When I heard Waitrose were teaming up with Shell, running their forecourt stores, I decided to ask them on their Facebook page why they were risking their ethical reputation by associating themselves with a company that was putting the pristine Arctic environment at risk. And I wasn't the only one.
They copy and pasted in a flimsy PR statement saying the relationship was ok because it was only small (probably the weakest argument I've ever heard), and that Shell have promised to drill in the Arctic 'with respect for the environment' (yeah, right).
Dissatisfied with this response, I asked them again, this time in a Facebook Q&A event they were hosting with Delia Smith. I was rather hoping for a mature, responsible conversation. But instead, Waitrose deleted my post and banned me from posting, commenting or even 'liking' anything on their page.
If they think that's the way to win an argument in social media, they've got a lot of growing up to do. Censoring customers with genuine concerns is an interesting approach to public relations, but I don't think it's going to do them any good in the long run.
The campaign to get Waitrose to do the right thing and #DumpShell is gaining momentum, not only on social media, but also through the 27,000 (and rising) people who have emailed them, and the people using their free time to protest and engage with customers in front of their shops.
There's only one way for this to end happily for Waitrose, they need to dump Shell, not their customers' comments.
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