Dear Coles
When you announced that all your Coles branded eggs were going to be free range or barn laid and approved by the RSPCA I applauded you. I thought that as a major supermarket you were going a long way towards improving the welfare of the chickens in Australia. Given you know and understand what a caged chicken goes through you know how important this is.
So I walked into Coles confidently knowing that I was supporting a chain that was making an ethical choice in at least one line on their supermarket shelves. But instead I noticed that your shelves are full of caged eggs. At least three brands that I saw in my local Coles supermarket yesterday.
I came home and unleashed on your social media team which I realise is unfair because they aren’t making the decisions on what to stock on the shelves – they are merely feeding us your lines. So today I am writing this letter to you because I really want to hear the truth from you.
As some background – I tweeted you in February of this year. This is how it went
And then yesterday, three months later, I tweeted you again
And your social media team responded about how pleased I would be. I wasn’t
And nothing.. so I carried on
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It started to sound to me like you weren’t phasing out caged eggs at all…
To date I have heard nothing about a process or a time frame. I do know that your major competitor Woolworths will have eggs from caged hens removed from their shelves over five years so that by 2018 NO hens suffering in cages will be supplying eggs to any Woolworths. I also know that this affects 12 caged egg suppliers that will have to shift to a sustainable cage-free model. And that is even more heartening news.
Woolworths has also committed to no longer using cage eggs as an ingredient in their home brand products and to labelling the hen stocking density on Woolworths Select free range eggs.
So I realise it’s possible for a giant chain to make a positive move in the right direction.
I think you owe it to your customers to tell them what your plans are because it doesn’t mean enough to tell us that you are phasing out caged eggs without actually doing anything.. I would rather you answer honestly than getting your social media team to send me platitudes every few months.
If you are phasing out caged eggs – what is the process and what are the time frames. Your customers deserve to know. And don’t tell me that you are still in talks with your suppliers because I am just not buying that one anymore.
Lana
Update: I went to Coles again on 13 February 2015 to find the exact same egg situation as there was in February 2014. I tweeted Coles (of course) and they sent me THE EXACT SAME LAUGHABLE REPLY
Shame on you Coles
I am SO with you on this one, Lana! My girls and I tisk in disappointment every time we buy eggs at Coles. How long have they been advertising the ‘no caged eggs’ message? Misleading xo
Thanks Jay, it IS misleading and that’s just not okay xx
A brilliant letter, Lana. What rankles most about this whole cage egg thing is Coles’ smug hypocrisy in stringing along customers who want to do the right thing, with their meaningless platitudes “phasing out” and “working with”. They’re prepared to be compassionate to hens, only if it doesn’t interfere with profits.
It has nothing to do with their profits and EVERYTHING to do with suppliers and their unwillingness to spend their own money improving conditions for chickens.
Coles aren’t the bad guys here – direct your frustration to the suppliers of these eggs, Coles can’t simply demand that they remove cages.
I don’t agree with you Rach, if Woolworths can make it happen so can Coles
I think you are 100% correct Lee Anne- it’s all about profit. And it’s sickening
Great article. I got sick of paying a premium price for non-caged eggs and have recently built a 6x9m chook shed. We now have four freshly laid eggs every day from four chickens we know are well-looked after and have the Taj Mahal of chicken coops.
I wish I could buy eggs from you! xx
If you have the Taj Mahal of chicken coops, Kathryn, then we have the Buckingham Palace!
(And nothing beats a fluoro-yellow egg laid by a happy hen) 🙂
I understand your frustration and this letter but take it from someone who is married to someone who deals with Coles AND their suppliers on a daily basis – it truly is not as easy as telling suppliers that they need to change how they do things. It is also NOT productive or helpful to give YOU, [and me] the customer a time frame because if they don’t meet it, you’ll be ticked off right? And negotiating with suppliers to change how they do things, convincing them to spend THEIR money improving things, is time consuming at best – suppliers are all about THEIR bottom line and what works best for THEM and even if given a time frame, THEY rarely adhere to it and will throw up every roadblock possible,
So rather than address this letter to Coles, go into your local Coles store, look at those egg cartons and write to the suppliers DIRECT and ask THEM when THEY are going to be supplying Coles with cage free eggs because Coles can’t do ANYTHING until their suppliers are ready to get on board.
I will counter every one of your arguments with the Woolworths example. It can be done.
Counter all you like – they are dealing with DIFFERENT suppliers and it comes down to the suppliers. And I’m not saying it can’t be done, what I am saying is that it’s out of Coles hands to a degree, they can guide them but can’t force them and it’s most definitely in their suppliers hands and it’s THEM that you need to be tweeting and berating publicly.
Woolworths have a 5 year plan in place – 5 years, that’s still a long time and there’s no guarantee that if their suppliers stall that they will make that deadline, believe me I see it everyday and that’s why Coles are so reluctant to put a time frame on it – if they say, okay we’ll have it done in 4 years and they miss that deadline, due to no fault of their own eg suppliers dragging their feet, you’ll have a go at them again for not doing what they said they’ll do and yet chances are it would have been out of their hands.
It’s SO not a black and white issue – consumers don’t see half the stuff that happens behind the scenes and the amount of obstacles that the supermarkets come up against when it comes to their suppliers but yet consumers are so quick to make judgements.
I won’t “have a go” at anybody. The issue I have with Coles is they SAY they are phasing out caged eggs but they don’t seem to be doing anything.
Plus I do understand a little bit about commercial imperatives and I can tell you that if Coles terminate a contract with someone who wont provide free range eggs it wont be the first or last contract they terminate.
Consumers can only judge on what they see so if Coles wants my sympathy THEY can explain to me what’s going on behind the scenes
I’ve stopped buying eggs in the supermarket (Coles) because they never have any of the free range eggs left, only cage laid. What does that tell you about demand? My local deli are only too pleased to supply me with lovely fresh free range eggs every week.
Excellent point well made Tracey xx
Brilliantly said. And I think regardless of whether it’s an issue with suppliers, Coles is still benefitting from the feel-good PR of saying they are doing what they are not. And that’s dishonest.
Well done Lana for taking the time and effort to write this letter. As consumers each and every one of us wields a tremendous amount of power every time we head to the shops and we need to keep the pressure up to let the big guys know that we want and demand change. We are making a difference and change is on the horizon, but it doesn’t hurt to give them a kick up the behind every now again to let them know their lip service just doesn’t cut it. Very inspiring stuff!