Musing from a bagel store
April 8, 2008
Posted by CindyW in : Opinions & Thoughts , trackback
Most days I make my own coffee from organic shade-grown fair trade beans (yep, fall right into the latte sipping, Prius driving demographics). But a couple of times a week, I love to get my coffee from my local coffee/pastry/bagel shops. The aroma of a good bakery is simply irresistible.
There are two bagels shops walking distance to my home – bagel store A is about 5 minutes further than bagel store B. They have equally yummy cuppa Joe and authentic fresh bagels. But I always walk 5 minutes further to bagel store A, because I am cheap and because I feel appreciated. You see, I bring my own coffee mug and bagel store A acknowledges that by charging me 50c less. And bagel store B, along with most coffee shops, charges me the normal rate.
$1 a week doesn’t make or break my finance. But I love that bagel store A notices my travel mug and rewards me for it. Most people go into the bagel shop use the provided paper cups, so you may say that saving a couple of paper cups doesn’t make a whole lot of difference. Or does it? Almost every week, a person in line would say, “Hey, you get 50c off? I am gonna have to remember to bring my mug.” Well, maybe he/she will.
It got me thinking about financial incentives for going green. ValerieG sensibly commented on one of my eco-nuts posts that the voluntary greenies were still a fringe group, though the group was getting bigger. Majority of the people still need a push, perhaps a financial push. I believe that part of the reason that hybrid cars are ubiquitous in California is partly due the financial reward (initial $1,500 tax break) and non-financial reward (carpool lane decal). A number of Prius owners I know have become owners because of the carpool lane decal alone.
Then there is the solar panel installation. California offers hefty tax rebates to kick start residential roof top solar system installations. The tax rebates have significantly increased solar system installations. In my small neighborhood, 10% of the houses seem to have set up solar systems.
On the flip side, our cheap gas price has certainly contributed to the popularity of 8 cylinder SUVs. At the risk of offending people, I still think our gas price is cheap, at least when compared with other countries.
As the graph (from last year) describes, the average vehicle fuel efficiency (miles per gallon) is proportional to gas price – the higher the gas price is in a country, the better its average vehicle fuel efficiency seems to be. I personally don’t think people in Europe are much more eco-conscientious than us. Their unsubsidized gas price has a lot to do with the small and fuel efficient car they drive.
While it is encouraging that people are beginning to recognize the impact their daily lives have on the environment, the slow adaptive behavior changes are not likely to stop the rapid progression of global warming. I think it is high time for the federal, state and local governments to design and apply economic levers to encourage people to do the right things.
This means that we need to pay attention to policy legislations, such as the Solar and Clean Energy Act and the Farm Bill. We need to vote the right people into office to represent us. At the local level, perhaps we even need to pay attention to the waste removal fees to discourage trash disposal.
Anyhow this is my musing coming back from bagel store A. But practically I am not sure how an individual can sort through bills, policies, amendments at all governmental levels. Sorry, I have questions, but no answers. I will chew on these questions in the next few weeks.
CindyW
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Comments»
My local grocery store now refunds me 3 cents for every cloth bag I use, which isn’t enough to be an incentive to most people, but I do understand that grocery store profit margins are notoriously low, and they are simpley washing the cost of the plastic bag you would have taken. Still, it’s kind of surprising that they are doing it at all. The clerks tell me a lot more people are bringing their own bags. So something’s afoot.
We also are seeing lots of Priuses and other fuel efficient cars on the road here. A good friend of mine that commutes in from the country just traded her Trailblazer for a Yaris. And if you knew her, you’d know this was bottom-line driven! So the financial incentives are necessary, too. I guess we need to come at this from both angles. But the big investments, like cars and solar panels, probably need an extra push from the government
While I think economic incentives (such as the reduced price for coffee you get for bringing a cup) work well, I believe that economic disincentives (such as the higher gas prices in Europe) work better.
Logically, either one should work just fine. But human beings are not rational. So while a person should be able to say to themselves, “Oh, if I bring my own cup, I will save 50 cents, therefore I am paying an extra 50 cents for a paper cup,” that doesn’t happen. Instead it would be better if the bagel shop CHARGED an extra fifty cents for the cup. Because then a person would look at that and say, “Hell no! I’m not paying 50 cents more for a CUP!”
I don’t know if that made sense, and anyway, I understand why the bagel shop wouldn’t want to do that, but I think from a policy approach, my feeling is a disincentive does more than an incentive.
arduous, I see your point. I think for marketing purposes the coffee shop would want to stay very positive though. They would rather have some one say, “Oh, that’s nice, I get a discount!” than “That darn coffee shop charges for a stupid paper cup!”.
Does that make sense?
I think it is hard to use a disincentive in a small local bagel shop. But it may not be as hard for a government policy be it local, state or federal. Or even a large grocery store chain. In Ireland for instance, when a large national grocery store chain started charging 15c (whatever the local currency is) per plastic bag, within a couple of months, there was a 94% reduction in plastic bag usage. A stunning result, really.
I am thinking about my local waste management service. For a 32 gallon trash can, I get charged $15 a month. For a 64 gallon trash can, the price tag is $29. If the waste management service were to up the fee attached to a 64 gallon trash to $50, people would start taking notice and modify their behavior accordingly. Some may argue that it adds hardship for an average household. But I disagree. We are a 4-person household - pretty average. So if we are able to reduce trash to 1x 13 gallon bag every other week, it should be attainable for most households to use the 32 gallon trash can once a week.
In general I tend to agree that disincentive works more effectively as a behavior change agent. Small mom and pop shops however do not have enough leverage to enact disincentives.
Interesting post. Life Less Plastic recently posted that Ikea will stop using plastic bags effective October because 92% of their customers don’t use them now that they have to pay $.05 per bag. Interesting how small the disincentive can be to be effective.
I think we need to see a combination of the two and way more governmental involvement to make a difference.
We have a similar situation with our garbage hauling. I don’t know if you have municipal haulers there, but here we have private haulers, although some are big national companies. But a very popular hauling company here is locally owned and is really more of a recycling company than a garbage company. They charge by volume, and, for tightwads like us who only produce a 32 gal. container of actual garbage every two weeks, they only charge $12/month. They recycle all kinds of stuff, and don’t charge for that, so we have that taken away every week. You can see why they are giving the other haulers a run for their money.
I’m a big proponent of volume-based waste hauling. Here’s where our local government can be proactive. Just as they require all haulers here to offer curb-side recycling, they could require them all to use volume-based pricing. They are still independent contractors, and people can still choose among them, so you haven’t squelched competition or anything, but folks might recycle more if they can lower their bill
Let’s see, this started off about coffee…..
Oh, I completely agree that a disincentive at a local coffee shop would have been suicide! I totally get why they went the incentive route. But a government tax on paper cups would, IMO, be better than a credit on bringing your own cup.
Ditto. I would support disincentives that can change behaviors. Even $0.05 can do it, as GB said earlier.
The only big drawback I could see to the higher garbage hauling prices would be the greater potential for illegal dumping. There are people in the world who really do not care where their trash ends up.
Thanks for pointing out LCW. I had not heard about them previously.
One of the many reasons I began frequenting natural foods stores and the local farm stand and farmer’s markets was because of the way my purchases were handled.
In regular grocery stores like Aldi’s, Acme or Giant the clerks would literally throw my purchases after scanning them and it really irritated me. In the places I now frequent, the purchases are handled like they are valuable jewels and I like that. I mean, this is something I’m going to put in my mouth. I want it to be handled with care.
I meant LCV.