Starbucks Offers Reusable Plastic Cup for $1
courtesy of StarbucksCoffee retailer Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) will begin selling a reusable plastic cup for $1 at all its U.S. and Canadian locations in an effort to reduce the amount of waste generated by the company’s current paper cups.…
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
Coffee retailer Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) will begin selling a reusable plastic cup for $1 at all its U.S. and Canadian locations in an effort to reduce the amount of waste generated by the company’s current paper cups. The company has long offered a $0.10 discount to customers who bring their own cups, and the new reusable cups will be eligible for the same savings.
A Starbucks executive said that in test marketing at 600 stores in the Pacific Northwest, the number of reusable cups brought in by customers jumped by 26% in November compared with November 2011.
At one time Starbucks set a goal of having 25% of its cups be reusable by 2015, but the company has since lowered its sights to just 5% reusable cups. Less than 2% of the cups used at Starbucks in 2011 were reusable.
Whether the company’s efforts will pay off remains to be seen. A more effective way to change consumers’ behavior might be to charge more for coffee in paper cups, but that could cut sales.
Or maybe Starbucks could promote its recently introduced $7 cup of coffee by giving away this reusable tumbler with each cup. Two birds with one stone you might say.
Paul Ausick
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Paul Ausick has been writing for 247Wallst.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.
He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.
