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Container with your coffee? — Brooklynian

Container with your coffee?

I just picked up my morning cup of joe at the new Latin themed coffee spot Colina Cuervo on Nostrand near St Johns Place.  As is my custom, I brought my own container, figuring there's enough stuff going to the landfill or incinerators from NYC (25,000 tons a day!), that the city didn't need my coffee container as well.  Much to my surprise I was charged $2.50.  No discount for bringing my own container, which the manager quickly sized up as large.  I know that many coffee shops and restaurants discount the coffee if you bring your own container.  After all, coffee containers do cost money, so even if owner doesn't give a damn about the landfill, he's still saving money.
What say ye?  Should coffee shops charge you less if you bring your own container?
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Comments

  • The now ubiquitous Dunkin Donuts apparently does not give a discount if you were to bring your own cup either. 

    On a tangential note, people are trying to propose a bag fee if you buy something and the merchant were to provide you with a bag. I think the law should be that all merchants provide you with a discount if you bring your own bag instead. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • I agree. And wish we could refill water containers at corner shops instead of buying bottled water in NYC.
  • whynot_31
    edited May 2015
    How much of a discount should they give?

    The going rate for a cup, complete with sleeve and lid, looks like it is around $0.22 from Costco.

    http://www2.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?prodid=10263357&whse=BD_823&topnav=bd

    http://www.costco.com/cups-lids.html

    A large chain of coffee shops (ie Dunkin) is likely to get its cups, sleeves, and lids for much less.

  • Whynot don't go to costco for stuff like that, they still make a pretty high margin on the items. Business that are in the business of giving away items (coat hangers, ketchup packets, coffee cups, paper sleeves) have to 'race to the bottom' since it effects the margins they make. Few and far between are the shops that don't care about handing out a quarter with every purchase.


    Those cups are the small sizes you buy from guys selling out of carts ($1 cup). Those cups go for 7/10ths of a penny. Every quarter counts!
  • whynot_31
    edited May 2015
    Yes, I suspect Costco caters to businesses who have the least capital and ability to plan.

    For the sake of argument, lets say that:

    A. Dunkin pays a total of $0.03 for a complete cup (cup, sleeve, lid).

    B. A coffeeshop with a few locations pays $0.09 for its supplies.

    C. The local, decrepit, bodega pays pays $0.22 for its supplies at Costco.

    Dunkin isn't going for the earth-concerned demographic that Starbucks has effectively captured. Why should it lose money everytime one of them is lost and wanders into their store to buy coffee?

    Maybe the small chains want to make such customers loyal.
  • When I worked at s coffee bar in NJ, we did not give a discount for bringing your own cup. The owners justification was that the cup you brought was likely to be a bit bigger than the cup he sold you, so you got s little extra coffee.
  • newguy88
    edited May 2015
    I've never heard of a coffee shop giving a discount for being your own mug.

    @mugofmead111 under the bag law your discount is not having to pay 10 cents per bag.
  • I've never heard of a coffee shop giving a discount for being your own mug.

    @mugofmead111 under the bag law your discount is not having to pay 10 cents per bag.

    Going back to what @capt. planet was saying, merchants now already give you a bag with purchase. Whole Foods and Target are the only vendors that I know who offer a discount if you bring your own bag(s). Why pass along that expense along to the customer when it was formerly included with purchase when one can offer a discount as an (positive) incentive for the customer to bring one's own bag? That's my beef. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  • Guess you guys never brought your coffee container to Starbucks (10 cent discount).  Here's an observation from a blogger in Oregon (home of all hipness)  
    "On the positive side, most coffee purveyors give me a reduced price for using my own mug. At Starbucks, its ten cents. At Salem Oregon's downtown Beanery, it's a marvelous thirty-five cents -- which makes a 16 ounce brewed coffee $1.55 instead of $1.90."  View the whole blog at: 
    On a separate but related note, the City will ban sale of all Styrofoam containers including coffee and clam shell containers on July 1.  Seems you can't recycle them.

  • At a public forum sponsored by CB 8 held last Wednesday at the Hope City Empowerment Center on Washington Ave, a DEP spokesperson noted that beginning soon the City will be creating public fountains designed to dispense water for your own water bottle.  Goodbye to the oil spill of disposable water bottles.
  • whynot_31
    edited May 2015
    It seems that every year my employer or some conference forces me to take a reuseable bag or coffee cup and smile while doing so.

    They have now given me so many of those cloth bags and coffee cups that they have become pollution.

    When is my household ever going to need the 15 cloth bags it now possesses?

    Am I supposed to make a window pyramid with all of the non-disposable water bottles I possess, like one does with empty beer cans when they are a freshman in college?

  • It seems that every year my employer or some conference forces me to take a reuseable bag or coffee cup and smile while doing so.

    They have now given me so many of those cloth bags and coffee cups that they have become pollution.

    When is my household ever going to need the 15 cloth bags it now possesses?

    Am I supposed to make a window pyramid with all of the non-disposable water bottles I possess, like one does with empty beer cans when they are a freshman in college?

