What do people buy? Focusing on sustainable shopping habits.

Let's look at a consumer's perspective on being sustainable. What does a shopper purchase, how do they recycle, do they consider sustainable products when shopping?

Let's find out!

Jacob's Background: Consumer/Shopper/Millennial

Let's meet our subject, the baseline for the consumer conversation: Jacob. A 24-year-old Arizona resident who frequents common grocery stores such as Walmart, Fry's Marketplace, Safeway, and sometimes Sprout's. He has also found himself in a Whole Foods on occasion as well as shopping online through Amazon, Shein, Nordstrom, and much more. From clothes to groceries and gadgets, Jacob is like most consumers in North America, specifically the United States. His resources come from large corporations and his decisions are his to make about what he chooses to purchase from a large variety of stores.

Jacob may not be the prime example of all shoppers in America, as a 24-year-old male married with no kids. But he does give a unique perspective about what it is like to shop for him. He has a business background and works as an online manager, spending most of his week in his home office. It should be noted that his household income is about 70k and he has about the same spending money for groceries as most American's in middle class Arizona suburbs. With raising prices of products such as toilet paper, eggs, and dairy in the recent years of 2020-2023 he has had to learn how to adapt his spending habits to make his choices affordable.

Question for Jacob: "Do you try to make sustainable choices while shopping?"

Answer: "Yes. For example, I wanted a new pair of shoes that were eco-friendly and conscious. I looked on the market and typed in 'sustainable shoes' and the first ones that came up were Hey Dude's. Adidas also does an end-of-waste campaign that I was interested in."

Question for Jacob: "Do you find that sustainable choices are widely available and affordable to you?"

Answer: "No. No because in the middle class you have an option to spend your money wisely on a cheap product or quick fix versus something that is more durable and expensive. Something that is not taken accounted for is sustainability. Oftentimes sustainability is pricier than the average consumer can buy. We can't all afford to think 100% sustainable even if we want to."

The Average Consumer:

An average American will spend around $5000 a year for food at home as well as nearly $2000 for apparel and services according to investopedia.com. In other words, Americans are spending 2.3 trillion dollars on food and apparel a year in the average American market. With so much money being spent every day, one would hope that their purchase options are sustainable and that they would be making sustainable purchasing habits. People in the United States will produce nearly 5 pounds of trash a day from their homes which includes a mix of all unrecyclable products purchased from various stores.

Here is a list of common non sustainable products: (Lennon)

- Paper coffee cups

- Boxes of tea

- Disposable cutlery

- Disposable plates

- Produce bags

- Single-use razors

- Menstrual products

- Plastic water bottles

- Food packaging

How to Choose the Sustainable Option:

There are pros and cons of choosing sustainability options. This is the hard truth, the sustainable products advertised as environmentally friendly may just be a marketing ploy. Not to mention the higher prices sustainable products cost compared to their non-sustainable counterparts. Let's do a real live example from Walmart.com

Here we have the sustainable option for cleaner/multipurpose spray:

Here we have the non-sustainable option:

What did you notice right away between these two products? Price? Size? Investment? Packaging? All of these contribute to the differences between these products. The single-use cleaner is only $0.98 whereas the better option for the environment (with four refills, though!) is $8.99 and more refills for $13.99. The healthier option is a great deal, but when purchasing on a whim the average consumer is mostly likely going to choose what is cheap and convenient for them.

There are many schools of thought and blame when we discuss the consumer. Should they just simply care more about the products they purchase? Should they be educated more on the importance of waste reduction? Whose fault is it? It's tricky, because we cannot blame the consumer in whole for falling for marketing tactics and wanting better prices, but we cannot expect sustainable companies to compete with the low prices of the garbage that litters the world. Are we to blame lower-income communities for waste if they cannot afford it? Surely, that is not fair, especially if one is to assume the school system failed to teach them the importance of reduce, reuse, recycle.

Jacob: What does he buy for groceries on average?

Circling back to our Arizonian consumer, Jacob, let's take a look at what he purchases on a weekly basis from the grocery store.

Here he lists some of the common purchases he makes from Fry's Marketplace:

- Wild Sockeye Salmon

- Noosa Mixed Berry Yoghurt

- 3-lb Bag Honey Crisp Apples

- Quilted Northern Ultra Plush Toilet Paper

- 6-pack Bounty Paper Towels

- 1 Gallon 1% milk

- 1 dozen eggs

- Dave's Organic Bread

We have the salmon wild caught and sustainably sourced which is a great purchase. There is also the organic bread in recycled packaging that is a good option as well. He wishes he liked milk alternatives more, but cow's milk is cheapest and easiest for him. A better option for the environment would be oatmilk, soymilk, almondmilk, something not derived from an animal that causes Co2 gas. An alternative to the paper towels could be a reusable rag that can be reused over and over to clean counters, stovetops, sinks and more, negating the need for paper towels altogether. Regular hand towels also work to dry hands. Another example of a more sustainable option would be purchasing Honey Crisp apples using a reusable bag instead of the bags given to consumer's at the store for convivence:

What we (learners and consumers) know:

There are many ways to practice sustainability in our everyday purchases to reduce the 5lbs a day waste estimated for each American. There is give and take when it comes to be a sustainable consumer. Some people may be able to afford to be vegan and completely waste free, while others may need to simply make a couple switches from the cheap Walmart cleaner to an investment of the environmentally-friendly cleaner. Perhaps a first step is to purchase an eco-friendly produce bag to negate the use of single-use bags and packaging provided at the stores. There is no wrong way to approach sustainable purchases, it is all about the effort we make to provide cleaner air, oceans, and land for the world even if the efforts are small.

Works Cited

Krosofsky, Andrew. “If You're Not Sure How Much Trash You Produce Each Month, Prepare to Be Shocked.” Green Matters, Green Matters, 9 Nov. 2021, https://www.greenmatters.com/p/how-much-garbage-does-average-person-produce.

Lennon, Caroline. “10 Products That Are Killing the Environment (with Better Alternatives).” One Green Planet, One Green Planet, 18 Jan. 2023, https://www.onegreenplanet.org/lifestyle/10-products-that-are-killing-the-environment/.