70% of Popularly Ranked Companies Are Improving Toxic Chemical Safety

We’ve got some good news! Retail safety, although needing improvement, is getting safer than it was years ago. With so many retail stores to choose from, why not select the ones that are keeping your family the safest, right? Mamavation tends to agree and has good news from our NGO partners about improvements in toxic chemical safety with retailers.  You’ve trusted Mamavation to bring you topics like the safest cookware, best organic mattresses, and best air purifiers, now join us as we go over the Mind the Store Report for 2021 and bring you some good news about popularly ranked retail stores.

Mind the Store Campaign Offers Report Cards Helpful to Consumers on Retailers Based On Safety

The national Mind the Store campaign, a program of Toxic-Free Future, do the difficult job of evaluating retailers every year with their Mind the Store Annual Report Cards. They make your family safer by challenging big retailers to eliminate toxic chemicals and replace them with safer alternatives and assist them in that process as needed.

The campaign publishes an annual retailer report card that benchmarks and scores major retailers on their safer chemicals policies and implementation programs with www.mindthestore.org and www.retailerreportcard.org. 

Mind the Store Report Card 2021–Good News 70% of Companies Surveyed Improved

The 2021 Mind the Store Report Card was full of surprises and good news! Not only did they expand to 50 retailers, but about 70% of companies surveyed have improved their grade compared to their first evaluation in the retailer report card.

This year some big moves happened:

• CONGRATULATIONS MAMAVATION READERS–Your work helping us petition Target over bisphenols in their receipt paper garnered over 50,000 signatures, was followed by a corporate meeting, and then later resulted in Target reformulating bisphenols out of their thermal receipt paper! (I mean, we even gave them a list of alternatives when we met.) Once that happened, the other retailers noticed Target’s improvement to safety, CVS, TJ Max, & Loblaws followed suit!
• RACIAL INJUSTICE & HEALTH INEQUITY–Target and Rite Aid will address racial injustice and health inequity by committing to screening beauty products marketed to women of color for toxic chemicals. Specifically, they will screen for chemicals that are often found in skin lightening cream and hair straighteners and relaxers. (Check out Mamavation’s special guest content about racism and hair relaxers and the best non-toxic brands.)
• PFAS & FOOD PACKAGING MILESTONES–12 major retailers with more than 65,000 stores worldwide have now pledged to eliminate or reduce toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” in food packaging: 7-Eleven, Ahold Delhaize, Albertsons, Amazon, Chipotle, McDonald’s, Panera Bread, Rite Aid, Taco Bell, TJX, Trader Joe’s, and Whole Foods Market.
• PFAS & TEXTILES AT LOWES & REI–Lowe’s became the first major retailer to announce it will no longer sell fabric protection sprays containing PFAS. REI announced that it is restricting PFAS in all clothing treatment and ski wax products but still allows PFAS in outdoor apparel and other textiles.
• LESS FAILING GRADES OVERALL–This year’s analysis finds the lowest-ever percentage of retailers with F scores, with only 12 out of 50 receiving failing grades.
• BEAUTY WINS–Beauty and personal care sector reported among the greatest gains of any retail sector overall. Ulta Beauty was the most improved retailer in the last year, earning a C- grade as compared with its F result in 2019. And, Sephora has shown the greatest improvement over time, receiving an A grade, up from a D when first evaluated in 2017.

The Major Retail “Losers” of 2021

Okay, before we get to all the grades, check out the losers of 2021. This is a list of brands that aren’t doing very much to protect your family. Here’s the full list of grocery stores that had failing scores. Most retailers here that are serving food are doing very little about PFAS in the food packaging.

•  7-Eleven
• 99 Cents Only Stores
• Ace Hardware
• Alimentation Couche-Tarde (Circle K, Couche-Tard)
• Metro
• Nordstrom
• Publix
• Restaurant Brands International (Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes)
• Sally Beauty
• Sobeys
• Starbucks
• Subway

If you shop at one of these stores, we suggest you drop by the customer service desk with this post and tell them why you think they should join the other retailer pack in improving their safety score with the Mind the Store Report Card.

The Best & The Worst Retailers–Mind The Store Grades for 2021

Starting with the retail brand that scored the most points to the retail brand that scored the least amount of points, we have listed them all for you below. If you are curious about why each retailer scored the way they scored, check out the original report card here.

• Apple, A+ with 116.25 points
• Target, A+ with 105 points
• Whole Foods, A with 98.25 points
• Sephora, A with 96.25 points
• Walmart, A- wth 93 points
• Sam’s Club, A- with 93 points
• IKEA, A- with 90 points
• Rite-Aid, B+ with 85.25 points
• REI, B with 77 points
• Home Depot, B with 76.25 points
• CVS Health, B with 72 points
• Bath & Body Works, B- with 69 points
• Victoria’s Secret, B- with 69 points
• Lowe’s, B- with 68 points
• Costco, B- with 65.5 points
• ALDI, B- with 63.75 points
• Walgreens, B- with 63.25 points
• Dollar Tree, C+ with 61.75 points
• Family Dollar, C+ with 61.75 points
• buybuy Baby, C+ with 59 points
• Bed Bath & Beyond, C+ with 59 points
• Amazon, C+ with 56.75 points
• Kohl’s, C+ with 56.25 points
• Best Buy, C with 52 points
• Office Depot, C with 49.5 points
• Loblaws, C with 47.75 points
• Kroger, C- with 46.5 points
• Fred Meyer, C- with 46.5 points
• Harris Teeter, C- with 46.5 points
• Ralphs, C- with 46.5 points
• Ulta Beaty, C- with 43 points
• Dollar General, C- with 42 points
• Albertsons, C- with 41.25 points
• Safeway, C- with 41.25 points
• Vons, C- with 41.25 points
• Food Lion, C- with 40 points
• Giant, C- with 40 points
• Hannaford, C- with 40 points
• Stop & Shop, C- with 40 points
• Staples, C- with 39.75 points
• Panera Bread, C- with 39.75 points
• Dick’s Sporting Goods, D+ with 34.75 points
• Canadian Tire, D with 29.3 points
• T.J. Max, D with 28.75 points
• Marshalls, D with 28.75 points
• HomeGoods, D with 28.75 points
• McDonalds, D with 26.75 points
• Trader Joes, D with 25.5 points
• Chipotle, D with 24.75 points
• Dunkin’, D with 23.5 points
• Baskin Robbins, D with 23.5 points
• Macy’s, D- with 17.75 points
• KFC, D- with 17.75 points
• Pizza Hut, D- with 17.75 points
• Taco Bell, D- with 17.75 points
• Nordstroms, F with 13.5 points
• Starbucks, F with 11.25 points
• Burger King, F with 11.25 points
• Popeyes, F with 11.25 points
• Tim Horton, F with 11.25 points
• Subway, F with 9.5 points
• 7-Eleven, F with 6 points
• Ace Hardware, F with 5.25 points
• Sobey’s, F with 5.25
• Circle K, F with 1 point
• Couche-Tard, F with 1 point
• Metro, F with 0 points
• Sally Beauty, F with 0 points
• 99 Cents Only Stores, F with 0 points
• Publix, F with 0 points