Inside East Valley Business

Each year the Arizona Farm Bureau conducts a widely publicized marketbasket survey of Thanksgiving Day food items to determine if the cost of a typical holiday dinner has gone up or down.

In this year’s survey, the bureau determined that a Thanksgiving Day dinner for a family of 10 with all the trimming cost $52.81, an increase of 3.2 percent over last year and up a whopping 35 percent from 2006.

Suspicious of those numbers, Janel Rogers, a resident of Lehi, did her own shopping at her local grocery store, buying exactly the same items that were in the farm bureau survey, and rang up a bill of just $31.02. That was 41 percent less than the farm bureau buyers paid.

So what gives?

Well, Rogers said she took advantage of in-store specials, used a discount store card and shopped just before Thanksgiving. The farm bureau survey was completed on Nov. 7, while Rogers did her shopping on Nov. 20.

A big chunk of the savings came from drastically reduced turkey prices closer to the holiday, Rogers said.

This confirms that waiting until sales begin just before Thanksgiving and using store cards and coupons pays off, Rogers concludes.

Julie Murphree, spokesperson for the Arizona Farm Bureau, said the main purpose of the annual survey is to make a comparison with the previous year to determine how much food prices have changed. 

To have a meaningful apples-to-apples comparison, the bureau has to shop each year during the same time period, purchase the exact same items and disavow in-store specials, discount cards and coupons, she said. But that doesn’t mean that a savvy shopper can’t beat those prices, she conceded.

Cox Communication said it has started testing a new hybrid electric service truck in the Phoenix and Tucson areas.
The truck produces an average fuel economy gain of 30 to 150 percent over conventional fuel-only vehicles, the cable system operator said.
The bucket truck’s hybrid engine allows it to hoist workers aloft for up to two hours without running its diesel engine. Also the electric motor assists with horsepower while the vehicle is moving, and its regenerative braking system uses the energy of deceleration to recharge the lithium-ion battery.
Cox officials said they will test the vehicle, which is made by Eaton Corp., through the remainder of 2008. They said it could pave the way for Cox to convert its entire fleet throughout the U.S. to the energy-efficient technology.

A new study shows that thinking about death and mortality causes people to buy and eat more food as a means of escape.

The study by Professors Naomi Mandel of Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School of Business and Dick Smeesters of Erasmus University in the Netherlands followed reports after the Sept. 11 attacks that Americans bought up luxury goods, ate lots of sweets, went bargain shopping and stocked up on canned goods.

Mandel and Smeesters wanted to know if thoughts of death have a direct impact on people’s desires to eat and consume.

Through a series of experiments published in this month’s Journal of Consumer Research, they found that people who are reminded of their own mortality do indeed purchase and eat more food than others.

In one experiment, the professors asked one group of students to write an essay about death and another group to write about a painful procedure at the doctor’s office. Then both groups were asked to choose items from a grocery list to buy. The group that wrote about death selected many more items from the food list.

In another test, students who had written about death ate far more in a staged cookie-tasting test.

The researchers conclude it would make sense for marketers to place food ads during TV shows like CSI and the nightly news. And consumers shouldn’t create a grocery-shopping list while watching a violent show, so they don’t overindulge.

Kansas City-based UMB Bank has found a novel way to promote the environment. The bank, which has branches in Arizona, is offering an Eco Rewards Visa credit card that gives tree-hugging customers extra points towards gifts and other benefits when they use the card to purchase certified “green” products.

Energy Star, Green Seal and the Forest Stewardship Council have officially certified environmentally safe products that qualify for double points.

Qualified green purchases will include everything from energy-efficient light bulbs to Energy Star appliances to environmentally friendly paints and cleaners.

Buyers get one point for every $1 of a green purchased plus two points for every dollar of billed interest on the purchases.

Cardholders will need to complete a basic online redemption process to claim double points. Points may be redeemed for cash, merchandise, gift cards or travel, or they may be allocated as a donation to local and national environmental organizations.

In keeping with the green theme, all applications and statements related to the program will be produced electronically. Any required paper materials will be produced with recycled paper, the bank said.

“Every person can make daily, conscientious choices that impact environmental sustainability, and we believe UMB’s Eco Rewards card will help encourage green behavior,” said Mariner Kemper, chief executive of UMB Financial Corp.

UMB Bank operates its Arizona headquarters at 24^th Street and Camelback and has a branch at Raintree and Loop 101 in Scottsdale.

More information is available at www.umb.com/EcoRewards

The Gatorade Co., a division of PepsiCo, plans to install the largest customer-owned solar energy project in Arizona at its distribution and manufacturing center in Tolleson, the company said today.

Photovoltaic panels, which convert sunlight to electric current, will be installed on the roof of the distribution center. The system, which will be installed by SPG Solar, is expected to produce more than 760,000 kilowatt hours per year – the amount of electricity needed to run about 50 households.

The system is expected to reduce carbon dioxide greenhouse gas emissions by about 491 metric tons a year.

The panels are scheduled to be installed in early September, and the system will begin producing power in November.

Salt River Project is contributing $1.2 million to the project.

Robert Half International, a staffing services company, has documented the changes that rising gas prices are having on worker commuting habits in a survey released this week.

Almost half (44 percent) of those interviewed in the survey said higher gas prices have affected their commutes, up from 34 percent two years ago.

