Green Retailing Memo: Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. and General Mills Launch Free Reusable Shopping Bag Cross-Promotional Program Today

Massachusetts-based Stop & Shop Supermarket Co., which is a division of Dutch retailer Royal Ahold, NV, and food industry manufacturer and marketer General Mills, Inc. today announced an innovative Earth Day-themed reuseable shopping bag cross-promotional campaign in all of the grocery retailer's 389 stores.

Starting today and running through Thursday, April 24, Stop & Shop customers who purchase at least $15 worth of General Mills' brand products in a single store visit such as Pillsbury baked goods, Green Giant frozen vegetables (that jolly 'Green' Giant), General Mills' ready-to-eat cereals, Yoplait Yogurt, Haagen-Dazs ice cream, Betty Crocker branded products, Cascadian Farm and Muir Glen brand natural and organic products, and many other Big G. brands, will receive five free reusable shopping bags.

Stop & Shop also is launching a second initiative beginning on May 9 as part of what it is calling its "Think Green" green retailing campaign.

For each single-use plastic carrier bag, paper grocery sack or reusable shopping bag a customer brings into the store, the food retailer will deduct 5 cents for each bag used to bag their grocery order from the shoppers total purchase cost. For example, if a shopper brings in ten bags and all ten are used to bag their grocery order, Stop & Shop will deduct 50 cents from the total.

Numerous U.S. grocery chains are already doing this; giving shoppers a 5 cent (and in a few cases a 10 cent) per brought-in grocery bag credit off their total grocery order amount. Some chains are even giving customers 5 cents off per bag for each paper grocery bag they bring in beyond the number used to packaged their purchases.

For example, if a shopper brings in 20 paper grocery sacks but only five are needed to bag their purchases, the retailer will keep the remaining 15 and give the customer a total of $1.00 off their total grocery order purchase amount at the register.

Stop & Shop and General Mills have a number of point-of-purchase product displays, featuring GM products, promoting the four-day buy by $15 worth of General Mills' brand products and get five free reusable shopping bags from Stop & Shop campaign.