Who’s Minding the Store?
A report card on retailer actions to eliminate toxic chemicals
In their third annual report card on safer chemicals in consumer products, the Mind the Store campaign found that major retailers are making slow but meaningful progress in improving the chemical safety of the products and packaging they sell, but nearly half have failed to make the grade.
Average grades show steady improvement in chemical safety over time. The eleven retailers we graded in the 2016 report card improved their average grade from a D+ to a C+ over the last two years. The eighteen retailers we added to the 2017 report card bumped up their average grade from D to a D+ in the last year. Twenty-one out of twenty-nine retailers (72%) evaluated in both 2017 and 2018 improved over the last year. This improvement shows both the impact of the Mind the Store campaign, as well as growing consumer concern and scientific evidence of health impacts from dangerous chemicals.
Nearly half the retailers were slapped with an F grade for failure to adopt even the most basic policies and practices to ensure the chemical safety of their products and packaging.