Antique & Classic Cars Blog

Thirty-five years ago, manufacturers started switching from heavy high-horsepower cars to smaller, more efficient vehicles–and then switched right back. Conservation is not this country’s driving concern, so to speak. Some neighbors of a friend bought two new coupes in the name of being greener. They continue, however, to warm them up for ten minutes each morning before driving away. If fuel efficiency is measured in miles per gallon, guess if you drive no miles, you use no gas.

Waste is everywhere, though, not just at the wheel. Ever try to spare the landfills a bag or two at a store? Why, when you buy only one item–which comes in a bag–do they try to give you another bag to carry it in?

I often pluck the item back out and say, “I don’t need a bag.” Ever do this? Know what happens? The clerk throws out the bag!

That’s what the clerk did yesterday at a local retailer when I pulled the single item he had put in its own bag–three boxes of kleenex shrinkwrapped together–and put them with a couple other boxes also in their own bag. Even though I had more items he was going to pack up, he threw out that bag and took a new one. Amazing.

He continued to pack one or two things per bag as I consolidated them, oblivious to efficiency, conservation, etc. For an instant I was surprised at how little it all mattered to him–then I realized, hey, at least he’s not putting wheels on at a tire store.

“You tighten the lugs on that Vette?”

“Uh….”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 12:49 pm and is filed under Car stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.