Further to my post earlier this week about Officeworks not offering the LOWEST PRICES EVERYDAY, I was surprised at their twenty cent charge for a shopping bag when I purchased too many items to carry loose.
When I queried the person behind the counter I was told it was okay because the money from the bags went to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. It turns out that only five cents of the twenty cents goes to this organisation, Officeworks gets fifteen cents.
On querying the fifteen cents Officeworks keeps for the bags the employee had no response.
The bags themselves are designed to promote the green credentials of the organisation. They could better serve the environment by providing a 100% biodegradable bag … like I do in my newsXpress newsagencies without charging the customers a cent. Customers love our biodegradable bags.
It feels to me like Officeworks hides behind the fund-raising pitch to make their bags a profit centre for the company. Their stationery prices are not that cheap, they certainly have margin capacity for funding bags for shoppers.
Newsagents who provide bags for free, especially biodegradable bags, have something else they can pitch as a point of difference to Officeworks.
Well said Mark.