See Change Happen

Hertz takes on Zip Car (and might be winning)

 

Living in NYC is a pain if you are used to having the convenience of a car parked in front of your house, ready when you need it. The subway system here is great for the day to day but there are so many exceptions and times where getting around NYC is just plain miserable.

The biggest challenge for me is getting out of the city. After being banned from my local Hertz (long story), I've found a different place to rent. But the prices are insane and 3 of 5 times, I've reserved a car online the car wasn't available when I tried to pick it up.  It's a crappy and unreliable system.

Zip Car is the perfect alternative. The model is brilliant and I like just about everything about them but, (and this is going to sound REALLY lazy), it takes 2 weeks by mail to process the Zip Car application or requires a trip to somewhere in Midtown so you can show your ID. And every time I think to get a Zip Car, it is always last minute and I can't be bothered to take the train to fill out paperwork. So, until recently, I've been stuck with the "maybe we will have a car" Hertz in the West Village.

As much as I like the start-up model and ideology of Zip, I'm admittedly tempted by the free online sign-up for Hertz's version of Zip called Connect By Hertz. The site is user friendly, the cars (according to what is online) are good city cars, with lots of hybrids. And if the local Hertz manager doesn't try to have me arrested (more of that long story) and if the cars are available, it seems like a pretty good choice.

Although these sorts of things happen all the time, it does seem a little unfair for Hertz to steal Zip Car's business model. Hopefully Zip will retailiate by improving their application process.

Bye Bye Plastic Bags

On a recent trip to San Francisco, I asked a friend if he had an extra plastic bag from the supermarket. My shoes were wet from rain and I wanted to spare my suitcase and other clothes from returning to NYC wet and soggy.  But, my friend didn't have any plastic bags, only a couple of paper bags from Whole Foods and some canvas reusable bags.

According to SF Gate, plastic bags were banned in San Francisco in 2007. It is amazing what can be legislated in SF in a relatively short period of time. The article included a couple of interesting statistics including "Roughly the number of plastic shopping bags distributed in San Francisco each year (pre-ban): 180 million." Going from 180 million to zero practically overnight is pretty remarkable.

As plastic declines and more consumers are given discounts for bringing a bag, reusable canvas bags are becoming part of our lives and increasingly an integral accessory. Fashion designers have already jumped on board. Design Observer recently did a nice story on the rise of the canvas bag and the social commentary that accompanies many of them. Here are a couple of examples from "Paper, Plastic or Canvas."