eGroceries

Recently, I read an article in the Sunday New York Times magazine titled 'Faster Slow Food'. The author theorized that online grocery shopping could promote saner eating habits. As I considered what other implications there might be to buying my groceries online I came up with this; online shopping might be a way to reduce greenhouse gasses by removing cars from the roadway. On the other hand, if I did all of my shopping that way, I would have missed out on meeting and interacting with some really interesting people.

Some researchers in Finland have looked into whether or not online shopping is good for the environment and in 2003 published the results of their review in MIT's Journal of Industrial Ecology. One of the conclusions they reached was that in theory, having groceries delivered means fewer car trips. This makes sense. If every house on my street had their groceries delivered once a week, that's approximately 12 less car trips! Internet Marketing Consultant Dave Chaffey lists several other environmental benefits of eCommerce including fewer vehicle miles, less printed material, and less waste due to digitization of things like software and music.

After thinking about it, I decided that I would want to use grocery delivery as a kind of personal shopping service. Items could be purchased from a mass market grocer, a natural foods store, an outdoor market, or a specialty store like Trader Joe's. One charge to my credit card later, it would all be delivered to my house where all I would have to do is put it away. The time saved by not needing to drive to each store, park and shop and then put it all away would be worth the delivery fee. My car would also be removed from the road and the trip the truck makes to my house would be optimized by consolidating all deliveries from my area together. I already use online stores for commodity items that just need replacing to reduce my trips, so it stands to reason that this would work for me as well.

On the other hand, if I got all of my groceries by shopping online I would miss out on the interactive experience of going to my local farmer's market every week. For the past eight years or so, my neighbors and I have gone to the Walnut Creek Farmer's Market at nine o'clock every Sunday morning. We have favorite stands and try to spread our shopping dollars around evenly each week. Through this experience I have made good friends and met people that I might not otherwise have had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know. We know who grew the lettuce in our salad (Hi Barbie & Laurie), the peaches and apples in our lunches (Hi Michelle) the flowers on our table (Hi Stan), and who slaughtered the chicken that we roasted for dinner (Hi Hunter). It also makes me feel slightly less guilty about not growing all of this myself - - well, except for the chicken.

Buying as much as I can from the farmer's market is a way to 'be green' because I know that the items purchased there have not traveled hundreds (or thousands) of miles to get to our table. It also helps to support the local economy which is never a bad thing. In the end, we each have to decide for ourselves what will work best for our situation. But I can't help but think that by balancing grocery shopping at local markets (both farmer's and general grocery) with eCommerce I am acting in a sustainable manner towards both the economy and the environment.

(all images author's own)