    You can make a greenhouse with plastic water bottles. (Granted these feature the type intended to be used once, but I guess you can do it the reusable ones too.) 

    @capt.planet - MUD Coffee also gives a discount for bringing your own mug. I miss the Mud Truck. 
  • whynot_31
    edited May 2015
    A greenhouse made from reusable water bottles would look ugly and silly compared to those.

    My water bottles are different colors and shapes, and have all kinds of do gooder causes and slogans on them.

    https://www.google.com/search?q=reusable+water+bottles&hl=en&gbv=2&tbm=isch&oq=&gs_l=

    I don't have roof or yard. My friends in the suburbs are not going to let me built something in their yard just because I live in the city and have bottles I am not supposed to throw out.

    Ms Whynot and I now recycle textiles at the GAP greenmarket, but I don't think she will let me give them the bag I bring them the old clothes in.
  • @whynot_31 - Are any of the reusable bottles by Nalgene or Kleen Kanteen or the usual no-name bottles given out for free? :) 
  • I'll look when I get home.

    At this point, I can only confirm that possessing bags and bottles with "do gooder causes" emblazed on them it does not seem to effectively address said causes.

    It is unclear whether I EVER thought it would be that easy.
  • "16 ounce brewed coffee $1.55 instead of $1.90."

    Ugh, wish coffee was that cheap around me.

    "Whole Foods and Target are the only vendors that I know who offer a discount if you bring your own bag(s)."

    Target does? How much?
  • "16 ounce brewed coffee $1.55 instead of $1.90."

    Ugh, wish coffee was that cheap around me.

    "Whole Foods and Target are the only vendors that I know who offer a discount if you bring your own bag(s)."

    Target does? How much?
    Two or three cents off any purchase. However most cashiers don't know about it and even fewer customers.
  • mg
    mg
    edited May 2015

    > Target does? How much?

    A nickel per bag you bring, sadly not per the five bags they would have used for your ten items.

    Doesn't Joyce give a discount, or is that only if you buy their mug?

  • mugofmead111
    edited May 2015
    Two or three cents off any purchase. However most cashiers don't know about it and even fewer customers.
    Indeed. Most of the time I have to remind the Target cashier about the BYOB (bring your own bag) discount.

    Dunkin Donuts is the only major coffee place I can think of right now that still uses Styrofoam coffee cups (for medium and large hot coffees I believe).
  • In Maryland they charge you for bags.

    I don't think it's a big deal if you don't get a discount for bringing your own mug. They don't pay much for those cups and isn't it our responsibility as individuals to protect the planet?
  • MasTacos
    edited May 2015
    Tugboat charges the refill price when you bring your own container. Thats rights, $1! I feel like I shouldn't reveal that in public because I don't want it to go away!
  • @whynot_31 -- we fill our reusable bags with clothes to donate and then just drop the whole thing off at Goodwill.  With a growing baby, we donate a lot of clothes.  And we collect a lot of bags.  Circle of life or something.
  • whynot_31
    edited May 2015
    @xlizellx -
    I suspect our household will adopt such measures as our immediate environment becomes ever more polluted with the bags.

    Has your household come up with a solution to the reusable water bottle probem?

    Should we host a small conference or fund raiser and intimidate guests into taking them home, to participate in the circle of life?
  • @xlizellx -

    Has your household come up with a solution to the reusable water bottle probem?

    Should we host a small conference or fund raiser and intimidate guests into taking them home, to participate in the circle of life?
    Why not take them to Goodwill too?
  • @xlizellx -

    Has your household come up with a solution to the reusable water bottle probem?

    Should we host a small conference or fund raiser and intimidate guests into taking them home, to participate in the circle of life?
    Why not take them to Goodwill too?
    Another option: take them to Stop N Swap.

    If there is a new Nalgene or Camelbak among the stash, I'll take one :)
  • Reusable water bottles are a great donation to sports leagues. If you know anyone that coaches the little ones, offer them enough bottles for the entire team. They'll probably take you up on it.
  • whynot_31
    edited May 2015
    I like that idea. I will ask Ms Whynot if she believes we have too many.

    Based on this thread, we have already implemented a "no new reusuable shopping bags" rule.

    image
  • Isn't it the owner's responsibility to keep cups out of the landfill? Wouldn't you be more inclined to frequent a coffee shop if you knew the owner cared about the impact his business was having on the planet? I know I would.
    In Maryland they charge you for bags.

    I don't think it's a big deal if you don't get a discount for bringing your own mug. They don't pay much for those cups and isn't it our responsibility as individuals to protect the planet?
  • So I assume from this comment that using all of those reusable bags instead of taking the plastic bags the merchants hand you when you buy a bannana or whatever.
    I like that idea. I will ask Ms Whynot if she believes we have too many.

    Based on this thread, we have already implemented a "no new reusuable shopping bags" rule.

    image
  • I usually use my bookbag for small, spontaneous shopping trips.

    Bigger trips (such as to Compare or the GAP green market) are done with one of the approximately ten reusable bags I possess.

    Plastic bags are used to pick up the dog poop. In my apt, they are often in short supply, so I often pick them up when walking the dog around and taking photos of construction fences.
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