I love that Twitter offers you the whole world as an audience–and asking public questions can be an effective way to get answers. Recently, I got a nice first-hand experience.
If you’re health conscious (poison conscious, really) then you know what BPA or Bisphenol A is. If you don’t, it’s a toxin found in many food-grade containers, particularly in the linings of canned foods. So I recently asked my Whole Foods grocer if the generic Whole Foods bean cans contained BPA (I already knew they did, but wanted so engage with someone about it). The stocker I asked didn’t know what BPA was. The store’s customer service desk knew what it was but didn’t know the answer. She took my name and number–but never got back to me.
Pre-Twitter, I’d have to simmer in my own dissatisfaction at not having any leverage to get Whole Foods to answer my question. Post Twitter, I get to ask my question in front of the whole world–and that puts a lot of pressure on corporate PR folks to answer.
Here’s my original tweet:
And here’s my answer!
Thanks, Twitter, for helping me get the answer I wanted in a convenient way. Plus, now everybody else knows too.
