Green Retailing Memo: One Year Since Eliminating Plastic Bags Whole Foods Market Says Reusable Use Has Tripled; 150 Million Less Bags in Landfills

Whole Foods Market teamed up with singer Sheryl Crow (pictured above, right) to design its value-priced "A Better Bag" reusable canvas shopping bag (pictured above, left). The reusable bags, which feature a tree drawn by Crow, come in two sizes and sell for 79-cents and 99-cents (large bag) respectively.

Nearly one year ago, on Earth Day, April 22, 2008, Whole Foods Market, Inc. eliminated offering free single-use plastic carrier bags as an option in all of its stores in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom. Instead, Whole Foods' decided to offer shoppers only free 100% recyclable paper grocery bags (made from at least 50% post-consumer recycled paper), along with making a major push to encourage customers to bring there own reusable shopping bags with them to the stores, as well as offering a variety of reusable bag varieties for sale at a variety of price points in its natural and organic foods markets.

[Read our April 21, 2008 story about Whole Foods Market's banning the plastic bags in its stores here: Green Retailing Memo: Whole Foods Market, Inc. Self-Bans the (Plastic) Bag Tomorrow; Has Related Regional Earth Day Promotions Planned For All Stores.]

A.C. Gallo, Whole Foods Market, Inc.'s co-president and chief operating officer says the Austin, Texas-based natural grocery chain decided to eliminate the single-use plastic carrier bags on Earth Day last year "in an effort to help protect the environment and conserve resources, a move that aimed to protect nature and wildlife and reduce litter by encouraging customers to bring reusable bags when they shop for groceries."

Last year hundreds of Whole Foods Market's store-level team members joined the non-profit Ocean Conservancy group's annual coastal cleanup day in which thousands of volunteers pick up litter and catalog what they found along beaches and coastal waterways throughout the world.

"During Ocean Conservancy's 2008 International Coastal Cleanup, 1.4 million plastic bags were found littering our oceans, lakes and rivers," says Dianne Sherman, Director of the International Coastal Cleanup. "Trash travels. Even if we live thousands of miles inland, our actions have a profound effect on the ocean. A bag can blow from a picnic table, wash down a storm drain into a river and wind up harming or killing a sea turtles, birds or other marine life. Trash is one of the most pervasive - but solvable -- pollution problems facing our oceans and waterways. Whole Foods Market and their customers are demonstrating how simple lifestyle changes can make a sea change."

When it eliminated the plastic grocery bags last year from the checkouts in all its stores Whole Foods Market became the first major U.S. grocery chain to do so.

Gallo says that in the one year since Whole Foods' eliminated the single-use plastic carrier bags from all of its natural foods supermarkets the chain has seen the amount of reusable bag use among its customers triple. Additionally, Gallo says that the natural and organic grocer has kept an estimated 150 million plastic bags out of landfills since last Earth Day.

That's a considerable amount of plastic bags for one food retailing chain with just under 300 stores to keep from going into municipal landfills, which is where most of the single-use bags go because there isn't a comprehensive recycling system for the plastic bags in the U.S. like there is for paper grocery bags.

"At first we wondered if shoppers would just switch to paper but to our great surprise, people have been truly excited about using reusable bags," Gallo says. "I think Whole Foods Market has also helped that along by offering various versions of stylish, affordable 99 cent bags that have become quite popular - our shoppers have been inspired to make a positive environmental change and have really incorporated the reusable bag mindset into their daily lives. Eliminating plastic bags was definitely the right move at the right time."

Whole Foods' sells a variety of reusable bags in its 279 stores in the U.S., Canada (six stores) and the United Kingdom (five stores). Its value-oriented "A Better Bag," which sell for 79 and 99-cents respectively, depending on size, is constructed primarily (80% of its content) from recycled plastic bottles. The bags currently feature a charcoal sketch of a tree drawn and signed by singer Sheryl Crow.

The natural grocery chain also sells a variety of lower -to- mid-ranged priced reusable tote bags on up to its premium $29.99 cotton and burlap FEED 100 bag. Each FEED bag purchased by shoppers helps provide 100 nutritious lunches to hungry Rwandan school children through the United Nations World Food Program's School Feeding Program, as part of charitable program Whole Foods Market contributes to.

Whole Foods Market also offers customers a refund of either five or 10 cents per-reusable bag used at the stores' checkouts. The amount varies depending on the store and where it is located.

Paper bag use has increased at Whole Foods' stores since the retailer self-banned the plastic bags nearly a year ago. We know this because we've talked to store-level employees in at least 40 Whole Foods Market stores over the last year who have told us this is the case. However, that's to be expected, and we have no problem with it for a couple reasons.

First, the paper grocery bags are 100% recyclable. Nearly every city and town in the U.S has convenient, curbside recycling programs. And many of the smaller town that don't have the curbside programs allow resident to toss their paper waste into their green waste garbage cans. Since paper, including paper grocery sacks, is compostable, the disposal companies turn it and the green waste into compost which the towns use in parks and also sell to companies and often give away for free to town residents to use in their gardens

Additionally, the paper bags used at Whole Foods Market stores are at made from at least 50% post-consumer recycled materials, and the grocer is working on 100%. This means the bags a shopper gets today came from at least half of a bag that was recycled and turned into the new bag.

Unfortunately single-use plastic carrier bags are seldom recycled in the U.S., largely because there isn't a comprehensive recycling system established to do so . Few if any curbside recycling programs allow single-use plastic carrier bags, for example.

