A few months back, I was looking at buying some reusable items that would in the long term save me money and reduce waste.
After a quick google I learned that this item could be used hundreds of times (one site even claimed up to 1000) before needing to be replaced.
And so I got thinking, if people are only making one off purchases of this item every couple of years, how does the company make enough money? Then on a wider scale, how do companies selling reusable or sustainable items make a good profit if they don’t have regular customers (as in the same person shopping from them every few months at least).
In terms of making money, something that is short term that needs to regularly be bought will make you more. Although of course a re-usable item would be listed at a price to accommodate for the infrequent repurchases. However, in the long term, customers tend to spend more on the less sustainable item like plastic straws than they would on the reusable option, in this case metal straws.
I think the answer to this is yes, sustainable products are profitable. If they weren’t people probably wouldn’t be selling them. But if the intention of a company is to remain environmentally sustainable, they can’t be focused on doing whatever it takes to make as much money as possible because that’s when they start to sacrifice the original intention.
The Daily Gemm 