Please Waitrose, please break up with Shell....

[Heathcliffscathy]

it's all here

I don't see how Waitrose can claim to be ethical and continue this relationship. Can mumsnet towers not do something about this given that Waitrose are a partner of theirs?

Shell have commited human rights abuses and totally and utterly f*cked the Niger Delta. Waitrose should have nothing to do with them!

Does the website point out an ethical petroleum company that Waitrose should partner up with? Or is 'Climate Rush' just another bunch of cyber-bullies?

hmmmm....ethical petroleum companies....let's think now....

and mumsnet should have nothing to do with waitrose until they sever their relationship.

So your argument is that no-one that has anything to do with a petroleum company should be ostracised. Well, I hope you ride a bicycle....

'anyone' rather than 'no-one'...

Frother

i don't buy petrol from shell. and you either a) have never researched and seen what shell have done in niger or b) consider big business above any kind of morality. or both.

Of course you buy petrol from Shell. You don't think the Shell refineries only supply Shell garages do you? As for what's happened in Niger, it's a given that the oil industry is large, nasty, dirty and brings out the worst in people. The Nigerian government hung the activists.... boycott Nigeria perhaps? A BP spill polluted the American coastline. Esso have paid compensation for pollution in the past. Goods are delivered by trucks/ships using nasty old diesel. Oil by-product polymers are used universally. Anyone serious about boycotting the petroleum industry can't just pick one distributor and one supermarket to bully.

Sophable. Just who DO you buy petrol from then?

Which petroleum company is 'ethical' then?

This latest protest is about as funny as the news article a saw a while back where climate protestors were protesting about oil companies before being shown to drive off in an old polluting van complete with dodgy exhaust spewing black smoke out of the back of it.

You're missing the point entirely and i'm sure intentionally: Waitrose's USP is that they are the 'ethical' supermarket. They hold themselves up as being better than Tescos etc in this respect. That is why Waitrose should be politely but insistently be discouraged from doing business with Shell. The govt may have done the excecuting in Nigeria but Shell are part culpable as they encouraged and pressurised the govt to cover up the protests.

come to think of it, the attitude on here is exactly how we have ended up in the shit we're in: oh, you know, it's all fucked, and if you breath and eat and live in the west then you're just as culpable and therefore it's a joke if you protest because this is just HOW THINGS ARE and nothing you can do about it anyway. it sucks. I don't claim to live an ethical life. I try in some aspects of how I live to do so and fail miserably in others. Doesn't mean that i should just throw in the towel completely, nor does it mean that I am responsible to the same degree as a huge multinational that COULD have taken responsibility and compensated those whose lives it has ruined but CHOSE NOT TO. Nor does it mean I shouldn't try to call attention to hypocrisy or misguidedness on the part of a supermarket that does appear most of the time to TRY to do things a little better than it's peers.

Just seen this. Not good.

Whether any other fuel companies are more or less ethical than shell is besides the point - waitrose and jlp are partnerships which pride themselves on doing "the right thing". Our JL has a big sign up saying that mr lewis's idea was to make the world a bit of a better place.

ergo this is out of step with who they are and what they do and I am surprised, to say the least.

As someone who spends vast amounts of money with the partnership I will be writing to tell them of my disappointment and asking what they are thinking of.

Thanks for raising this sophable.

I think the Waitrose position is entirely credible and I'm fed up with these single-issue, "let's pick on a decent company and run it into the ground" cowardly internet campaigns. They want to expand their business, creating more jobs and putting more money into the Exchequer via taxes by going into partnership with Shell filling stations. Not missing the point to say that if they'd gone into partnership with BP or Esso or any other petrol retailer they'd be getting exactly the same 'you're being unethical' response. So they're just supposed to forget the whole idea and leave all the other retailers to have their filling stations (supplied by Shell and others) and corner that particular market? Wonder what brand of diesel is in the Waitrose fleet of delivery vehicles....

What is waitrose's position? Has there been a statement?

Does JLP really need to get into the petroleum business? I mean are their current business activities and objectives not enough?

I do think there's a bit of a conflict with JLP and their previous good ethics getting into bed with a company like Shell. Or indeed any other company where the strategic objectives don't quite fit.

I think it's an odd thing to do regardless of any particular crimes Shell may have committed as an organisation.

Waitrose's 'position' is "Hi, we have convenience shops on Shell petrol forecourts so we can make our food available to more customers in more places."

i've had the same response on twitter and via email (the email slightly more formal language).

deeply unimpressive.

There are so many businesses to target right now, due to the workfare scandal. But really that is just a piddle in the ocean compared to the environmental disaster set to befall us all - with those nations least able to cope taking the brunt of climate catastrophe.

It's a bit overwhelming to even contemplate, for some. As evidenced on this thread some become defensive, almost bullying in their tone and terms. This is possibly because they think nothing can be done. We have big oil companies. They're fecking the world for us but there's nothing we can do, so let's all shut up about it.

That's all well and good. And possibly true. But what Sophable points out is that there is another sort of company: one that apparently prides itself and most definitely SELLS itself as something different: ethical, fair, environmentally aware. When such a company goes into a business with a company famed for it's complete and utter disregard for justice, and any manner of ethics....well it kind of suggests that the green image is nothing more than green wash.

We're intelligent people. We don't like being taken for a ride. And right now, Waitrose seems to have it's foot on the accelerator, and to be heading in completely the wrong direction.

It's not wrong to ask if it has to be Shell. Amnesty international has plenty to say about Shell- and while we may argue that they're all the same, it is well known that Shell has demonstrated a particularly strong disregard for any issues of ethics.

I'm not convinced most people know about this...I honestly think that if Waitrose customers knew, and were informed about Shell's human rights abuses, they would definitely put pressure on Waitrose to severe links. Call me naive. I think that many of the people who can afford to shop in Waitrose do so as they feel that Waitrose and the John Lewis partnership genuinely offer a more ethical option, one with a greater sense of social justice than other big companies. I really don't understand how anyone at JL HQ thought this was a good idea?

I shop more or less exclusively in Waitrose, but not because of how green or ethical they say they are, but because (IMO) the food is better, the staff are better trained, smile and help you and the service in my Waitrose far exceeds that of the rival supermarkets. That they are partnering with Shell will not deter me in any way. If however their food or service starts to go downhilee, then I will think again.

Agree with amothersplace

oh dear. i guess 'i'm alright jack' may win after all.

It's not 'i'm alright jack' attitude but more we're tired of people telling us how we should spend our money by a small minority group who aren't aware of how flawed their own arguments are.

So let's for arguments sake say that Waitrose do an about face and stop dealing with Shell. So what do you suppose realistically would happen?

Well I can see two scenarios:

1. Nothing. No additional jobs are created, said Shell petrol stations continue to sell overpriced crap.

2. Someone like Tesco's moves in and the 'ethical' Waitrose stores would be replaced by Tesco Expresses who don't give two shits about 'ethics'

Your righteous indignation reminds me of the news report I saw a while back where a bunch of green protestors rocked up to make a kerfuffle before being shown driving off in a battered old transit van spewing black smoke into the clean air. Misguided and deeply hypocritical.

If you are truly so concerned with the ethics which Shell and their ilk have, stop using petrol, stop using products made from oil. Then perhaps I may take you more seriously.

dammit, i'm tired! I already mentioned the van!

Does anyone know which petrol company Co-op partner with (I know I've defintely seen Co-op stores on forecourts) and how that effects their ethical policy?