In states like California and New York, supermarkets are required by state laws to place bins in the stores so that shoppers can return the plastic bags. The retailers also are required to arrange to have the bags picked up by a company that will have them recycled.

But the simple fact is that American consumers generally will only recycle if its convenient to do so, which is why residential the curbside system works best. Before that cities used drop off centers. Recycling rates were minimal. Curbside increased the rates dramatically.

In addition, only about three or four states have such laws.

In 2007, Whole Foods Market introduced all-natural fiber packaging at its in-store salad and food bars that comes from plants that grow wild or are cultivated and harvested annually.

Whole Foods' is currently searching for alternatives to its use of plastic bags and plastic containers in its stores' produce, seafood, bakery and bulk foods departments, according to Gallo. Since customers generally use a single plastic bag for each individual item purchased in these departments, that adds up to using lots of these single-use small bags storewide for Whole Foods.

Any replacement bag for these uses though requires that the material used in the bag is food grade, since it will be coming into contact with fresh and ready-to-eat foods.

Before the invention of the plastic bag for use in produce and plastic bags and containers for in-store bakery, supermarkets used paper bags and paper boxes (remember those pretty pink bakery boxes?) in these departments.

Some supermarkets still use paper along with plastic in their in-store full service bakeries. However few do largely because the cost of plastic is cheaper.

Switching to paper is something we think Whole Foods should take a look at and consider for both bakery and bulk foods. It's a bit more difficult for produce, although their are supermarkets that still offer a choice of plastic and paper bags for shoppers in the produce departments. Paper can be used to wrap fresh fish but usually stores put it in a bag first in order to preserve its freshness. That could be more difficult to find a solution for.

One of the reasons retailers like using plastic in produce, bakery and bulk departments is because the store checkout clerks can see the item through the bag, which speeds up checkout. However, we think in the case of bakery and bulk, going to paper for Whole Foods wouldn't slowdown checkout all that much, particularly once the clerks got used to peeking inside the bag when the need to, mostly in the case of produce since the bulk bags are supposed to be identified by code numbers anyway.

It would be hard of course to go to paper completely in any in-store bakery we realize because in some cases clear packaging, prepacked cakes and the like, is needed to display the product in self-service. But items in the full-service cases could be packaged using paper bags without much difficulty. Safeway Stores, Inc. for example does this in its stores, using a mix of paper (for service bakery) and plastic.

Of course, a truly biodegradable-compostable plastic bag for seafood, fresh meat, produce, bakery and bulk that doesn't cost retailers an arm and a leg would be a great solution. But none are available at a decent cost yet on the market that we've been able to find.

There is a slow behavior change going on among consumers in terms of bringing their own bags to the grocery store. And since Whole Foods Market happens to cater to the "greenest" of "green" consumers it's likely the behavior change is and will always be more dramatic in its stores, compared to say conventional supermarkets.

But with steady education, along with economic incentives designed to decrease plastic and even paper bag use by shoppers, its our analysis that over the next few years we will see more and more shoppers, regardless of where they shop, bringing there own bags to the grocery store.

In fact, it is some of the no frills, deep-discount grocery chains like Germany-based Aldi (Europe and the U.S.) and Lidl (Europe), and Supervalu's Sav-A-Lot (U.S.) that are leading the way in encouraging shoppers to bring their own bags to the store because they charge customers a small fee (usually five to 15-cents per-bag) for each single-use plastic bag they request at checkout, providing a small but still real economic incentive to shoppers to bring their own bags to the store. Many shoppers bring single-use plastic bags or paper bags from previous trips or from other stores with them to these stores, not just specifically designed reusable tote bags. Doing this takes the "single-use" out of the paper and plastic bags.

And of course more and more cities, counties and even states and nations (Ireland, China) have and are passing plastic bag ban laws or laws requiring shoppers to pay for the single-use plastic bags in stores if they request them. As more of these laws are passed, which they will be, that obviously will decrease the amount of single-use plastic bags used overall, both in the U.S. and globally. [Related story: Green Memo: Ireland Has Reduced the Use of Single-Use Plastic Carrier Bags By 94 Percent With Bag-Fee Law; Has Exceeded EU Recycling Targets.]

For example, China banned the bags nationwide last year. That resulted in a huge global decrease in usage in one legislative fiat. Of course it would be better if consumers adopted the use of reusable bags without all the added new legislation.

What's needed are additional and new creative ways to change shopper behavior more towards the bring-your-own-bag concept, along with some solid economic incentives designed to move the behavior change along more rapidly. We see both coming.

Reader Notes

~Click here to read a selection of past posts in Natural~Specialty Foods Memo (NSFM) on the plastic and reusable bag topic and issue. You can also use the search box at the top of the Blog. Just type in the search terms "plastic bag issue," "reusable bags," "plastic grocery bags," or "single-use plastic carrier bags."

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Green Retailing Memo: New Issues Emerging From Growing Consumer Use of Reusable Bags: Worker Injuries, Shoplifting Claims, 'Double-Bagging'

In Australia, the shop assistants' union which represents supermarket clerks, is claiming the growing use of reusable shopping bags, especially those of the canvas and cotton variety, is causing injuries to store clerks because the reusable bags can hold up to 40% more weight in groceries than single-use plastic carrier bags or paper grocery sacks. As a result, all the lifting and toting of the heavier-when-filled reusable bags are causing injuries to the store workers, according to the union.

