Walgreens Dangling Green Product Line As Eco-Friendly Carrot To Bring In Consumers

Call something “green” and odds are, environmentally-conscious customers are going to be on board with it, as many consumers these days are all about keeping Mother Earth healthy. Walgreens is banking on our need to be green with its own line of household products that don’t contain any harmful chemicals. They’re hoping you like the earth enough to buy their stuff, of course.

Reuters says the first 24 products in the “Ology” line include baby and personal care items, paper products and compact fluorescent light bulbs and will arrive in  7,900 drugstores this week.

Walgreens is definitely aiming to get a share of the consumer pie that is devoted to sustainability — call it a trend, a fad or an honest to goodness desire to go green. And hey, “green” is already in its own name, conveniently enough.

Big brand names sell green items like Clorox’s Green Works cleaners and others, but Walgreens says it’s changing the game by actually changing up the formulas it’s using.

“In this instance we’re leading,” said  Maurice Alkemade, Walgreen’s group vice president of retail brands and global sourcing in an interview. “We’re taking these chemicals out prior to national brands doing it.”

Among the items are baby lotion and body wash, liquid laundry detergent and fabric softener, glass cleaner, all-purpose cleaner, and shampoo and conditioner. There aren’t any harsh things like ammonia or chlorine bleach and everything is packaged in recyclable material. Even the tissues are made from sugar can husk and bamboo and whitened with non-chlorine-based bleach.

I don’t know about you but there are plenty of consumers out there who see a “green” label and jump at the chance to buy it — whether it’s out of an honest desire to help the environment or appear as eco-friendly as their neighbor. And in the end, if it does help the planet, who cares why you buy it?

Walgreen adds ‘green’ line to private-label push [Reuters]

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