They may have had experience with an otherwise well-intended new green product that flopped when consumers failed to pay the requisite premium. Keep in mind that most consumers do not understand a lot about environmental issues, much less the preferable solutions. Moreover, they are skeptical of industry's environmental claims and suspect retailers of price gouging. Remember that consumers minimize risk at the check-out counter by purchasing brands they know.
Smallness can be a plus for many products.
Such products of the 70's languished on health food store shelves, gathering dust. The marketplace proves my point. When the marketing fundamentals are in place, consumers will gladly pay a premium for green. Take greener products with a perceived health benefit like organically grown foods growing at 25 percent a year. Or products promising affordable indulgence such as those beautifully merchandised by Terra Verde, an emporium in New York City's Soho district that sells luxuriously soft organic cotton sheets, and towels, aromatic candles, and natural body oils.