As a result, the shop assistants' union is proposing laws that would protect the store workers from injuries caused by the heavier-when-filled reusable shopping bags.

The Aussie store clerks' union says it has statistics which show about 11.3% of the nation's supermarket clerks have been injured lifting the reusable shopping bags after packing them with a customer's grocery purchases.

The issue is beginning to gain steam in Australia because the country's government is expected to pass a law banning the use of single-use plastic carrier bags next year.

The union is just beginning to formulate a series of laws it says are designed to protect the store clerks from back and other injuries they say are increasingly being sustained because the canvas and cotton reusable shopping bags can hold many more items than a single-use plastic carrier bag, thus becoming much heavier to lift off checkout stand counters, put into shopping carts and carry out to customers' cars at supermarkets which offer that service.

In a piece earlier this week in which we mentioned that one unintended consequence (although it should have been expected) of the single-use plastic carrier bag ban for supermarkets over 10,000 square feet the city of San Francisco, California enacted last year, is that the use of paper grocery sacks in the stores has increased dramatically. The allow still allows the store to offer paper grocery sacks for free to shoppers.

Our point isn't to suggest the plastic bags should not have been banned. That's the choice of people and governments in democratic societies.

Rather, we're just pointing up that there often are unintended consequences when laws like bag bans are enacted.

It appears the supermarket clerk health and safety issue being brought up by the Australia shop assistant's union is one of those unintended consequences; in this case of the growing popularity of consumers doing the right and "green" thing by bringing their own reusable shopping bags to the grocery store rather than having the store use single-use plastic carrier bags or paper grocery sacks to pack their purchases.

The issue isn't isolated to Australia

The heavier reusable shopping bag issue and store worker injury or potential injury issue isn't unique to Australia. We've noticed it personally in stores in the USA. The eyes of supermarket clerks sometimes glaze over when they see a shopper present three or four canvas or cotton reusable shopping bags for their grocery order to be packed in.

We've asked a store clerk or two about that "look," and they told us the only problem with the reusable bags is that when full they are so much heavier than plastic bags--and even paper grocery sacks when filled. They've added that after an eight hour day--especially one in which lots of shoppers brought their own reusable grocery totes--of packing and lifting the heavier bags, their backs and shoulders get rather sore.

Others have noticed this phenomenon in supermarkets as well.

For example, below is a post a consumer wrote on the Yahoo Answers website regarding a discussion of just this issue involving reusable shopping bags at supermarkets:

When the cashier started scanning my merchandise I told her I brought my own bags. She just looked at me confused as hell and then said she couldn't use them. I was a little baffled because why couldn't she? I come to realize it was mostly due to pure laziness in wanting to pack with my bags. She told me I had 2 options 1. let her bag them in which she'd use the plastic bags or 2. I bag them and use my own bags.

A bit later on Yahoo Answers, a number of posters mentioned the reusable shopping bag being heavier than plastic grocery bags when full issue regarding this poster's reusable bag experience at her supermarket, as the likely culprit to that store clerk's attitude and behavior.

We doubt if such flat out refusal's are the norm--or even a 5% of the time issue. However, other consumers say they've experienced similar (though not refusals like the shopper quoted above) situations regarding supermarket clerks and reusable bags.

Below is an experience one consumer posted on a website called Daily Green:

2008 @ 2:18PMBigGUM said...Only once did a grocery clerk not want to use my bags. I suppose I could have thrown a fuss, but I opted to bag my own stuff instead. Usually my grocery store doesn't blink an eye and recently they've even started selling their own bags. Now just the other night at Target the cashier first attempted to scan my bags, then just went ahead and bagged my bags (!) in a plastic Target bag. When she finally understood what they were for she was flummoxed. Didn't I *like* the Target bag? Oh, I must be one of those save-the-environment people, right? No joke!

Other emerging issues regarding reusable shopping bags

This consumer's post points up another issue (other than the store clerk health and safety one) we've been recently told about regarding reuseable shopping bags in stores.

That issue is that in some cases store workers either tend to think shoppers are buying the bags at the store--and thus try to scan them like the consumer quoted above experienced--or even worse, we've been told by a number of consumers that store personal thought the shopper might be shoplifting with the reusable bags.

For example, below is a quote posted on Daily Green regarding the potential shoplifting issue:

-2008 @ 7:54PMAshleyThe Amazon said...I have literally been chased down by Wal Mart greeters when I enter a store with my own reusable bags, usually on a regular basis. One greeter claimed it was a theft issue and she needed to put a pink sticker on it to differentiate from their merchandise. These were bags emblazoned with "IKEA" and "Whole Foods" on them!! So obviously not theirs! I usually get dirty looks from the cashiers as well. They don't understand why I try to cram all of my items in the bags I brought. I have had these issues at 3, count them, 3 different stores. I wonder if its really a big company issue. Kinda makes me less likely to wanna go there.

Lastly, it seems many supermarket clerks are used to a certain routine which all shoppers are aware of. That routine has been company policy at supermarkets for years, primarily for perceptual rather than real reasons, but flies in the face of the reusable bag culture.

Here is an example: Clerks will put fresh meat, poultry or seafood for example into a separate plastic carrier bag so as to not let the package come into contact with other grocery products. They often do the same with fresh produce and other perishable or frozen items. In the latter case to keep the items frozen or cold. The concept is that in the separate bag there will be no "contamination."

