, Julien, Brad, Richard.
The setup
We gathered at noon in front of the London Drugs store. Richard had brought the banner, t-shirts, 2 registration sheets and brochures (about 200 of them).
We first went inside to check what the store was offering as “forest friendly” products. The result, as feared, was quite disappointing: Kleenex tissue products reigned supreme over most of the shelves. Alone in a corner, we found some ‘green’ “Doucelle” paper towels made by Cascades, but nothing else. Quite limited.
So we set up outside. While two of us held the banner in turns, handing off brochures to the shop customers, the other two approached people, informing them about the links between forest destruction and Kleenex tissue products. We also asked for their email addresses to send them further information.
The 1 1/2 hour information session
We stayed there for about an hour an a half and gave away all the brochures. Altogether it was successful, people were interested in the action, asking questions, the banner was definitely a great asset, a clear means to get people to understand at once what it was all about (except for the couple of people who thought we were actually representing Kleenex - I heard one say "oh, there is no way I’ll buy your products, you destroy the forest” :-))
Anyways, I saw some shy people giving us a smile, a little thumbs up, despite not taking the leaflet. Another proof that the support from people was here.
The various types of reactions people gave us
Here are the types of reactions we had:
- The “I’m interested” look – These people would reduce their walking speed significantly to read the banner, then look at you and their eyes said: “I want to know more”. We gave these people a comprehensive overview of the campaign and why were at London Drugs. These are the people who are the likeliest to agree if you ask for their email address.
- The “What is this all about?” look – They throw a couple of looks at the banner, look at you but avoid the eye contact. We approached these people with a big smile and an “executive summary” of a couple of words. Best to be prepared in advance!
- The “I don’t have time” look – These are people who won’t listen to you. Just hand over the brochure over and tell them “It will take you five minutes to read it on the Skytrain”. This magical sentence worked pretty well Saturday.
- The “I don’t have time” attitude - These people will not take the brochure at all. One last chance is all you have to say something like “Not interested in the environment?” – after a slight hesitation, many said “actually, yes” and took the brochure.
Understanding from the store manager
Kudos to the grocery store manager who was very cooperative, he let us do our action without calling the cops, Richard explained our goals and he was ok with us staying here for a couple of hours and educating his customers. He was definitely keeping an eye on us, but, well, that’s his job right?
The wrap up chai tea
We wrapped up the successful day with a warm-up session at a nearby café, where we learned more about Brad’s bedside reading, and also that Richard pretends he does not speak French, which is a complete lie.
Julien- with fellow Vancouver activists Richard, Brad and Eve
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Read a report from a Grocery store adoption in Toronto
Read another report from a Grocery store adoption in Toronto
