Manual Lawnmower Sales Up As Gas Prices Rice

June 20, 2008 6:05 p.m. EST

Shelbyville, IN (AHN) - The $4 a gallon pump price is changing not only the driving habits of American motorists, but even the gardening habits of homeowners. Prohibitive costs of fuel have led homeowners with large lawns to shift to manual grass cutters.

This has sparked a jack up in sales of manual lawnmowers. The American Lawn Mower Company says their sales grew by 60 to 70 percent in 2007.

Eric King of Pittsburgh, who recently bought a manual grass cutting machine, told the Associated Press, "With the way gas prices are going through the roof and are going to stay there or increase even further, that was the main reason I considered one. I don't consider myself an environmentalist; I consider myself an economist."

Annually about 300,000 manual and 300,000 electric mowers are sold across the U.S., but gas powered models sold 6 million units every year when gas was still affordable.

Manual mowers sell between $100 to $250, electric grass cutters sell from $145 to $430. The older-model gas-powered lawn mowers operated by a person cost between $150 to $400, while the automatic models have price tags between $200 to $900.

The Outdoor Power Equipment Institute admitted a slight decline in gas-powered lawnmowers in May, but company spokesman Kris Kiser attributed the drop to weaker housing sales and the drought in the Southeast.

Kiser downplayed the effect of high fuel cost on lawn mowing since a quarter-acre lot would only consume between 5 to 6 gallons of fuel a year. Some of those who already own a gas-powered mower, instead of buying a manual unit, opted to reduce instead the frequency of their grass mowing schedule.