Many shoppers who religiously bring their own bags to the store say this practice still happens to them when the supermarket clerk is bagging their grocery order.

The clerk, following store and company policy will "bag" fresh meat, poultry and seafood items for example in separate single-use plastic carrier bags, then put those bags along with all the other groceries into the customer's reusable shopping bags.

Of course, such practices defeat the source-reduction purpose the consumer intended by bringing his or her own bag to the supermarket. The shoppers then say they have to ask the clerk to please remove the items from the single-use plastic bags; which the clerks always do in the cases we've been told about or read about.

For example, here is what a poster on Daily Green had to say about the situation:

1-10-2008 @ 11:37AMBrigid Keely said...When I shop at grocery stores other than Whole Foods, I get confused looks when I say I brought my own bags. Sometimes the bagger bags everything in plastic bags (double bagged, t'boot) and then drops them in the bags I brought.One cashier teased me for having bags emblazoned with logos from stores other than his, but it was very friendly, and he made sure the bagger bagged our stuff correctly (ie, not in plastic).

Conclusion

Like all behavior and policy change, the growing use of reusable shopping bags isn't without its problems, as our examples point out. And since the goal is to grow this behavior and practice further, the unintended consequences are likely to grow and multiply.

However, we believe the in-store related behaviors can be fixed with effort by management, consumer patience, cooperation by the store clerks, and time.

The supermarket clerk injury situation currently being brought to attention by the Australian retail clerks union though could just be a bigger and less easily solved issue.

With the consumer use of reusable bags growing, more governments banning single-use plastic carrier bags completely, with others passing bag-fee laws and even retailers like Whole Foods Market self-banning the plastic bags in its stores beginning on April 22, we think the health and safety issue regarding the reusable shopping bags and potential and real store worker injuries is in its infancy. In other words, as the use of reusable shopping bags increases, so will the intensity of the issue, and not just in Australia.

We expect the issue to begin to emerge in the United States and Europe soon, as it is presently in Australia. As such, it promises to add another layer to the already multi-layer issue of paper, plastic--or reuseable bags.

Retail Marketing & Public Relations Memo: Was Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neigborhood Market 'Listening' to Our April 2 Memo?

NSFM Editors Note: Below is a Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market corporate press release distributed by PR Newswire. It just landed in our email box a couple minutes ago (April 8, 2008)

We suggest you read the press release which we've reproduced in its entirerty below. Then read our piece, "Retail Marketing & Public Relations Memo: What Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market 'Should' Be Doing Now," which we wrote six days ago on April 2, 2008, and have reproduced directly below the Tesco Fresh & Easy corporate press release. First the Fresh & Easy press release below:

Fresh & Easy to Give Away Free 'Bag For Life' For Earth Day

Grocer offers free reusable bags on April 22nd

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., April 8, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- In celebration of Earth Day, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market today announced its 61 stores will bag groceries with free reusable "bags for life" for customers on April 22nd. The company encourages customers to reuse these bags and lessen their impact on the environment.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080408/AQTU198.)

Fresh & Easy offers its customers two different types of reusable bags, including a $2.50 canvas bag and a plastic reusable "bag for life," which retails for $.20. The "bag for life" is larger and more durable than standard grocery bag and, if damaged, Fresh & Easy will replace the bag for free, forever. These bags are made with recycled material and are 100% recyclable.

"We want to make it easier for our customers to make more environmentally friendly decisions," said Tim Mason, Fresh & Easy CEO. "If everyone in the neighborhood shops with reusable bags, we can really make a difference."

Fresh & Easy has made a considerable effort to be a good neighbor and steward of the environment. For example, the company only sells energy efficient light bulbs, uses LED lighting in external signs and freezer cases, offers plastic, aluminum and glass recycling, and provides preferred parking for hybrid vehicles.

More broadly, Fresh & Easy has committed to build LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified buildings and voluntarily joined the California Climate Action Registry to disclose its greenhouse gas emissions. At its distribution center in Riverside the company invested $13 million in a solar roof installation, which is one of California's largest
at 500,000 sq. ft.

More information regarding Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market can be
found at http://www.freshandeasy.com/.

###

Below is our April 2, 2008 piece. Please pay special attention to the text highlighted in green.

Retail Marketing & Public Relations Memo: What Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market 'Should' Be Doing Now.
By Natural~Specialty Foods Memo: April 2, 2008

Last week, Tesco Neighborhood Market chief marketing officer Simon Uwins posted in his corporate blog on the Fresh & Easy website that the small-format, convenience-oriented neighborhood grocery chain was taking a "pause" in its new store opening blitz, which has found Fresh & Easy opening 59 grocery stores in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada since November, 2007. [Read about the Fresh & Easy new store "pause" or "breather" here.]

Blogs such as Fresh & Easy Buzz were the first to report on Uwins' announcement, followed by a number of UK newspapers. The U.S. business press picked-up the story starting on Monday.

And yesterday and today numerous major newspapers and news services like the Associated Press the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and many others are running stories on the retailer's three month new store opening "pause." Blogs of all sorts are writing about the three month new store opening moratorium and store sales' underperformance issue as well.

