Thanks to Gas Prices, Sales of Manual and Electric Lawnmowers Are Up
by Andrew Posner, Providence, Rhode Island 
on 06.20.08
Image Credit: John Kenney
Sales of Manual and Electric Lawnmowers are Up
We've already seen so many impacts of high gas prices: for instance, Americans driving less, purchasing more efficient cars and running out of gas more often. Well, we can add yet another impact to what is sure to become a growing list: sales of manual and electric lawnmowers are up, with some manufacturers reporting 60-70 percent increases in sales over last year. Of course, gas prices aren't the only factor behind the trend: concerns about noise and air pollution from gas mowers, as well as the higher cost of gas mowers relative to manual mowers, are also important. Still, gas prices are going to have to stay high for quite a while before sales of electric and manual mowers catch up to sales of gas mowers. In fact, sales of electric and manual mowers reach slightly more than half a million a year, while the traditional gas mower enjoys sales of 6 million units annually. These figures beg the question: why are gas mowers so popular, anyway? After all, they are noisy, smelly and expensive to operate, and we recently explored how addicting and fun reel mowers can be. So not only are there lots of alternatives to gas mowers, there are also numerous alternatives to lawns themselves. See more examples of both after the fold
Looking at Alternatives to Lawns
Now that people are moving away from gas mowers, maybe we'll see more people replacing their lawns with gardens. Not only would that obviate the need for a mower, it would save a tremendous amount of water, increase local food production and encourage people to spend more time outdoors.
Via: ::Yahoo News
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::Electric Lawn Mowers
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I got one of these from a freecycler a few years ago. I had to replace the carriage bolts and sharpen the blades with a file, but it works like a dream.
I bought a Brill mower about three months ago and I love it. The first few times I mowed were a real pain in the butt, but pretty soon it was a breeze, even though I have a good sized yard. Best part is not the gas savings, but not smelling like gas and exhaust when I'm done. The brill is super-light and hangs on the wall of my garage. Beautiful!
Great post. I was reading about this on Yahoo! today as well. I work for a company that manages and tracks gift cards and I've been blogging about ways to save money on gas on savvywallet.com. I'm green guy myself, and converting to electric lawnmowers is great idea. I rarely associate petroleum with lawnmowers and other devices that require oil. I'm narrow minded in the fact that I only think about cars and trucks. I've changed my oil dependency habits by converting my car to run off waste vegetable oil. It's great, I save tons of money each month by collecting waste oil each week. You can check out my ride on austinchu.wordpress.com