New Seasons Market - 2021

Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. No non-grocery posts.
SamSpade
Store Manager
Store Manager
Posts: 1568
Joined: September 13th, 2015, 4:39 pm
Has thanked: 374 times
Been thanked: 57 times
Status: Offline

New Seasons Market - 2021

Post by SamSpade »

I think it's already been noted here, but they are doing some expansions in 2022+23, notably to downtown Vancouver, which lacks a traditional grocer and has a decent residential population.

New story as of today, the chain has announced they will eliminate use of single use water bottles by Earth Day this year. This applies to all stores, Washington, Oregon, and California.
OPB: New Seasons Market to eliminate the sale of single use water bottles by Earth Day
babs
Assistant Store Manager
Assistant Store Manager
Posts: 762
Joined: December 20th, 2016, 3:08 pm
Has thanked: 19 times
Been thanked: 64 times
Status: Offline

Re: New Seasons Market - 2021

Post by babs »

SamSpade wrote: April 6th, 2021, 9:26 am I think it's already been noted here, but they are doing some expansions in 2022+23, notably to downtown Vancouver, which lacks a traditional grocer and has a decent residential population.

New story as of today, the chain has announced they will eliminate use of single use water bottles by Earth Day this year. This applies to all stores, Washington, Oregon, and California.
OPB: New Seasons Market to eliminate the sale of single use water bottles by Earth Day
Wonder what led to the departure of their CEO. I've noticed their stores are less busy than they have been and prices are noticably higher. Could a sales decline be the reason for the CEO leaving?
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: New Seasons Market - 2021

Post by storewanderer »

SamSpade wrote: April 6th, 2021, 9:26 am I think it's already been noted here, but they are doing some expansions in 2022+23, notably to downtown Vancouver, which lacks a traditional grocer and has a decent residential population.

New story as of today, the chain has announced they will eliminate use of single use water bottles by Earth Day this year. This applies to all stores, Washington, Oregon, and California.
OPB: New Seasons Market to eliminate the sale of single use water bottles by Earth Day
Yet they will continue to sell bottled water in sizes above 1 liter. How many people will just buy a bigger bottle (even more plastic waste) who just wanted a small bottle?

Or shift from buying a bottled water to a bottle of seltzer or other single serve beverage the store will continue to sell?

Also will they be offering single-serve water refill stations in their stores (most of those have been closed due to COVID in stores I know of who offered them)? Will customers be comfortable using those communal things that are being used for refillable mugs after COVID? I wouldn't get near them... but to each their own.

The plastic single use water bottles taste like plastic anyway. Not really a high quality product. I only purchase those when traveling.
veteran+
Valued Contributor
Valued Contributor
Posts: 2234
Joined: January 3rd, 2015, 7:53 am
Has thanked: 1204 times
Been thanked: 72 times
Status: Offline

Re: New Seasons Market - 2021

Post by veteran+ »

Perhaps it is a first step effort.

The smaller the plastic bottle the bigger impact on the environment.

I read a couple of years ago a study on this. It seems the higher the education the larger bottle of water is purchased and visa versa, the lower the education the smaller bottle of water is purchased.

?????? who knows?

Most every one I know do not buy water in plastic bottles or any bottles unless absolutely necessary. They have their reusable bottles filled with their filtered water from home.
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: New Seasons Market - 2021

Post by storewanderer »

veteran+ wrote: April 7th, 2021, 7:47 am Perhaps it is a first step effort.

The smaller the plastic bottle the bigger impact on the environment.

I read a couple of years ago a study on this. It seems the higher the education the larger bottle of water is purchased and visa versa, the lower the education the smaller bottle of water is purchased.

?????? who knows?

Most every one I know do not buy water in plastic bottles or any bottles unless absolutely necessary. They have their reusable bottles filled with their filtered water from home.
What I find with plastic water bottles is they tend to show up at gatherings or folks buy them thinking it is a good idea to have a bottle of water. But then what I notice is it is very common for the small bottle to not even be 100% consumed before it is left, littered, or thrown away. I really think it is because the water tastes so bad from many of those small bottles folks take a few sips and just give up.

Large bottles it would appear people actually consume the whole bottle... if they go to the effort to buy a large bottle... I have found when I travel that Trader Joe's bottled water tastes pretty good; it is spring water, bottled from Crystal Geyser at least in CA. Slightly thicker plastic bottles than most store brands and at a much lower price.

Hopefully New Seasons move doesn't cause a bunch of small bottle transactions to be replaced with a similar (or even 50% of the number of) large bottle transactions because there is definitely more plastic waste from a large bottle than a small bottle...
veteran+
Valued Contributor
Valued Contributor
Posts: 2234
Joined: January 3rd, 2015, 7:53 am
Has thanked: 1204 times
Been thanked: 72 times
Status: Offline

Re: New Seasons Market - 2021

Post by veteran+ »

Not really accurate on the waste issue, though it sounds logical.

