We have been trying to wean our customers off plastic bags for months – especially newspaper customers. They buy a paper for $1.10 or thereabouts and when we don’t offer a bag, many demand it. In case they want proof of purchase we offer a receipt or a stamp on the newspaper. No, they want the plastic bag.
While we have an environmentally friendly bag, customers won’t pay for it. We happily give it away for sales of $20.00 or more. We have run several other promotions giving our environmental bag away. We have also given away environmental bags from The Age. Most customers don’t re-use these bags as intended – there is no habit around these when it comes to newsagencies.
We have tried paper bags for newspapers but they are too expensive for a newspaper purchase where the margin is very slim.
We have tried saying to customers that we’d rather not provide a plastic bag for a single newspaper purchase. It doesn’t go down well.
While we no longer automatically provide a bag for each sale and plastic bag use has fallen, we still give out too many – customers want plastic bags.
My view is that we need a national strategy, which all retailers can support. National with a local focus – raising money for approved local environmental projects – this brings an educational element to the equation and it makes the bag project local. Any national plastic bag strategy needs to be simple to administer.
The best approach will be for businesses to track bags purchased and used. This would provide an audit mechanism for the funds raised.
This week we start more carefully tracking plastic use in our newsagencies. By understanding the use we hope to better educate ourselves and then our customers. We expect the basket data about bag use to be enlightening.
In the meantime, there is the issue consumer attitude to plastic bags. Based on what I hear across the counter, many prefer plastic.
Customers want plastic bags because they are free. Their behaviour can change in response to incentives (or penalties). As a retailer and a Green voter I support the bag tax.
put a jar or moneybox on the counter and request customers make a 10 or 20cent donation for each bag they take and donate that money to planet ark or some other green group, similar to what bunnings is doing. the customers either wont pay or will contribute. its then upto you if you want to deduct the cost of the bag before forwarding the money onto planet ark or give the whole lot to them.
Mark;
It suprises me that you have recieved the negative response for no plastic, especially with all the publicity surrounding the major chains at the moment.
We intend to go ‘green’ when we roll out NewsXpress in about a month. It will be a strict policy, no plastic.
From my experience, the customers that want plastic are just lazy, 9 out of 10 times it is a simple newspaper purchase. Saying that, a National Strategy would make it that much easier, but then how do you get a National Strategy when our industry is so fragmented??
Vaughan Lawrence
As part of newsXpress we have been plastic free for 12 months. We still get the occasional complaint but this is minimal. We offer to roll the paper with an elastic band but overall the feedback is great. I agree with Scott, ask the customer to pay for plastic if they truely want it. We all need to break the habit.
Mark, have you considered thinking outside the square on this one? Use paper bags, and cover them with your advertising for your ink supplies, weekly specials, etc. You can even turn it into a profit centre, by selling the ad space to your suppliers, paid from their co-op budgets.
Mark,
I agree, Customers want a bag and many of our older customers, need a bag.
When we shop at a supermarket , most of what we buy is wrapped in plastic, is held on a plastic shelf on plastic fittings. It is the scanned through a plastic cash register attached to a plastic computer with a plastic screen and plastic receipt printer. Oh and then we drive it home in our plastic car burning fossil fuel.
Give me break.
A lot more thinking needs to be done because I’m not sure it’s a retailer place to dictate what a customer wants. The push should be coming from the other side of the counter, you know the general public.
If the customer demands a bag, the question is… plastic or paper. Dolphins or tree’s?
Mark we’ve tried outside and inside the square. In one of our shops there is extraordinary resistance to replacing plastic. mainly older customers. They appear to care little about the environment. Plastic is what they want. Mark
it would depend if suppliers see profit in advertising on your bags. if you self funded printed paper bags it would certainly be more loss making than if you had just given the customer a plastic bag in the first place.
I dropped plastic bags from my store over 12 months ago and whilst I do get the occasional grumble (mainly from tourists) the response has been an overall positive one. Like Vaughan said those rare ones that do complain are just plain lazy and/or have been conditioned to getting a bag over the years. It is hard to keep to sometimes because there is Woolies right next door to me that are only too happy to hand out a bag with a magazine or paper sale. Regardless, there is no way I will be supplying plastic again.
I have also started to notice a greater rejection of the offer of a paper bag for things like mags, greeting cards and the like.
We see the same thing with the non-woven bags. Customers simply don’t reuse them as intended and I don’t see this changing
We live in a disposable society and thats the way it is. We can try and change perception all we like, but the fact is that society already has the information and facts … they just don’t see any good reason to give up plastic. Culture change involves re-education, unfortunatly people are already educated on the topic.
Customers wan’t plastic bags, so we provide them. Simple supply and demand.
Jarrod, you say it is simple supply and demand. This would be all well and good if we were talking selling something, making money out of the supply we are not, unless you are selling the bags then they are just giveaways. Are you saying you would lose sales if you did not supply plastic or are saying you and your staff are just too tired or busy to offer alternatives?
