Limited Brands - Still Cooling the Earth
Posted by Chad Norman July 28th, 2007 .
One week after I discovered that Limited Brands management was asking store employees to leave the doors open, nothing has changed. I walked by the stores on an 85° evening, and the doors were wide open again (see new photos), allowing energy-intensive cold air to spill out onto the sidewalk.
When I spoke to the store managers last week, they said they would look into it - but clearly nothing has changed. People are concerned, which is evident by the blogosphere reaction here, here, and here. I am concerned too. Apparently I’m going to have to contact Limited Brands headquarters if I want to see some real action. I’ll keep you posted.
In the mean time, I hope to get down to King Street to see how bad the open door situation is there. I promise there are more posts and photos to come.
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Thanks for the update Chad… I’m not surprised that it’s business as usual. I’d like to send an email to someone at Limited Brands to find out what the deal is and log a complaint… but it looks like no email addresses are posted. I’ll try and track one down and post it here if I’m successful. If not, I’ll call using the contact info you linked to. Either way, I encourage others reading this to contact them as well…
Yeah, last week I noticed that there was no email address - what’s up with that. Looks like I’m going to make a phone call.
you guys should take a look at Limited Brands’ charitable activities. They are one of the MOST active corporations when it comes to giving back. I don’t work for Limited - never have, never will. I don’t even have a stake in their recent changes. I am just an educated consumer who wishes to enlighten the people you reach before they pass judgement on an amazing institution. Here are a few of Limited Brands’ philanthropic activities:
Limited Brands has issued grants of over $8.5 million to various nonprofits in home office communities. In addition, donations of over $3.3 million in actual and leveraged product donations, including bulk product, clothing and auction/raffle and in-kind donations, have been made to nonprofit agencies.
Limited Brands created the Associates for Associates emergency fund in response to the devastating hurricanes in 2005. To date, the fund has approved and distributed over $270K in grants to associates facing hardships beyond their control due to emergency situations across the country.
The Limited Brands/Mast Cares Fund, created in response to the devastating 2004 Tsunami, has received donations of over $980,000, and awarded $677,000 to international charity initiatives. Projects have included the rebuilding of two orphanages and a water purification infrastructure in Sri Lanka, a library of “talking books” for the blind in Vietnam, a summer camp for a youth home in Israel and a donation of boats to fishermen in Indonesia.
Thousands of hours of one-on-one reading tutoring to kindergartners and elementary school kids;
Providing 300 backpacks complete with school supplies for academically at-risk kindergartners through our tutoring programs;
Sponsoring over 3,700 race participants to support the fight against breast cancer through Komen Race for the Cure (Columbus, NYC, and Rio Rancho) and the American Cancer Society – Making Strides Against Breast Cancer (Kettering, OH);
Adopted of over 34,000 women and touched over 44,000 lives through Giving Tree programs during Mother’s Day (112 mothers in NYC in 2007) and year end holidays respectively.
Placement of over 140 business leaders in community leadership roles and service on over 155 Boards of Directors of various nonprofits through a Community Connections Program.
I am not trying to undermine your cause. Just don’t pass judgement about an entire corporation based on what a few measely store associates are doing. Be proud to shop at Limited Brands. They do amazing things with their money. And if you think I am connected to them in anyway, I can tell you the same things about social responsibility about most key players in almost every major commercial market across the country.
Rick, thanks for the information on Limited Brands philanthropic activities; most of us here are directly involved with various nonprofits across the globe. Good people and organizations can have bad habits though, and it’s our mission to try to change those through awareness.
As I previously noted, I’m curious if Limited Brands is actually wasting money trying to create a friendlier entrance. Is there a significant gain from people attracted by the entrance versus the additional energy costs?
I’m confident that the US is going through another ‘going green’ trend, like we saw in the 90’s. If nothing else, closing doors and maintaining a consistent green message just makes good marketing sense.
I work for Limited Brands, and I am just making an experienced observation that the open doors you are speaking of is more than likely a decision made within the individual stores’ management and not set forth by corporate. Just a heads up- if going to the stores’ management didn’t solve the problem, then visit them once more and ask for CLIENT RELATIONS phone number. They are required to give it to you without any explanation. Contact CLIENT RELATIONS, express your concern, and they will contact the store directly. I guarantee you, as a member of management myself, we do not like to be contacted by Client Relations with a complaint and will immediately remedy the situation. I do not work for this particular store, but I am very familiar with the policies of the company and I’m sure that this will solve the problem. It may help when you call to express your frustration about the open doors not only as an environmental issue but also from the point of view of a customer (maybe the temperature inside the store is uncomfortable). Limited Brands goes above and beyond to help their customers. I hope this helps-I hate to read negative things about the company that has given me so much. I am not only a recent college graduate (my education was paid for by them) but also was a recipient of the Associates for Associates grant after a natural disaster. They are truly the best company I have ever worked for and am extremely loyal to them as they have been to me. Thank you, Rick, for your inspiring comments-their philanthropic efforts are just part of what makes me so proud to be an employee of Limited Brands.