Small bottles are the biggest contributor to waste by the nature of its convenience (size) and use. They are also inefficiently used and discarded.
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: New Seasons Market - 2021

Post by storewanderer »

veteran+ wrote: April 8th, 2021, 4:32 am Not really accurate on the waste issue, though it sounds logical.

Small bottles are the biggest contributor to waste by the nature of its convenience (size) and use. They are also inefficiently used and discarded.
By the store not selling the small bottles I don't see how it will stop those bottles from showing up in meetings, gatherings, etc. and inefficiently used and discarded as you describe above. The customer will just go to some other store, or use their office supply provider, coffee provider, or one of the many other parties who gladly will sell single use bottles of water.

You are assuming by the small bottles not being there, a number of people will simply not buy any one time use bottled beverage at all. Which will certainly happen, but will it happen in enough numbers to really reduce container waste?

Maybe before, the store sold 500 .5L bottles of water in a day (include 6pks, cases, etc.). Now the store sells an additional 100 1.5L bottles of water in a day and sells 200 of other bottled beverages instead that it wasn't selling before. How much packaging is really being saved? You are just moving many customers from one package to another.

I often wonder if selling cases of 24 .5L Waters is even profitable for the stores at this point in time. They take up a ton of freight space on the truck, often are on sale at a very low price point (Safeway runs them under $2 routinely in NorCal; Safeway has a plant that makes this bottled water in central CA, also it bottles water for most of Starbucks in the US which I suspect is where much of the profit comes from from that water bottling operation).

Another comment I have on this subject is how many of the stores (not Trader Joe's who breaks the single unit price down to the case unit cost) go about pricing this bottled water. One .5L Bottle for .99 or a case of 24 bottles for $2-$3. This seems to really encourage the customer to buy a case even if they don't need it. Even if the single bottle was .50 or .59, I'd be inclined to buy the 3 or 4 bottles I need and leave it at that. And driving the customer to buy a whole case when the customer doesn't need it, creates additional plastic waste. I have bought cases while traveling and left most of the case with the rental car people a handfull of times. Do they consume the sealed waters or hand them out, or just throw them out, who knows.

I remember in the 90's when the bottled water moved from the cleaning supply aisle to the beverage aisle. Initially the bottled water was marketed as a premium product. You took the bottle of water, usually Spring Water. It tasted better than tap water. The source of the water was on the label. The cost per bottle was such that you weren't going to waste the bottles. Then into the 00's and suddenly these bottles of water fell lower and lower in cost, many were just tap water put into a bottle, the bottles got thinner and thinner and water tasted worse and worse. Like I said this is a product I purchase only when traveling as I have been dissatisfied so many times with the taste of the water.

If someone really wants to get rid of these bottles I suggest a health study for how much melted plastic folks are ingesting when they drink some of these bad tasting bottles of water. Because some of these bottles of water I've opened over the years (always the cheap generic store brand ones) sure taste like melted plastic smells.
klkla
Posts: 1614
Joined: February 24th, 2009, 3:26 pm
Been thanked: 2 times
Status: Offline

Re: New Seasons Market - 2021

Post by klkla »

storewanderer wrote: April 8th, 2021, 5:28 pm If someone really wants to get rid of these bottles I suggest a health study for how much melted plastic folks are ingesting when they drink some of these bad tasting bottles of water. Because some of these bottles of water I've opened over the years (always the cheap generic store brand ones) sure taste like melted plastic smells.
These studies have been done before and it is a health risk. Especially risky is plastic trays a lot of packaged foods are sold in. It's recommended that you transfer the food to a safer container for the microwave but most people use the packaging that the food came in.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying- ... our-health
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: New Seasons Market - 2021

Post by storewanderer »

klkla wrote: April 8th, 2021, 5:52 pm
These studies have been done before and it is a health risk. Especially risky is plastic trays a lot of packaged foods are sold in. It's recommended that you transfer the food to a safer container for the microwave but most people use the packaging that the food came in.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying- ... our-health
Yeah, it is interesting nothing is done to stop the sale of these containers. Instead low hanging fruit like banning plastic bags which are a lot less likely to be ingested (I know there is the concern about eating fish that ate plastic bags in the ocean) than this sort of thing... Even the Amy's meals which are in a paper container in the frozen box seem to be coated with a film of some kind that sure seems like plastic to me.
SamSpade
Store Manager
Store Manager
Posts: 1568
Joined: September 13th, 2015, 4:39 pm
Has thanked: 374 times
Been thanked: 57 times
Status: Offline

New Seasons Vancouver grand opening

Post by SamSpade »

Maybe it was silly to bring back such an old thread, but the New Seasons in downtown Vancouver, Wash. did get set up and will be opening this week (Oct 18, 2023).
https://www.columbian.com/news/2023/sep ... 8-opening/
Post Reply