I first feel I need to apologize - to you but also to Hailey and myself. Life keeps interrupting life and we've gotten overtaken by other day-to-day matters and haven't been paying proper attention to Marion's Ledge. There may only be a few of you keeping an eye on this but we need to keep up this blog as much for the project and ourselves as for you.
That being said I do have something at the moment that I want to share.
Hailey recently called me to tell me of an idea that I think is as emblematic of what we're trying to do as any single element we've come up with.

We were again discussing the cups we plan on using and the discount (in an effort to discourage unnecessary trash and waste in our disposable society) we'll give if someone brings their own cup whether it's to-go or to-stay. We decided that we'd also have some reusable to-go cups/mugs that people can buy for $2 or something.
We thought we'd price it as: (Price = Price as posted on the menu board)
• Customer brings their own (or bought from us) cup then cost is Price-10%
• Customer uses Marion's ceramic cup then cost is Price
• Customer wants coffee to go in disposable cup then cost is Price+10%

By the time we hung-up I kinda liked that pricing scheme. Then Hailey called back after a little while and had a brilliant idea. Honestly, I was tempted not to post this because I'd love to be the first ones (as far as I know) to do it this way - it's just too good of an idea to be stingy with though so if someone else does it first then more power to them.

Her idea was to have those reusable cups not just for sale, but for rent or sale.
In the "Rent-a-cup" plan, the rental price will be the same as the sale price & we will 'buy back' the rented cup at full price when (or if) it's returned. These cups will be marked (perhaps a recycle emblem or something) and will be kept in the reuse/rental pool. If someone intends to buy a cup they can be given a fresh new one without fear that it's one that has been rented out.
As I thought about all the situations in which this might be used I realized that this may eliminate the need for disposable cups at all!

This is just an example of why Hailey is so great to work with on this project. We seem to be very much on the same page and she comes up with some of the best ideas and insights!
Thanks for checking us out and we hope to have updates for you much more often :)