Safeway Correspondence

Here is the letter(S) I sent to Safeway. Feel free to print and send yourself! Sorry, this is a letter within a letter within a blog - it might get a bit confusing.

September 22, 2008

To Whom It May Concern:

Please see the following letter I sent to 1200+ members of my friends, family and community. I have asked them to forward to their friends and family as well. We are asking you to please re-consider your decision to remove condoms from your shelves. Because every year:
• half of all pregnancies in U.S. are unintended (3.1 million pregnancies are unintended)
• approximately 750,000 teens become pregnant
• an estimated 19 million people in the United States contract sexually transmitted infections
• at least one in four teen girls has a sexually transmitted infection

I have also been in touch with Planned Parenthood (from whom the above statistics were taken).
We would all like to be able, in good conscience, to shop at Safeway again. Please see the following letter for more information…

Hiya friends and family-

I am so sorry for the mass email but I am writing to request your help with something I have been working on that is important to me.

I recently noticed that some local Denver Safeways have taken condoms off of their shelves. They are now kept behind the pharmacy counter where you have to stand in line to ask for them. As you may know, the pharmacy has limited hours and are closed on Sundays. In that case you must then stand in the customer service line to ask for them where they have only a limited selection. It is not even clear as to where to find them and I only found out this information after speaking with a store manager about it.

I feel strongly that condoms should be easily accessible to the consumer. Being required to stand in line, ask specifically for them, or not even know where in the store they may be at any given time is anything but easily accessible. Even if you don't have any need for condoms, please recognize that this is a huge step backward in trying to solve the problems of unwanted pregnancies and the spread of STDs. It worries me that Safeway is a huge corporation that has taken this step and I fear that it is a trend among stores.

I have been in contact with the Safeway corporate offices about this policy but I have been unsuccessful in getting any answers as to why this decision was made and how far reaching it may be (how many stores it has affected). I was told by a store manager that this is to prevent theft. While I can appreciate a store trying to protect their bottom line, I feel that the bottom line should always include the health and well-being of their respective communities.

Please, if you have just a moment, send Safeway an email to let them know that this policy is unacceptable and that you would like to see condoms back on the shelves where they belong.

http://www.safeway.com/IFL/Grocery/Comments#iframetop

Or better yet, write a letter to their corporate offices:

Denver Division President
Safeway, Inc.
C/O Customer Service Center
2750 S. Priest Drive
Tempe, AZ 85282-9969

And in the meantime, you can also do what I have been doing: Shop at King Soopers where they value their customers and the health of the community enough to keep condoms on their shelves. They are more kid friendly, too!

Sincerely,

Nicole Sullivan


Letter to the Business Ethics Department

o Safeway Management:

Members of my community recently sent letters and emails to your corporate offices, expressing concern about your decision to remove condoms from some of your store shelves. To date, we have received absolutely no response from you. My inquiries about why this decision was made and how many stores have been affected have also gone unanswered so I conducted my own research into the matter. I called fifty metro Denver Safeway locations to find that roughly half of those stores have removed condoms from their shelves and have placed them either behind the customer service desk or under lock and key in the pharmacy. From what I understand, these stores are either in low income areas or located near high schools or colleges – the exact demographic that can benefit most from convenient, easy access to birth control.

Because I have received no response from you, I am prepared to take this cause to the next level with backing from a few organizations, the media, and concerned citizens like myself. I still welcome any input from your store and urge you to re-consider your decision to remove condoms from many of your store shelves. This is a dangerous and irresponsible trend that I am determined to reverse.



Sincerely,

Nicole Sullivan


And the only non-canned 'I received your email' response I received:


Dear Ms. Sullivan:

Thank you for your recent correspondence regarding the location of the condoms in our stores.

We, in no way, are discriminating against anyone. Also, condoms are purchased by many, not just students and low income customers. The reason that we have begun putting condoms behind the counter is due to a high volume of theft that has occurred. Condoms are one of the top items that get shoplifted on a regular basis.

We have moved the condoms in stores that have a higher theft rate, not based on who the customers are. We welcome all of our customers to purchase condoms and any other items that they want.

We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause anyone. It is not meant to do so, it is a business decision made due to theft and nothing else.

If you would like to discuss this further, please respond to this email or contact our toll free number at 1-877-723-3929. One of our associates will be happy to assist you.

We appreciate your business and hope that we will see you again soon. Thank you for shopping at Safeway.

Sincerely,

Teresa McDaniel
Customer Service Center


My Response to that response:


Dear Ms. McDaniel:

I appreciate your response as I have not been able to get a response from the general corporate office in this matter. I can understand that you are not intentionally discriminating against anyone and I can understand the reasoning behind this as purely a business decision. However, Safeway and other large corporations have a responsibility to the health and well-being of the communities in which they operate. Removing easy and convenient access of birth control from shelves, for whatever reasons, jeopardizes the health and well-being of communities. Condoms have been proven to reduce the rate of unwanted pregnancies as well as the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Moving condoms from shelves to behind the counter, under lock and key, where customers must stand in line and specifically ask for them lessens the likelihood that birth control will be used. This is obviously unfortunate and I am concerned about the trend this sets for other stores. Currently, Target and King Soopers, which are located in the same neighborhood as two of the Safeways I mentioned below, still have their condoms on their shelves, easily accessible. This speaks volumes about where their priorities lie when compared to Safeways'. I am sure you must be aware that your bottom line is not your only priority.

I was once a loyal shopper of Safeway and am confident that your store does not wish to be associated with corporate greed at the expense of it's shoppers in 'high theft risk' (which, of course, happens to be lower income, high student population) locations who deserve just as convenient and easy access to birth control as your 'low theft risk' store shoppers. Again, I urge you to reconsider this decision as it reflects poorly on Safeway's ethics.

Sincerely,
Nicole Sullivan

No further response from Safeway