[sinatras]

Originally Posted by Arcenal352

So... What are we to do with all of these reusable containers? Store 1000 containers in the house? Or is there someone who's going to come and pick them up?

If you read the press release I posted (or any of the 1,000 articles on the Internet about this announcement today), you would have the answer to your question.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/21/busin...oop/index.html

[Arcenal813]

Originally Posted by sinatras

If you read the press release I posted (or any of the 1,000 articles on the Internet about this announcement today), you would have the answer to your question.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/21/busin...oop/index.html

Right. So someone is going to be riding around picking up totes full of empty containers. Imagine the size of the truck that will be needed to clear out a neighborhood if this takes off.

[boy3365]

Originally Posted by sinatras

I'm not aware of another American grocery chain that is going to sell branded groceries in reusable containers. Let me get in my car and head on over to Publix to see whether they are selling ice cream in reusable metal canisters like Kroger plans to do. Somehow I doubt I will find any. Whether we like it or not, more and more American consumers are extremely interested in reducing single-use plastics. Kroger is appealing to that segment with this INNOVATION.

What I find most interesting about this announcement is that Kroger plans to do this in markets where it does not have stores.

Yeah. Totally dodge the comment about these “innovations” being the result of acquisitions or partnerships than from the research and development arms of the big companies themselves.

Being first to market isn’t necessary. Ask any Android user who has a hissy fit when Apple gets all the press for a new feature they’ve apparently been using for a couple of years already.

Walmart or Whole Foods (Amazon) could make a similar announcement tomorrow and knock Kroger out of the headlines.

[boy3365]

Originally Posted by sinatras

If you read the press release I posted (or any of the 1,000 articles on the Internet about this announcement today), you would have the answer to your question.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/21/busin...oop/index.html

Originally Posted by Arcenal352

Right. So someone is going to be riding around picking up totes full of empty containers. Imagine the size of the truck that will be needed to clear out a neighborhood if this takes off.

So, Loop is basically an Instacart and Shipt style service but for reusable packaging. Walgreens and Kroger are the first major brands to partner. Since This is not limited to Kroger and Walgreens is part of it too, I assume other stores can join it as well.

[DanielAvery]

I'm having flashbacks to my childhood when we bought jelly in reusable jars that made great drinking glasses. And butter in plastic bowls we used like Tupperware. We were fifty years ahead of our time with our reusable containers. Oh, and we used to buy drinks in glass bottles that we returned to the store, who would then return it to the bottler to be cleaned and re-used (we even got a penny or two to return it!). I guess everything old is new again.

[aax]

Edibles. The future is in edibles.

[kokonutty]

Originally Posted by DanielAvery

Not just Kroger, apparently...

https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/f...mic-containers

It's only a few dishes so far, but I'm sure they would expand the offerings if it becomes popular. Fresh Market is going full-tilt with their prepared meals and meal kits, but it's not anything new for them--a lot of their Florida stores sell more prepared meals/dishes because retirees and vacationers don't want to cook, apparently.

So the couple that really likes the shrimp and grits enough to eat it every two weeks will spend a thousand dollars a year and have fifty ramekins to show for it at year end.

Somebody better come up with some great uses for all these ramekins that they don't want to add to the waste stream.

[kokonutty]

Originally Posted by sinatras

More innovation from Kroger! No such innovation from Publix!

Products are packaged in reusable glass or metal containers and shipped directly to consumers in a specially designed tote. Once used, products are retrieved through free at-home pickup, then cleaned, refilled and reused – creating a first-of-its-kind circular packaging system.

Press Release

Great. No garbage.

But...what is the cost to the environment of mining the raw ingredients that go into making the containers? What about shipping those to the plant that makes them and then shipping to the food plant that will fill them? Then ship to the store. Repeat this process for the totes that the containers will be moved in. What is the environmental cost to deliver a few of these things to a bunch of homes? Repeat when the service goes back to pick up the empties. By the way, most people will expend energy by cleaning them after use because they won't want food waste containers sitting around waiting to be picked up. How much energy will then be used recleaning and sanitizing those same containers for refill. How much breakage will occur and how many will never be returned? This will of course require new containers with the same environmental cost to be needed for product flow. Every step of the process will require energy both for the process itself and transportation to the next link on the chain.


I'd like to see the audit process make sense of this being more beneficial than the status quo. If it doesn't, it's simply some feel good nonsense that will raise prices.

[aax]

Walmart is awesome. Never seen such low prices.

[bale002]

Originally Posted by aax

Walmart is awesome. Never seen such low prices.

In the long run, cheap is as cheap does.

Ask all those average income earners with displaced jobs and stagnant wages in the countries of early industrialization over the past 30 years as they buy cheap consumer goods from China on credit at 27% interest after teaser rates.

Some deal!