Supermarkets in New Zealand are jumping on the band wagon (or is that ‘bag wagon’) in a concerted effort to save the planet – or so they say – by charging for plastic bags at the checkout.
Their rationale is to save the planet from the evils of plastic landfill and it’s production. They are now charging around 5cents per bag to encourage us to become more frugal with our plastic bag usage. Profits of course go to charity.
This raises a few questions – firstly do we really feel warmer to our local supermarket because of their environmental conscious, or do we feel ripped off by their tact to charge us for what used to be a cost of goods sold by them (like the wages, rent and car parking spaces?) Remember the profit goes to charity, not the entire cost, so we are now paying for the cost of the bag.
If my bag tears and my groceries spill to the ground, since I’ve purchased the bag can I now get it, and my damaged groceries replaced, seeing as they sold me the item, and not gave it to me?
Pak ‘n’ Save, a low cost, pack your own groceries market, already charges for bags, but for the cost cutting reason, not the environmental one (that’s just an added bonus), as it’s in their brand promise.
If they are so worried about landfill, should they also encourage me to not grab the plastic bags in the vegetable department? Should they encourage their suppliers to use less fancy packaging?
Remember business owners, if you make a brand promise, in this example an environmental statement, it needs to flow through to every aspect of your business.
Maybe we should switch to paper bags…
This entry was posted on Friday, September 25th, 2009 and is filed under In the news. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Reading about another branding 'one stop shop'. A brand is about focus, not keeping everyone happy. Who are you keeping happy and why? 2010/06/14
Suburbs play the branding game. The combination of the perception of the area with what it delivers. For eg: http://tinyurl.com/y7auffy 2010/04/13
Discussing the way marketing used to be 40 years ago. Decisions came from the business plan, not the bean counter. Today we call it branding 2010/04/12
Is supermarket’s upsell in the bag?
Supermarkets in New Zealand are jumping on the band wagon (or is that ‘bag wagon’) in a concerted effort to save the planet – or so they say – by charging for plastic bags at the checkout.
Their rationale is to save the planet from the evils of plastic landfill and it’s production. They are now charging around 5cents per bag to encourage us to become more frugal with our plastic bag usage. Profits of course go to charity.
This raises a few questions – firstly do we really feel warmer to our local supermarket because of their environmental conscious, or do we feel ripped off by their tact to charge us for what used to be a cost of goods sold by them (like the wages, rent and car parking spaces?) Remember the profit goes to charity, not the entire cost, so we are now paying for the cost of the bag.
If my bag tears and my groceries spill to the ground, since I’ve purchased the bag can I now get it, and my damaged groceries replaced, seeing as they sold me the item, and not gave it to me?
Pak ‘n’ Save, a low cost, pack your own groceries market, already charges for bags, but for the cost cutting reason, not the environmental one (that’s just an added bonus), as it’s in their brand promise.
If they are so worried about landfill, should they also encourage me to not grab the plastic bags in the vegetable department? Should they encourage their suppliers to use less fancy packaging?
Remember business owners, if you make a brand promise, in this example an environmental statement, it needs to flow through to every aspect of your business.
Maybe we should switch to paper bags…
This entry was posted on Friday, September 25th, 2009 and is filed under In the news. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.