Most of these news stories and features (and likely those to come the rest of this week) aren't positive for Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market retail venture in the USA. The new store opening "pause" is the story news peg in all of the pieces, along with reports like those we offered months ago that the 59 Fresh & Easy grocery markets opened to date are seriously underperforming in sales as compared to Tesco's internal sales targets.

Uwins and company should have better prepared for this fact, which any experienced U.S. marketer or PR professional should have known would happen. It can happen to anybody though.

The reason any professional with experience with the U.S. business press should have known how the news cycle would have played out is because of the nature of today's media. First, because the newspaper business in the U.S. is doing so poorly, newsroom budgets and staffing has been lean for the last five years or so. As a result, today's U.S. business and popular press is a reactive rather than investigative enterprise in the main.

Business reporters at America's newspapers--with some exceptions of course--tend to report and write stories based on press releases issued by corporations, or based often times on news reports they find in blogs and other alternative media sources.

For example, the business section reporters who are reporting on the Fresh & Easy "pause" yesterday and today didn't read it on Mr. Uwins' corporate blog--even though it was there for blogs like Fresh & Easy Buzz to find, which reported it last Saturday. Rather, they either discovered the news from that blog, or from the British newspapers which started reporting the story on Sunday and Monday.

As a result though, Mr. Uwins' corporate blog post--which we think was a good idea but not complete as we will explain shortly--offered a news peg for the U.S. business press to generate stories about Fresh & Easy, which hadn't been much in the news in the last month. Since the "news" is that Fresh & Easy is taking this new store opening breather, originally reported by the grocery chain's marketing chief, and that the stores have been underperforming for sometime, based on numerous reports, put the two together and you've got the news peg the publications' went with; and rightly so--it's what is news, especially in the absence of any follow-up prepared by Fresh & Easy.

Mr. Uwins and the Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market team should have been prepared for this news cycle however--and even used it to the grocery chains marketing advantage. And, based on the responses from a Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market spokesman to the reporters in many of these stories, there hasn't been much preparation. His quotes to date have been on the order of: 'Things are going well, the stores aren't underperforming, we don't know where this data (the sales estimates) is coming from.'

Not good. Too boilerplate. Non-responsive. Sounds too much like spin. It's not the spokesman's fault either. He can only go with what he's provided with. It's not an easy roll.

What Uwins and company should have done before publishing the "pause" news in the corporate blog (a communication we agree with) was to be ready for the media before the post was made.

What do we mean by ready?

We suggest Uwins and company should have had three stories (news pegs) prepared and locked-and-loaded for the post "pause" announcement. Remember, today's business press, and even many bloggers, are a reactive lot in most ways.

We would have prepared three "news pegs" in the following areas:

First, we would have had one concrete change to be implemented in the Fresh & Easy stores. For example, a common complaint (which happens to be true) about the stores is that they aren't localized and customized enough to the demographics and character of the neighborhoods they are located in. We would have used this post-pause announcement period to announce a major initiative in which Fresh & Easy plans to start in May bringing in a substantial number of more local food and grocery products into its stores. Neighborhood-oriented merchandising.

For example, bringing in more Southern California-produced fresh produce and specialty products for its stores in that region. There are tons of such goods produced and marketed in the region. Additionally, how about a similar initiative for the Arizona Fresh & Easy grocery stores? An announcement that the grocer will stock many more Southwestern-style food and grocery products, produced in Arizona and New Mexico, in its stores. There are lots of those available as well.

Lastly, for both regions, and Nevada, an announcement that the small-format "neighborhood" grocery chain would be increasing the amount and variety of ethnic foods it merchandises in all 59 stores--Hispanic, Asian and other ethnic foods--based on the specific demographics of a given neighborhood. It's needed.

Such an announcement, say yesterday, would have generated lots of press, which in many cases would mean positive stories along with the more negative new store opening "pause" pieces. In some cases, such an announcement (local foods are big news in the U.S. right now) would have cut-short the "pause" story news cycle for the new "local foods initiative" cycle of stories.

But, if we were in charge we wouldn't have stopped there in our pre-publishing of the "pause" strategy, for the post-pause news cycle period.

April 22, just two weeks away, is Earth Day. Numerous grocery retailers, manufacturers and marketers are planning major Earth Day green marketing or green retailing promotions and activities for the day which celebrates the earth, conservation and environmental stewardship.

We haven't heard of any plans for Earth Day from Tesco's Fresh & Easy.

Our second, "locked-and-loaded" post-pause corporate blog post news peg would have been tied to Earth Day. For example, why not an announcement from Fresh & Easy that it plans to give away thousands of free, reusable, canvass grocery tote bags at its 59 stores on Earth Day.

Further, that as part of this give-away promotion, it will give one dollar for every free tote bag it gives away to shoppers to local environmental groups and charities in its market areas.

Green or environmental news from retailers is big news right now.

Or, the grocery chain could even go bolder. It could follow in the footsteps of Whole Foods Market, Inc.--which beginning on April 22 (Earth Day) will no longer offer single-use, free plastic grocery bags in its 270-plus stores in the U.S., Canada and England.

Fresh & Easy could announce it's decided to offer only paper grocery bags produced from 100% post-consumer recycled paper, along with reusable grocery tote bags in its U.S. stores. In fact, such an announcement would be even more powerful if it was done in conjunction with the free reusable tote bag scheme suggested earlier.