Like I’ve said before our shop has been plastic free for over 12 months we do not even have plastic behind the counter, on wet days we offer to roll the paper on other day we offer a paper bag with our logo on the front. The older generation is a large reason why the earth is in this terrible way it is, because they do not care. But what about your own kids, when will we take a stand, when will we stop making excuses and bite the bullet.
I challange both you and Mark to stop offering plastic bags full stop and see how many sales you actually lose as opposed to how many wingers there are that still make a purchase.You will be surprised.
Be proactive, advertise the fact you do not offer plastic and see the response from the younger generations, in our store we have picked up extra sales because of our stance on plastic bags. newsXpress can help Jarrod, they have a great policy and support material to put up instore. I undersatnd from your supermarket side this will be hard, but start on the newsagency side and work up.
It is worth the wingers to make a change.
I guess the core point of my post – and it may not have been that clear – is that there is much to be done in educating consumers about plastic bags. I want them to NOT ask for them. No, I want them to refuse them and patronise stores which reject them. Instead, today, older customers, don;t care about plastic – they are the problem demographic.
Don’t we reuse them as garbage bags?
If we didn’t get them from the local store we would just buy garbage bags anyway?
You all seem to blame the older generation for not wanting to change but they did, they changed from the paper bags to the plastic just as our generation trained them.
The older generation were recycling way before it was trendy to then we changed them to be a through away society.
Our local store has the bio-degradable type you can’t even use them to store stuff for 3 months as they break down even in the cupboard.
People want plastic bags as news papers are dirty.
clem, agree 100%. Also, the Fed Govt is actually using misinformation that was badly interpreted from a paper that was published in 1997. See here : http://www.prw.com/homePBP_NADetail_UP.aspx?ID_Site=818&ID_Article=24414&mode=1&curpage=0
Banning bags is a stupid idea ! From a hygiene perspective, people will not wash re-usable bags. Woolworths has already said along time ago that, in some instances, customers have been politely warned before using the calico/fibre bags due to soilage for not only placing fresh produce in but the OHS of their staff at the front of house.
And yes, newspaper are filthy to handle, but that’s a whole different story…
I never comment, but on this issue and as a partner of Mark Fletcher in newsXpress I am a wholehearted believer in getting rid of plastic. Its not just a feel good thing its the right thing to do. At my previous company I was instrumental in rolling out a national plastic bag strategy which was wholly embraced by customers after a period of 6 months. Don’t be scared provide alternatives. I remember paper bags as a casual at a supermarket packing bags as a 15 year old, they are bad for the environment due to poor forestry techniques from overseas, cotton and canvas are bad due to the amount of water used to grow the ingredients and poor manufacturing practices in countries where they are sourced from. Newsagents are wasteful channel, reeducation is the key and also changing staff habits. Make it hard for your customers to access plastic bags. Supermarkets do not want to get rid of them as it adds to their cost as they buy plastic bags so cheaply. It can be done all you need to do is have a crack. Woolworths are slowly changing and now with Wesfarmers owning Coles etc, all you need to do is read their sustainabilty report on their website which is published annually. They cannot champion no plastic bas at Bunnings and then do something different in their FLC, Kmart and Target divisions, they will look like hypocrits so expect to see change very quickly. Yes some initial pain but all worthwhile in the long run. This is not just a feel good issue, its a real issue. If you want more information, go to the Planet Ark, Clean Up Australia or Keep Australia Beautiful websites, plus a heap of international sites through Google. As for using more rubbish bags, all manufacturers provide degradeable & biodegradeble rubbish bags, combined with recycling and composting of food scraps, land fill rates actually fall hugely, we just need to stop being lazy as a society. I am happy to talk to anyone in the channel as to how to do this effectively in their business.
Mark N.
You say its not a feel good thing but the right thing. Was it the right thing going from paper to plastic. I guess not. Now it might be the right thing to go back to paper, as long as we advertise on the bag to make it more viable (using green ink I’m guessing). I sure as hell dont want to visit any Planet Ark sight and read what is possibly misinformation if you believe the information we were directed to by John kirkham.
Sadly I’m confused. The only thing I am fairly sure about is that no bag is not an option, it’s stupid and bad business. So what do we use? Plastic, paper or some reusable bag like the supermarkets SELL and most people leave at home only to buy more when they go shopping.
I still believe we need science in this argument rather than possible misinformation or feel good opinions.
I thought this started as blog about plastic bags in newsagencies, not supermarkets. Don’t overcomplicate the matter. What we need to change is the opinion that when I buy a newspaper that I demand it be put in a plastic bag so I don’t get ink on my hands, or I buy one item at a shop and it is placed into one plastic bag, that is what needs to change and if individual retailers refuse to do it then the government will step in and it will cost businesses more because they will tax it.
I’m still of the opinion that you will not loose sales for saying no to plastic bags and offer an alternative.