Among those who said they have altered their travel habits, the most common changes were: increased carpooling or ridesharing (46 percent), driving a more fuel-efficient vehicle (33 percent) and telecommuting more frequently (33 percent). Three in 10 said they are looking for a new job closer to home.

Other responses were: working from office locations closer to home (29 percent), working fewer days a week (26 percent), asking for increased compensation (25 percent), taking public transportation  more frequently (23 percent), walking or biking to work (18 percent), driving slower (5 percent) and cutting back other spending (2 percent). The percentages don’t add up to 100 because multiple responses were allowed.

The survey also found that some employers have launched initiatives to ease the burden including increased mileage reimbursement, rideshare programs and subsidized transportation. But almost six in 10 respondents said their companies are not offering any new programs to ease the cost.

The nationwide poll consisted of responses from 539 workers 18 years of age or older and employed full or part-time.

Some interesting data on carbon dioxide greenhouse gas emissions was released today by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. It’s sure to increase the hand-wringing by those concerned about global warming.

U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels increased by 1.6 percent last year, according to preliminary estimates by the agency, which is a unit of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Most of the increase was due to burning of more fossil fuels like coal and natural gas to produce electricity for heating and cooling homes and businesses. CO2 emissions from industry and from transportation vehicles remained essentially flat for the year, the agency said.

In 2007, CO2 emissions from the electric power sector increased by 3 percent, while power generation increased by 2.5 percent. The increase in emission intensity was due largely to a decline in generation from non-polluting hydroelectric dams, which was not fully offset by increases in wind and nuclear-power generation and required the burning of more fossil fuels, the agency said.

The good news is the overall economy as measured by the Gross Domestic Product grew by 2.2 percent last year, indicating that carbon dioxide intensity (emissions per unit of GDP) fell by about 0.5 percent. Total U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide emissions have grown by 19.4 percent since 1990, but the overall U.S. economy has grown by a much greater percentage over that time. The end result is the carbon dioxide intensity of the economy has fallen by 26.6 percent, the agency said.

The data indicate how difficult it is to achieve reductions in CO2 emissions during a period when the economy is expanding. Our economy is much clearer now per unit of output than it was in 1990, but output has grown so much that overall greenhouse gas emissions are far higher.  

Arizonans want economic implications taken into account when climate change policies are considered, according to a poll commissioned by the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The poll, which was conducted by Public Opinion Strategies, surveyed 500 likely voters and has a 4.38 percent margin of error.

The results show Arizonans are concerned about the issue of climate change but want to see any action balanced against reasonable economic concerns, said Glenn Hamer, president of the Arizona chamber.

Seventy-nine percent opposed a proposal to reduce carbon emissions that would increase electric and natural gas rates from 45 to 260 percent. They also responded negatively to imposing California emission standards on Arizona vehicles that could significantly increase the cost of new cars.

Sixty-nine percent would not support a greenhouse gas reduction program if it meant losing jobs to India or China. Sixty-one percent agreed with the statement that “Arizona should not form greenhouse gas agreements with neighboring states that could result in raised gas or electricity prices or that would damage the economy.”

Participants did favor incentive-based approaches. Eighty-seven percent supported proposals to provide tax incentives for individuals, business and power plants that use clean energy. Eighty-three percent favored increased federal funding for research and develop of those technologies.

Industrial employment in Arizona dropped nearly 1 percent during the past 12 months, according to the 2008 Arizona Manufacturers Directory, a compilation of state industry published annually by Manufacturers’ News Inc. of Evanston, Ill.

The directory said Arizona lost 1,670 industrial jobs from March 2007 to March 2008. That was a smaller loss than the 1.1 percent drop MNI reported for Arizona during the prior one-year period and less than the 2 percent industrial job decline posted by the U.S. as a whole during the past year.

 “Arizona’s stronghold in the aviation and defense industries have offset some of the losses felt by sectors more vulnerable to outsourcing such as electronics and industrial machinery,” said Thomas Dubin, president of MNI.

Arizona is home to 6.004 manufacturers employing 240,227 workers, the report said. Arizona ranks 28^th in the nation in number of manufacturers and 26^th in jobs.

In the East Valley, Tempe ranks third in the state behind Phoenix and Tucson with 21,919 industrial workers, up 2.2 percent in the past year. Chandler accounts for 20,318 jobs, down 9.1 percent after job cuts at Intel.

Arizona’s major manufacturing categories are transportation equipment, electronics and fabricated metal products.

A Phoenix-based software company is offering a feature with its Web conferencing software that calculates the carbon dioxide savings of each Web conference.

The so-called “Green Meter” by iLinc uses a mathematical algorithm to detect the locations of people who are participating in a Web conference and measures the distance between the participants and the meeting leader – calculating the amount of travel eliminated and measuring the amount of CO2 saved. The program recognizes what means of travel would commonly be used for the distance (car, small aircraft, large aircraft, etc.) and figures the CO2 savings and associated environmental and financial savings.

iLinc President James M. Powers Jr. claimed he got the idea for the Green Meter during a lunch meeting with Al Gore.

“I had what you might call an ‘aha’ moment,” Powers said, adding that “we know there is a direct connection between Web conferencing software and environmental sustainability.”

According to the company, the state of Arizona saved about 300,000 pounds of carbon emissions in the first quarter of 2008 alone by Web conferencing, as calculated by the Green Meter.

The meter does not factor in any increased consumption of electricity related to the Web conference, but a company spokeswoman said the software is used primarily by organizations that would likely have their computers operating anyway.