Recycling Retail
San Francisco had a break today in a series of winter storms. So while the Mid-Atlantic digs out from “Snowpacolypse”, I went for a post-brunch stroll with some friends on 24th Street in Noe Valley.
As someone with a love of ethnographic research, I enjoy discovering new approaches to live. And San Francisco thrives in that department – this is a city of entrepreneurs, it sometimes feels like everybody is working on some new great idea or cool invention. So walking the streets lets you see what you miss while driving and concentrating on finding the elusive open parking spot. What caught my eye today was a new store called Green 11 where a Ritz Camera used to be. Big stencil letters were on the front. The words “soap” “cleaner” and “recycling” were spelled out. Looking into the window, I spied industrial size containers of different cleaning products. I also saw Nellie’s Dryer Balls – a product I fell in love with at the Home show in Chicago several years ago.
Seduced by cleaning products, I walked in. Green 11 is a new retailer that sells refills of household cleaners that are free of any known harmful ingredients. The concept is easy – bring in any empty household cleaning product container, refill it with one of the products they sell, and you only pay for the product, not the packaging. The consumer saves money by not having to pay for new packaging while the environment benefits from the reduced trash. Green 11 is also encouraging their customers to bring in their own personal bottles and containers, putting self-expression into the household cleaners category.
Could this be the start of a new retail trend? Green 11 taps into the green movement and those consumer’s desire to reduce their carbon footprint and the amount of trash they leave behind. And the store itself requires a minimum amount of retail space (like 600 sf or so).
What’s to say the mainstream retailers couldn’t follow this act. Imagine how Target could execute a “refills counter” – whether selling refills of Seventh Generation, Method or Tide laundry detergent (or all three, hopefully). Or think of the volume of business Wal-Mart could generate and landfill they could spare – and what Wal-Mart could do with some of the saved shelf-space (industrial sized containers might take up less shelf space than individual bottles). And let’s not forget Safeway, Kroger and the other grocery chains that could also execute this concept with their regular shoppers.
It just so happens we finished up our window cleaner this weekend. We’re cleaning the bottle and will be headed in for our first refill. I can’t wait till we’re out of laundry detergent.