But then again I have not been around long enough to remember the so called good old days when you could swim in the Brisbane river or the Yarra or see a sydney skyline without smog , but hey why should we change, the earth is still turning. All the damage has happened in the last 100 years like it or not
Luke,
It’s not only news papers that customers want to go into a plastic bags and the use of plastic bags is not restricted to our channel. By comparison our use is minor and certainly would not attract any Government interest.
You say “I’m still of the opinion that you will not loose sales for saying no to plastic bags and offer an alternative”.
Thats fine but what is the alternative?
I think you have overcomplicated the issue. Banning the use of plastic bags in our channel will not save the rivers or clear the skyline. but stopping the use of plastic bags may scare away a few customer who can buy a paper from a servo, supermarket or just about anywhere. We dont operate in a vacuum.
Call me naive but I think the customers opinion matters too.
I feel for you leon if your customers will stop shopping in your business over a plastic bag. I am in direct competition with 4 servos 2 supermarkets and my customer shop in our store purely on our service level, sure in our industry there is nothing you cannot buy elsewhere but newsagents have always been better at the personal service offered. If you continue great service you can do anything.
Like I said before I feel for people that are slaves to what has always been done, and are scared of change and upsetting the minority. Newsagents are living in a dead age if they think we will survive without being different to everyone else, and also not realising that our offerings need to change
Thanks Luke for feeling for me but you are missing my point. Newsagents as a whole I believe do offer great service and we have repeat customers due to that fact.
We dont offer bags for single items but we do fullfill a customers request. I welcome an alternative but no one seems to have one except a denial of service.
Hopefully in time customers will change their requirements.
I am more positive than to believe newsagents are living in a dead age but I do think its a challenging period for them. Change is not new, some will be good and some will be bad. I dont think a denial of service is a positive point of difference, hence I repeat the question – What is a viable alternative that has a win win outcome. By the way, I’m starting to have feeling for you too
So … Plastic bags are bad … Paper bags are bad … Canvas/Cotton bags are bad … what alternatives are there?
I would urge everyone to read not only the reports on the environmental impact of plastic bags but the rebuttals as well. Most general information provided is cleverly presented – one needs to look at the data used, rather than the conclusions which are often bias.
Not using plastic bags is not going to revolutionize the newsagency industry. We don’t generally offer plastic bags for single items (staff are not trained this way, they develop this habit after reaslising most customers dont want a bag for a single item) – but we certainly won’t ever refuse them if they ask. The potential to loose a customer is too great.
If you need to use a plastic bag their are many types a photo-degradable bag that breaks down in sunlight, and degradable bag that brakes down when heat in landfill reaches a certain temperature and biodegradable which breaks down in contact with water. Either way corn starch bags, whatever the type can never replace a reusable bag. People need to stop being lazy at a minimum pay levy fr the bags to change behaviour. It will take time and is worth the effort in the long run. Next is getting newsagents to embrace degradable plastic for wrapping papers which is also a huge issue. The Irish have done this well over many years and may towns in Oz have baned the plastic bag. Its also a chance for the channel to show they can achieve something together. Resistance to change is at the core of this issue. If the channel can be less wastleful it will benefit in the long run. This goes to the core of the issue. This is form planet retail:
10 Mar 2008
In the UK, Woolworths has become the latest store chain to announce it will start charging for its plastic bags. It will start charging GBP0.01 (USD0.02) for single-use plastic bags from 22 May in a number of stores, and if the trial is a success, it will be rolled out nationally within months. The retailer hopes the charge will encourage shoppers to reuse their bags. It will also introduce reusable bags. The money raised will go to the charity Woolworths Kids First. Woolworths managing director Tony Page said: “We believe charging for plastic bags in all High Street stores is a real possibility in the future and Woolworths will look to be at the forefront of this change. Before we can introduce a charge for plastic bags in all stores, we want to talk to our customers more about the issue, test systems and train our staff to ensure that we do the right thing by our customers, staff, the business and the environment.†Woolworths currently gives out around 220million each year. The company added that it has cut the number of bags its customers use by 10% a year since 2004 and by 2007, shoppers at the store chain were using 32% fewer than they did in 2004.
Most retailers I see using plastic bags now use some form of degradable – this has been the case for a number of years.
Changing customer behaviour is difficult. Its difficult to do even at an instore-browser level. I simply don’t see it hapening at a more social level as is the case with plastic bags.
Customers simply WONT re-use environmental bags as intended – especially not for single items such as a newspaper. Who is going to carry an environmental bag around with them all the time?
If governments introduce the levy fine. As a consumer I don’t care if I have to pay some small change for a plastic bag. While a levy will reduce the number of bags used, I don’t see that it will have a near-extenction effect on them.
I would encourage all to take a look at http://www.narga.net.au/documents/2006/narga-sub-acg-reports-sep06.pdf – while it focuses on the supermarket industry it is a very interesting and relevant read.