Either way, just doing one or both, we guarantee there would be a significant batch of news stories generated on the announcement in the U.S. media. [Just Google or Yahoo Search Whole Foods plastic grocery bags to get a flavor for what we are suggesting in terms of news coverage. Also, just wait until a few days before Earth Day for the Whole Foods plastic bag self-ban stories to come flowing in.]

Just as we mentioned above about the "local foods initiative" story, one or both of these Earth Day news pegs would result in considerable positive news coverage, along with the more negative "pause" and store sales underperformance stories currently all over the pages of newspaper business sections and in online editions. Further, just as with the "local food" news peg--and even more so because both that announcement and the Earth day one would be timed to be released fairly shortly apart--the "pause" and sales underperformance story news cycle would be shortened in our analysis, experience and opinion.

Lastly, we would have one more bullet in our "pre-pause" corporate blog post/"post-pause" post-publication strategic media arsenal. We might or we might not use it right away depending on the results of our above news pegs, by the way.

This third and last strategy would be to have Fresh & Easy CEO Tim Mason and his new, soon to be number two man, U.S.-born Jeff Adams who currently is the CEO of Tesco's Tesco Lotus retail division in Thailand, issue a joint-statement saying the retailer recognizes there are some sales underperformance and other format, operations, marketing and merchandising problems with the Fresh & Easy stores, which is why as CEO Mr. Mason ordered the new store opening "pause." [Mason hasn't issued a statement or said a word on the "pause" to date. Not a good communications strategy. Further, believe it or not, the press loves it when a CEO comes out and walks-the-walk and takes charge. It hurts a little at first. But starts to feel real good soon after.]

Further, in the statement, we would have CEO Mason state that in part this is why Adams, a U.S. native, has joined the senior executive team. That he's coming in, from his highly successful run as CEO of Tesco-Lotus, to provide a fresh mind (one that was formed in the U.S.) and a new set of eyes as Fresh & Easy enters a new phase, after the amazing task of opening 59 of the small-format basic grocery and fresh foods markets in a mere 150 or so days.

Further, in the statement Adams would offer his two-cents worth, not to mention talking about how happy he is to be returning to the USA, land of his birth, to be involved with what might just be one of the most interesting grocery grocery retailing ventures in the U.S. in the last five decades, which it is. This isn't spin, it's all factual--and real.

There's an old saying in politics and political campaigning: 'If you have a problem...hang a lantern on it.' We all know the converse: most corporations and politicians (and others) get in trouble not because they address an issue or mistake head-on, but rather because they deny it or even attempt to cover it up. Like its often said about Richard Nixon's Watergate fiasco: 'It wasn't the third-rate burglary that lost Nixon the Presidency; it was the cover-up.'

We aren't suggesting Tesco is covering anything up about Fresh & Easy. Nor are we naive enough to think or suggest any corporation should fully disclose its operational difficulties (first it has to know them though) completely if it chooses not to.

What we are suggesting though is two-fold: First, as we write this, Tesco's Fresh & Easy appears to have absolutely no strategy for dealing with the mostly negative stories that are appearing mostly in the business sections of U.S. and UK newspapers this week. As we have outlined above, there exists a strategy for doing so; one that should have been in place already.

Second, Fresh & Easy has not just an image problem, but a real retail format, operations, marketing and merchandising one as well. But these aren't end of the world problems. They're "fixable," especially by one of the world's most innovative and successful retailers, which Tesco is. However, to fix these problems, those in charge first have to discover them; and do so despite personal pride or hubris. The suggestions we offer are part of hanging that lantern on these problems, as well as thinking strategically when it comes to marketing and media relations.

The story, of course, is still developing. Stay tuned. By the way, with some fast-moving and nimble work, Fresh & Easy could still launch a campaign like we describe above before the week is out.

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NSFM Editor's Note: We think Fresh & Easy's Earth Day-themed resusable "bags for life" giveaway is a decent first step towrds the comprehensive program we outlined above in our April 2 piece--if it's followed up rapidly with more action.

Although the "freebie" Earth Day reusable carrier bags aren't the canvass type (or even the type we describe below which Fresh & Easy should sell in addition to the two types of reusable carrier bags it already sells), but rather the cheap, 20 cent bags--it's still something--and far better than no giveaway at all.

Further, the fact Fresh & Easy will replace these free "bags for life" (hence their name) as part of the promotion is fantastic. An excellent concept in our opinion. Why? It offers a good deal for consumers, as well as suggesting in a small way Fresh & Easy wants you to be our customer "for life." Lots of little things designed to create primary shoppers can add up to a "big thing"-- eventually gaining more primary shoppers.

[Note to Fresh & Easy: Supermarket chains all over the U.S.--and Wal-Mart and target too--are selling very attractive reusable carrier bags made out of a light cloth material for 99 cents or one dollar each. Check out Wal-Mart's current advertising circular, for example. There is a picture of its dollar reusable shopping bag in the promo flier

In terms of the type of plan and program we laid out for Fresh & Easy in our April 2 piece, there's much more for the retailer to do to make it an overall comprehensive plan. Good starts become better with the next step.

By the way, we aren't suggesting causality between our April 2, 2008 piece and tonight's (April 8) press release from Tesco's Fresh & Easy. We were trained in the scientific method far to well to think that "correlation equals causality."

Green Memo: Innovative 'Bags Of Change' Uses Market-Based Loyalty Marketing Scheme to Encourage Green and Ethical Shopping Behavior

The Back-Story: Plastic Bag bans and legislation, reusable shopping bags, ethical retailing and ethical consumerism.

