[Advanced] Capitalism With a Conscience (3)

Nordstrom, too, has an eye on helping others with a Manhattan retail store, Treasure&Bond, whose profits -- and sometimes, a portion of its sales receipts -- go to charity.

Pete Nordstrom, president of merchandising and great-grandson of the Nordstrom chain's founder, says he got the idea a few years ago when visited a store in Paris, whose proceeds all went to charity. "Companies have to do more than make money," he says.

But kindness doesn't always come easy -- or cheap. The store has been running in the red since it opened, concedes Nordstrom. On top of that, it may have to change locations -- or even close -- after the lease expires in about six months.

"We will keep doing this as long as we can make it work," he says. "We have to balance making money and fulfilling our mission."

But if the motivation for doing good is just about selling more stuff or making more money, it's doomed to fail, warns Whole Foods' Mackey, who recently co-authored a best-selling book on the topic, Conscious Capitalism. His natural foods grocery chain runs a foundation that grants loans to aid people in poverty in 55 countries trying to start small businesses.

Starbucks has been at it for years.

The coffee kingpin has operated a "community" store in New York's Harlem district that's been donating a fat chunk of its profits to local charities for more than seven years. More recently, it's opened similar stores in Los Angeles and Houston. By 2018, it expects to operate 50 of these community stores.

CEO Howard Schultz says, "This can't be done through a lens of marketing and PR, but through a lens of guiding principles." Government simply can't do everything, he says, "so it's incumbent upon business leaders to do more than our share."

Just the image of kindness can be an effective sales tool.

It's no accident that one of Coca-Cola's Super Bowl spots displayed a series of kind acts -- such as dropped wallets being returned -- as captured by security camera footage from around the globe. Fostering kind acts will become a bigger part of Coke's marketing going forward, says Cristina Bondolowski, vice president of global brands. Extensive research shows that performing kind acts -- the act of giving -- makes people feel happier.

"This is not just telling people to be happy," says Bondolowski, "but inspiring happiness."

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