We might see the headline of a favorite ‘eco’ brand selling to a large corporation, or we might not. Either way, there’s not a ton we can do about it except choose to continue supporting the brand because we love it, or find another small company to support.
Do We Have a Choice?
Personally, we choose to find another small company to support. Part of our why for opening Refill Mercantile is to help preserve this beautiful rock for future generations and to help our current community thrive without all of the harmful toxins and pollution. It seems pretty simple when you break it down like that, but we live in a complex world.
One thing that has been popping up in my social feeds is all of the “eco” brands that are now owned by large corporations. Most of them likely did not build their company just to sell to a large corporation (hello Ben & Jerry's, wanting to keep their activism alive under Unilever).
Why Do They Sell?
A ton of reasons. Entrepreneurs sometimes get tired of the stress of the small business life, sometimes they want to move on to the next project, sometimes they need the capital to get their brand to the next level. So many factors go into this, and we try not to think poorly of any of them. But we can arm ourselves with knowledge about who now owns that favorite small brand and what changes are being made.
Who Sold to Who?
Burt's Bees hurt a little when I found out they sold to Clorox in 2007. I don't remember when I found this out, but it was much later than 2007. Some minor ingredient changes to help with cost and packaging changes happened, but it's still a decent product, just in plastic and owned by a large corporation.
This is also quietly happening with our favorite food brands selling to larger companies, and the quality of ingredients goes down so profits can go up. =(
Native deodorant was sold to Procter & Gamble in 2017, Schmidt's Naturals was sold to Unilever in 2017. The deodorant options we carry are Little Seed Farm, Brixy, and HiBar, which are independently owned and women-led.
Tom's of Maine sold an 84% stake to Colgate-Palmolive in 2006, and they've had some ups and downs ever since. It allowed them to build the brand and try to keep some of their values, but it also came at a cost. A $2.9 million class action settlement claimed it misled consumers about the safety and quality of Tom's of Maine products.
Seventh Generation seems to be a bit of a success story in this. After being acquired by Unilever in 2016, they were able to scale while keeping their core non-toxic formulas and expand the use of post-consumer recycled plastic. This also helped Unilever look better. The laundry soaps we carry are often compared to Seventh Generation in cost and effectiveness…without being owned by a large company, and are women-owned small businesses taking responsibility for their packaging (our liquids are closed-loop, and our powders are shipped in cardboard in a 'compostable' bag).
If you aren't near a refill store, sometimes you are forced to choose the least worst. Support your local refill store so we can have more of them!
Mrs. Meyer's is often thought of as an eco brand, we love refilling their 'refill' containers. They last so long! But really, those sturdy plastic containers are single-use. They sold to SC Johnson in 2008, and a lot of their products don't score very well on EWG but also don't score the worst.
Method sold to SC Johnson in 2017. This used to be our go-to cleaning brand. While they attempt to be ethical and use recycled plastic in their containers, their parent, SC Johnson, company isn't great.
Why Choose to Refill?
We aren't just about reducing plastic consumption and reuse, we are also about supporting ethical brands that pay fair wages, use truly non-toxic ingredients, and are better for the environment while still making effective products and not having to answer to investors.
The wine industry giants will also buy up the smaller brands, keep it looking the same, inject some much-needed capital, and find ways to reduce costs to improve profits…this is likely happening across all industries on some level.
There are some scary headlines about the amount of plastic pollution by these large companies that focus on consumption and encourage recycling instead of reuse.
There are also some really great headlines about smaller brands and stores cutting into the profits of larger corporations. That's us! And that is you!
It's so great to be able to have these conversations in the shop. It's awesome to know you want to support small businesses trying their hardest to do the right thing for us and for the environment, and to put people and planet above profit.
Image from Reddit