As we've discussed here often, the international movement to ban, tax and legislate against plastic grocery bag use at retail is blazing full steam ahead. The biggest news on the plastic bag ban front comes most recently from China. The world's most-populous country announced just last month it will ban the giving away by all retail stores of free, thin-plastic shopping bags later this year, shortly before the start of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, which are being held in China in August.

China's ban follows similar bans all over the world. In the U.S., the cities of San Francisco and Oakland, California have banned retail food stores over a certain square footage from using plastic grocery bags. (The San Francisco ban is in effect. The Oakland ban is currently being challenged in court.) Other cities and states throughout the U.S. are considering similar bans. States like California, New York and New Jersey have past laws which require supermarkets to place plastic grocery bag recycling bins in their stores and to sell reusable shopping tote bags in-store.

Many countries in Africa have banned the use of plastic shopping bags. A potential ban also is being discussed in the United Kingdom and in India, the second most-populous country in the world. In Australia and Canada, local governments have either banned plastic bags outright, are in the process of doing so, or are considering either taxing the bags' use, like Ireland is doing, or similar legislation.

Even food retailers are getting in on the banning (self-banning) of plastic grocery bags, which seldom get recycled and more often than not end-up being tossed into landfills, where they take decades to degrade. Whole Foods Market, Inc. announced recently it will stop using non-biodegradable plastic bags at all its stores in the U.S., Canada and the UK in April of this year, on Earth Day. Other retailers like German grocer Aldi charge customers extra if they want their purchases packaged in plastic bags in its UK and U.S. stores.

Trader Joe's, the U.S. specialty grocer owned by Aldi, doesn't offer plastic bags at all in its nearly 300 U.S. stores, and gives customers a discount for every reusable bag they use instead of having their groceries packaged in one of TJ's paper grocery bags. Most Trader Joe's stores have never offered plastic bags as an option. The retailer also was one of the first to sell reusable canvas bags and offer shoppers a discount for bringing them with them to shop.

Trader Joe's is today far from alone in offering incentives to shoppers for using reusable bags. This is a growing trend throughout the world. Just five years ago, it was difficult to find more than a handful of supermarkets that gave shoppers a discount if they brought their own bags (BYOB) to the store. Today, grocers across the board, from big-box discount stores, to upscale lifestyle food retailers, offer discounts of five -to- 10 cents per bag for BYOB and sell a variety of reusable shopping bags in their stores.

A Big Idea: Bags of Change. It's more than an anti-plastic bag approach. It's a pro-reusable bag, carrot without the stick, market-based incentive approach, with a loyalty marketing basis.

It's with reusable shopping bags that British company Bags of Change is creating change in the UK. And its using market-based methods to do so. The company has created a loyalty scheme in which shoppers can get a discount in over 50 stores (and growing) simply by using their organic hemp-cotton or latex tote bags rather than excepting a paper or plastic bag from the store for their purchases.

Further, as part of the loyalty program, shoppers also get extra discounts on locally-produced, organic and Fairtrade goods in the paticipating stores when they shop using one of Bags of Change's' reusable shopping tote bags.

Instead of focusing on sticks--laws, bans, taxes and the like--Bags of Change is taking a decidedly market-oriented approach by offering carrots in the form of discounts on goods at participating stores.

The company's goal is to get more people to use reusable bags regardless of whether or not plastic bags are legal, illegal, banned or not banned. Secondly, the green bag company wants to promote organic, local and Fairtrade shopping, along with the eco-friendly bags. As a result, their program is designed to reward and encourage ethical shopping behavior by offering economic incentives and appealing to UK shoppers' pocketbooks in addition to appealing to their hearts and minds.

Bags of Change, which was founded by school teacher Faith Simpson and researcher Dr. Hugh Willbourn, recently won the "Best Green Company" award in the 2007 Green England Green Awards, a major environmental competition designed to reward the "greenest" companies in the UK.

The loyalty scheme process is simple. Bags of change provides the buyers of its bags with a list of participating stores. The list is constantly updated on their website. Additionally, participating stores post signs in-store indicating they are part of the program. Shoppers just show the store clerk the tote bag to get their discount. It's a simple yet powerful market-based program. The company says its signing up more stores each week.

For the stores, the Bags of Change program provides them with a new group of shoppers who might not otherwise ever set foot in their stores. It's also a select group of shoppers, who by their very participation in the Bags of Change program have indicated a commitment to green and ethical shopping and retailers. These retailers benefit by associating with the loyalty program since in addition to the new business, they also get to position themselves as ethical retailers.

The Future Story: More market-based programs like Bags of Change, along with more retailer-based incentives, are needed to ensure proactive use of reusable shopping bags by shoppers.

One of the major problems with focusing on the plastic bag issue from only a legislative standpoint is that it does nothing to encourage positive behavior like convincing shoppers to use reusable shopping bags rather than paper bags, which remain an alternative in those places where plastic bags are being eliminated. Programs like Bags of Change are addressing that aspect using a positive, market-based approach.

We see food retailers creating similar programs. For example, instead of just giving customers five cents for every reusable bag they use, perhaps grocers who use store loyalty cards could offer a program where they give customers a credit for every reusable grocery bag they use instead of taking a paper or plastic store bag, in addition to the five or so cents per bag discount. When shoppers reach 25 or 50 credits, for example, they would get 5% off their total grocery order for that one time. Then they get to start banking the credits once again for next time. There are many similar, creative schemes that can be developed to encourage increased use of reusable shopping bags.

