For those who aren’t aware, the city of Seattle is trying to impose a 20-cents-per-plastic-bag tax and are now selling reusable bags at many stores. The bags cost anywhere from $1.00 to $4.00 in price – you can buy “trendy” ones on the internet and spend a lot more. I bought 2 at the library for my kids to keep their library books in and spent $1.00 on each of them. You can find them almost anywhere now – Target, Safeway, Albertsons, even Marshalls.
Not only are stores selling these reusable bags, but there are now businesses emerging that are selling items that are supposed to make it easy to get groceries home without a car. It is the attitude of many Seattlites to “Go Green” and live to save the environment (and put a little extra money in the retailers’ pockets). So, they have come up with a few suggestions.
First, there is the Hook and Go – costing $59.95 plus shipping at www.hookandgo.com. This could work while walking with 3 kids for 3 miles. Not realistic, but we’ll see what else there is.
The Hook and Go – $59.95
The Xtracycle – $489.00
The bokfiet – $3,000Thanks anyways though and good luck with your products guys!
I thought the xtracycle was expensive, too. How expensive is your car? To buy, and then every mile?
And… what *else* is it costing?
Folks have a right to make their choices… but “it won’t work” generally means “I don’t want it to work.” Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that – you’re not comfortable with the kids being in the bike, not ensconced in the big armor-plated car.
What swayed me on the Xtracycle was looking at where their energies and parts of the profits go – http://www.xtracycle.com/home/company/history/ They used to have a website about building the bikes in Central America … folks who can’t begin to afford cars. So it fired up the idealist in me 🙂
We are so used to buying things *cheap* at Wally World. What are the hidden costs there? Long as it doesn’t cost me, do I have to care?
Welp, maybe … look at what’s happening in the world because of the greed driving big business.
Honest craftspeople can’t make prices that would compete. It kinda restores a little faith in the world that Xtracycle is starting to catch on just a tiny bit…
(Oh, and in my town, yes, there are parents who have bought Xtracycles, with small children. THere are child seat options and trailer options that work for them… no, they *don’t* ride everywhere but they wanted to use cars less so they stopped looking at problems as excuses, and started looking at problems as things with occasionally possible solutions. )