Not very.
I did some shopping there yesterday and - as I spent over a certain amount - I was given a 'present'. Didn't even examine what they put in my bag until I got home and looked at it properly.
I was given a black laptop case. Not bad, I thought. Attached to it was a small plastic device with a few buttons. A voice recorder, as it turned out.
Inside the bag I found another 'gift' - four little samples of their No 7 for men range. 'Nice,' I thought. Until I looked at the label, that is (pictured above).
Out of the 6 separate 'gifts' only two were actually made in the UK, the rest came from China and Thailand. And the whole lot was assembled in Thailand.
So let me get it right: Boots produces tiny samples of their product, then sends them to Thailand. It produces some more samples locally in Thailand too and flies some more stuff over from China (including the plastic voice recorder, which, according to Boots, can be used 'to record where you parked your car').
Then all that is bundled together and flown back to the UK to be given away for free.
Wow, that's a substantial carbon footprint just to thank me for spending £30 in one of their stores.
Mind boggles.
Any Boots people out there, willing to explain whether all this is necessary?