Ballardblog.com » Ashleigh

The Cost of Bags

Ashleigh — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 22:37:12 +0000

Like many other Ballard residents I frequent the Ballard Market, it’s conveniently close and I’ve yet to be disappointed in their products or service. On my trip yesterday I noticed at the checkout that I had been credited 5 cents for bringing my cloth bag – and I commented on it to the checker. She smiled and told me something fascinating – every paper Ballard Market bag costs them 11 cents. So I started to calculate in my head – what does that add up to? How many customers pass through the store on any given day? Hundreds? Thousands? In the time I checked out, I would say about a half dozen people checked out as well, several of them carrying paper bags. From my estimation it would be reasonable to say one thousand bags leave the store daily, about ten bags every fifteen minutes. If they were all paper – that’s 11 cents per bag – the store is spending $110 daily on paper bags, or $40,150 annually – they could employ another full time employee at that amount! Of course all the bags leaving are probably not paper, there are also plastic bags – 3 cents per bag – but plastic is being phased out due to its negative impact on the environment. Still supposing some of the bags are plastic the Market is still looking to spend tens of thousands of dollars annually on bags. No wonder Costo does not supply bags to customers.

I enjoy carrying my cloth bag – it’s more comfortable in my hands or on my shoulder and it’s not wasteful. However, I will be working doubly hard to remember it from now on. I like the Market, they do a good job and supply me with most of my food, any savings they can make are likely to translate into continued and better service, which can only be a good thing.

Real Change

Ashleigh — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 18:52:18 +0000

I don’t see as many of the Real Change vendors on the streets as I did last month, I can only hope they have found a warmer place to stand. Maybe you have seen them – individuals on street corners, often looking like someone with too much hardship in their life. They have newspapers which boldly proclaim Real Change and they’d like to sell you one for a dollar. I’ve bought two of the papers to date and thoroughly enjoyed each of them. They are quality literature, and not just from my uninformed perspective, Real Change has been the recipient of many literary awards. The plan behind the paper is simple, people may purchase papers from a Real Change distributor for 35 cents, then they resell them for $1 and keep all of the profits. Each vendor I purchased from stood and talked to me about everything from politics, to homeless housing, to dog walking. The vendors I have encountered are people in the homeless or low income portions of the population and view Real Change not just as a way to make a bit of money, but as a way to inform the public of their situation and warn them that the fall into poverty isn’t as difficult as one might think.

Valid Real Change vendors wear name tags which they must have visible at all times, one of the women I talked to informed me that this is how they remove bad apples from the organization. So if you see someone, with their badge and paper I urge you to consider purchasing one. It helps out an individual and it’s a great read, I bought my second paper from a vendor right here in Ballard but you’ll find many more of them downtown. Visit the website to learn more.

Ballard Farmers Market – ALL weather

Ashleigh — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:52:04 +0000

The Ballard Farmers Market is one of my favorite parts of living in this great city. Every Sunday, rain, shine or snow, the vendors are there. I happen to live close enough that it was an easy walk to Ballard Ave Sunday morning and while there where less vendors and buyers than usual it was still a pretty good turnout. If you’ve never been to the Farmers Market I encourage you to go check it out, or at least visit the website to understand what’s available. If you have been but didn’t go this week thinking the vendors might not show, I’d like you to know it was not the case!

Where Will Your Christmas Tree Come From?

Ashleigh — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:36:41 +0000

Every year in the United States up to 30 million Christmas Trees may be sold. This means about thirty percent of families in the United States will celebrate with a real tree, where will you get yours? All you have to do is travel on 15th street to see the number of local Christmas Tree sellers at work. In fact, I have been told that the seller set up in the Petco parking lot on Holman road has been around for ten years. If it is your desire to support small local business this holiday season, why not start with the purchase of a local Christmas Tree!

To learn more about the history of the Christmas Tree visit Wikipedia.