Take Your Joe on the Go
Take Your Joe on the Go
How can small businesses promote walking and rolling?
Researchers and medical professionals can provide only good things to say about walking. The New York Times seems to release an article about another newfound benefit every month. In the words of former mayor of Bogatá, Enrique Peñalosa, “As a fish needs to swim, a bird to fly, a deer to run, we need to walk, not in order to survive, but to be happy." Making the personal benefits of walking accessible to more people is one of the many goals of building walkable cities. But just because a place is made to be more walkable does not mean everyone will take advantage of the shift. Adaptation takes time, and sometimes people need a nudge to change behavior. Businesses should take small actions to promote walking and increase the gains to their customers and neighbors in the process.
One idea for increasing walking (or rolling) within a local customer base stems from an idea I saw in Asheville, N.C. when I was about twelve. I was at my favorite donut shop, Hole, and they had a stack of trading cards at the checkout with a history of the street we were standing on. We asked the woman at the register about the cards and she explained that they were a part of a scavenger hunt around the western part of the city. Over the course of their shopping and sight-seeing, residents and tourists could come across the other cards in other businesses until they had collected all of them. As a child who loved local history, I was totally charmed by this idea, and had we not been heading home that afternoon, I would have insisted we try to find more.
It is easy to see how this idea can be expanded and maintained. The “West Asheville History Moment Collector Cards Scavenger Hunt” only ran once, but it could easily be taken back up by other organizations who want to promote a place in addition to their organization’s work (this hunt was set up by a local library). Restaurants can work with shops and city parks to create a day-trip’s-worth of cards, and new sets can come out quarterly. Though the collectors card design may read as a bit trite, scavenger hunts are fun. You can’t beat fun.
Another idea especially geared toward the simple activity of “going for a walk”---no shopping, no destination, just a relaxing stroll—would most likely begin at a coffee shop. Instead of a stack of cards sitting at the checkout ready to be claimed, there would be a tray of maps. Each map would outline a different route through the local neighborhood, with the time and distance of each route noted, around which customers could walk with their coffee. In the scalable version of this idea, the maps would be compiled in an app (similar to RunGo), so that across different locations, one would only need to have the app and scan that store QR code for location-based loops. (I am providing as much detail as I can in the hope that someone will go ahead and make this app.)
After a customer made their purchase, they would deposit a quarter or two in exchange for receiving their drink in a returnable, refundable tumbler. They could then take their tumbler and a map on a tour through the neighborhood, taking in the dual rush of fresh air and caffeine. Upon completing their loop, they would return the tumbler and pick up their quarters, refreshed and ready for the day ahead of them, whether that be sitting behind a desk or standing behind a counter.
The benefits of making a coffee walk easy, exploratory, and accessible extend beyond the long-term physical bonuses. Some of the best meetings and catch-ups occur on the move. Researchers have found evidence that a mid-day walking break can promote creativity and attention, and in the long term, walking can lessen age-related mental deterioration and preserve memory. Thoreau summarized the benefits of a stroll best in a long-ago journal entry, writing “Methinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.”
But walking also serves a very urbanist purpose. By going on walks, a city’s residents become aware of where the sidewalk gets too thin and where the cars drive too fast. They notice the empty lot that evaded their consciousness and they ask their friends if they know anything about its prospects. They see their neighbors, both those close-by and those out-of-the-way. Walking puts people on the street, in the community, among their neighbors, in a way driving cannot.
Anyone who really wants to go for a walk will do so on their own accord, but there are plenty of folks who might not have considered taking their coffee on the go until they receive the suggestion. Coffee shops can do their business and surrounding community a favor by encouraging their customers to take their joe on the go.
Adeleine Geitner is a rising senior at Duke University studying public policy and economics. She is the Duke Urban Studies Initiative Fellow on Sprawl Repair and Nodal Development.
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