Did you know that retailers in your area are either an option A or option B location? Well neither did I until yesterday. I live around the corner from Trader Joe's in Studio City, CA., and for years I have purchased their 42.3 oz. lime sparkling water for .99 cents a bottle with a .10 cents CRV fee. Weekly I would return my empty bottles back to T.J.'s, get my credit for the bottles, and apply it towards my groceries. However, when I went about my usual routine this week, I was told that I could no longer redeem my bottles there, and that I would have to take my bottles to a recycling center 3.5 miles away. I stood there holding my bag of bottles wondering how I could be charged a deposit fee in my local store, and forced to go out of my city limits to be refunded. When I asked the store manager why they suddenly decided to do this, he stated that it was becoming too inconvenient for them to provide this service, and that their other local store decided not to do it either, so they joined them. I then called the regional manager of Trader Joe's and asked her about this change, and she said that not everyone in my area cares about recycling or the money like I do, and that they actually had complaints about people coming in with their bottles. She stated that they had a right to opt out of this process by paying a fee, and that is what they decided to do.
I immediately went online to the Cal Recycle website. It turns out that if your local supermarket does over 2 million in gross receipts a year must provide a way for you to redeem your bottles purchased at their location, or a recycling convenience center must be located within a half mile of the purchase. BUT as I found out through the public affairs department, there is a loophole; a store is either an option A store or an option B store. An option A store must return all CRV purchased bottles from their location only if there is no convenience zone recycling center, and an option B store pays a $100 a day penalty fee, so they do not have to redeem any bottles at all. Yep it turns out that my local Trader Joe's is an option B store, and has decided it would be more beneficial to pay the Cal Recycle department $36,0000 a year instead of crediting its local consumers. It may be beneficial for Trader Joe's, but what about it's customers?
There is more to consider. This impacts seniors or disabled patrons who don't drive and watch every penny they spend, how will they return their bottles? It will cost a local resident $1.05 in gas, plus an average of 30-60 minutes in travel and waiting in line for processing, plus the extra smog emissions and traffic congestion for driving out of the area to a recycling center. If taking public transportation this comes to $7.00 in bus fare (2 buses in each direction), and an average of 90-120 minutes in travel and waiting in line. As an admitted frugal consumer and environmentalist, I return 100% of all my Trader Joe's bottles for store credit, resulting in approximately $60 in yearly CRV fees (600 bottles). Not much of a dent in my overall savings, but I would be pretty upset if I had a yearly ritual of wadding up $60 and throwing it in the garbage. I would argue that I am probably not the only shopper that returns bottles, so perhaps many customers had more savings throughout the year.
Is there a more insidious reason for this decision? I began to wonder if this sudden change was due to the increasing number of houseless people in our neighborhood. Could Trader Joe's be discriminating against certain patrons in an effort to keep up appearances? I could not help feel that there was an element of gentrification based on this quick change in policy. They admit that they want to keep their customers happy, but which customers opinions matter to them? Obviously they owe nothing to individuals such as myself, but when considering our community as a whole, I wonder whose voices they are most influenced by. My mom is 86, a loyal Trader Joe's shopper, walks with a cane, is blind in one eye, and rides the bus, and is a bottle returner; guess Trader Joe's did not consider situations such as hers when making a policy change.
As for myself, I was given a list of all the local option A stores in my community that have to redeem their purchased beverage containers. Anyone can call Cal Recycle for the list. I will get my lime soda water across the street from Trader Joe's, and I know they won't miss my measly $600 a year beverage purchase, because now they don't have to go through the hassle of crediting me $60. This week has been very educational, I learned a lot about business relationships, and I had never thought about a store's responsibility to redeem CRV until it happened to me. I will leave you with this final thought, does a company that contributes to millions of bottles entering a neighborhood have a responsibility to their consumers to process them?
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