It's just after 3pm now and all of the main teams of volunteers have either been removed from or left their respective branches of Woolworths after clearing the shelves of inefficient light bulbs. The management at head office seems clearly rattled as their press officers have been telling our Light Brigaders (or is that Brigadiers?) that there'll be an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss their light bulb policy. We'll keep you posted on what, if anything, transpires next week. In the meantime, there's our cheap-as-chips video and photos from the day of action on Flickr to keep you entertained.
But as is usual for any direct action we stage, quirky stories have been filtering back to the office. In Cardiff, the police asked how long they were going to be protesting for and when our team said half an hour, the officers said fine, carry on, we'll just be by the door. In the end, they managed to stay on for over two hours.
We've also had other teams clearing shelves and taking the offending bulbs to the manager, with none of the chaining up business that's been happening in the seven main cities. Around 75 branches have been visited so far, including one in Portsmouth where the volunteers arrived to find the shelves already empty of old-fashioned light bulbs. Had the staff received a tip-off from head office? We may never know, but the response from managers has ranged from being extremely co-operative to refusing point-blank to answer questions. Some have even banned volunteers from their branches, simply for asking to speak to the manager about light bulbs. Talk about an over-reaction.
Still, it's incredible that any shop in this day and age continues to sell this out-dated technology when most other Victorian innovations have been improved or replaced. The company history section of Woolworths own website makes a big fuss about how founder Frank Woolworth pioneered the use of Thomas Edison's invention in both the US and the UK, using them extensively in-store and promoting them to customers. Quite fittingly, the history section is called the 'museum' which is exactly where incandescent bulbs should be.
The phrase 'resting on your laurels' comes to mind, but basking in past glories from over a century ago does not make for a progressive company that responds to the changing needs of a very different world, and their current fortunes is maybe an indication of that. Tellingly, their site claims that the "basic bulb remains much the same" as it did nearly 130 years ago but that couldn't be further from the truth. Technology has moved on and compact florescent lamps (CFLs), which mark a significant leap forward from Edison's incandescent bulb, have been available for over 30 years and are not exactly "new" as Woolworths seems to think.
But then, followed as it is by the most appalling joke I've seen for a long time - suggesting that Woolies knows "what's watt in light entertainment" - perhaps I shouldn't be all that surprised.
