Wednesday, April 1, 2020

20A - Growing Your Social Capital


1)
The first person a talked to as my domain expert was one of the owners of Cilantro Tacos in Gainesville, Nataly Meth.  I had met Nataly through my roommate and decided to talk to her about the paper straw issue since she operates a restaurant here in Gainesville. She thinks that with already being in the industry and being an environmentally friendly supporter herself, that her branch has considered using corn starch or biopolymers instead of plastic.  The catch that she said is that most business can only afford paper straws.  She also said that this symbolizes a time of change.  Overall, I think having Nataly in my network is important from her input on producing ecofriendly solutions.
2) 
My expert contact was a barista at a coffee shop, who is a friend of mine, Mat Bar. He said that when people come into the store and order an ice drink, they would much rather sip on a plastic straw than a paper one because of how it can get so flimsy over a time period.  He said that if there were to be a push for all companies to strictly use eco-friendly straws, the outcome of customer satisfaction would increase. I think this is valuable information from Mat since he can see that customers would be more satisfied as a whole without having paper straws.
3)
I was not able to get in contact with a supplier, but I did ask my friend Shannon who works at another coffee shop and says that her supplier for their coffee is very sustainable in their efforts to produce the products that they sell to their customers. 

Reflection:
After talking with all three of these people, I think that this really helped shape and prove that there is a need that still is needing to be met.  I think with these ecofriendly plastic straws, there could be a change in the restaurant/coffee shop business in the area.  One thing that really stuck out to me is how Nataly says that she had been already looking at alternative options and how it could help the situation. 

No comments:

Post a Comment