Originally Posted by
JBord
I agree. But at least with room service, they were eliminating something that had very little demand, especially at it's price point. A very low percentage of people want room service (in it's current state), but I'd guess a very high percentage would prefer to have a more hygenic, nearly tamper-proof, way to clean themselves.
I occasionally tell the story of my former company (about 35k employees at the time) announcing that they'd be eliminating styrofoam coffee cups and that each employee would have to bring their own cup from home. There was a whole narrative about being green. The problem is, I knew that the woman behind the move had been hired specifically to comb through the company for wasted spend. She was looking at every bill, from telephone service to styrofoam cups. Maybe they saved the environment, but I still remember the coffee cups stacked up in the break room sinks.
I'd like to know how many styrofoam cups it took to pay her salary.
It would be honest for companies to just say we're doing this to cut costs, instead of the dishonesty of saying it is to save the world. But from the companies viewpoint, there are enough believers in the save the world angle it makes it a lot easier to sell.