With the recent announcement by Coles and Woolies that they are phasing out plastic bags, many of my clients could see this as an ideal time to access what they are going to do about their packaging too.
On one hand, by having bags it certainly encourages people to buy more, many people appreciate these bags. The other problem is that if they bring in their own bags, they are limited to how big their bags are. So I have had clients after getting rid of bags brought them back in the shop.
On the other hand, many in the public do not like it and in places like Canberra, they have already implemented bans, plus it costs. An article on the ABC that estimated the cost savings to Australian supermarkets of plastic bags was $171 million a year?
Here is an idea you may want to chew on, free bags if the customer purchases over a certain amount. It may encourage them to buy more. Easy to implement such a change in our point of sale system.
Anyway now is a good time for many of you to make a decision.
