This was typical of the response to the Coles Supermarkets Australia Pty Ltd end of July 2018 announcement that is was indefinitely suspending a full ban on the use of free plastic shopping bags in its stores.
The Daily Examiner, 2 August 2018, p.13:
Supermarket giant Coles’
“bagflip’’ in continuing to hand out free reusable plastic bags is a perplexing
move.
After spending the past
month getting its customers used to the idea there would be no more single-use
bags, Coles management has caved in to the tantrums of some customers unable to
get their head around the notion of doing something to help the environment or
pay up.
Not surprisingly the
environmentalists are outraged.
For a start the
so-called reusable plastic bags are just a step up from the tissue-thin,
single-use bags clogging landfill and choking marine wildlife.
The smart thing about
the proposed bag ban was that the supermarket was using a price signal to
reinforce the change, a language its bargain-hunting customers were sure to
understand.
No longer.
The customer has come
first, ahead of the environment, good planning and common sense.
Without a price tag,
customers are going to treat the reusable bags just like the old ones, which
will add a splash of colour to the litter.
It has the same logic as
trying to improve a child’s behaviour by giving in to its demand.
The “child” in this case
does spend millions of dollars in your store, but with Woolworths continuing to
charge the 15 cents for resuable bags, shoppers didn‘t have many options.
By midday on 2 August 2018 Coles reversed its backflip and set a new deadline for stores - 29 August 2018 is now the deadline for handouts of free reusable plastic shopping bags.
Hopefully by the beginning of 2019 even reuseable plastic bags will no longer be available for purchase.
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