In other words, we believe market-based incentives are needed, along with laws, to ensure that over time the use of reusable shopping bags becomes the norm, rather than just a behavior practiced by a minority of "green" or ethical shoppers.

We like Bags of Change's approach in the UK, and look forward to seeing similar programs pop-up all over the world--along with innovative programs from retailers like the one we offered above, designed to eventually make shopper use of reusable shopping bags the norm rather than the exception. It's social, market-based marketing that's good for people, good for the earth, and good for the economic bottom-line as well.

Green Memo: Retail Promotions

Barneys New York: Dreaming of a green Christmas

Upscale department store retailer Barneys New York has gone all out to create a slightly tongue-in-cheek but earnest green holiday promotion this year in its famous New York City store.

"The green movement can be earnest and preachy," Barneys creative director Simon Doonan told the hintmag.com fashion magazine today. In response, Doonan has created green-themed store window displays with a bit of fun to them. There's Rudolph the Recycling Reindeer, with (we presume) his nose so green he will recycle all your gifts tonight. There's nothing preachy about green-nosed Rudolph though. He gets his eco-message out with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek.

The (green) Twelve Days of Christmas also have a prominent spot in one of Barney's large display windows. These green days leading up to Christmas feature "three solar panels, two tons of tofu, and a Toyota Prius in a pear tree." says Doonan.

The promotion just began and will run through Christmas eve, December 24.

Barney's also has teamed up with some green-minded designers who are creating "eco-friendly" clothing products, accessories and other goods for sale at the store during the "green" holidays. Portions of the sale of each of these items will be donated to environmental charities and organizations, says Julie Gilhart of Barneys.

One of the main green designer product features is the limited edition Goyard (the designer) grocery shopping bag pictured at the top of the page. The bag is made of 100% recyclable canvas. It sells for a mere $310. However, a portion of that money goes to green charities. We expect the Goyard canvas grocery bag will be a big hit with Manhattan's green-conscious shoppers for the holidays. After all, it's tough to find a decent pair of stiletto high heels at Barneys for $310, the price of the Goyard bag. Therefore, Why not buy it instead and do some good?

The retailer also is selling a selection of limited edition green holiday gift cards. The cards have different green sayings on them such as Green is Groovy, Join The Green Revolution, Save The Planet and other pro-environmental slogans. The gift cards range in value from $50.00 to $1,000.00, and a portion of the sale of each card is donated to environmental charities, like Barneys is doing with the designer items and accessories.

Green Memo: Plastic Grocery Bag Bans

San Francisco, CA Grocers and Others Prepare for Upcoming Plastic Grocery Bag Ban

Grocers and others in San Francisco are preparing for November 20, when a new city ordinance passed in March banning the use of all plastic grocery bags in large retail food stores goes into affect in this "green" city by the Bay.

To the surprise of many in this politically-charged city, opposition to the legislation which was passed by a vote of 10-to-1 by the city's legislators, was minimal. Although the California Grocers Association, the state trade group for food retailers, opposed the ordinance, the city's leading supermarket chains, independent grocers and larger specialty store retailers, put up no organized opposition to speak of.

Rather, knowing the legislation was essentially a sure thing, the grocers asked for a year or so to phase-in the use of alternatives like reusable bags made from biodegradable materials and canvas shopping bags. The Board of Supervisors ended-up giving the grocers an eight-month "phase-in" period. Paper grocery bags made from recycled paper can still be used to bag customers' groceries in retail food stores of any size in San Francisco. In a year the law will automatically ban plastic bag use by large retail drug stores.

Retail food stores in San Francisco which must eliminate the use of plastic grocery bags in their stores on November 20 include Safeway, Lucky Stores, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and numerous independent grocery, natural foods and specialty markets.

Most all these retailers are currently selling reusable biodegradable bags and canvas shopping bags of various qualities and styles. Prices for the bags range as low as a dollar for the biodegradable-type bags to as high as $20 for an upscale canvas bag sold at Whole Foods. Safeway, Lucky, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and others are selling basic reusable canvas shopping bags for as low as $3.99 to $4.99 however.

The city's numerous department stores and boutiques also are getting into the act by selling various types and styles of reusable shopping bags in their stores. This is somewhat ironic since these format stores can and in most all cases still use plastic shopping bags. The stores are selling shopping bags made from canvas and other materials, ranging from the simple to the designer fabulous, including those made from reused and recycled materials.

Many observers in San Francisco predict the plastic grocery bag ban will create a fashion trend among grocery shoppers in this style-conscious and individualistic city. The use of reusable shopping bags already is big in San Francisco--and they say it will only get bigger and more interesting--beginning on November 20.

The impending plastic bag ban also is stimulating the local economy in this entrepreneurial city. For example, a story in today's San Francisco Chronicle reports local entrepreneurs are creating "eco-friendly" reusable shopping bags out of materials like used rice sacks, recycled juice packs, surplus military tents, unused car upholstery and ripped sail cloth.

San Francisco "eco-designer Kendra Stanley sewing her reusable shopping bags, which are made out of old raincoats. It's a new use for an old product.. It's hard to get much greener than that. (Courtesy SF Chronicle.)

Among these "green" entrepreneurs is "eco-designer" Kendra Stanley. Inspired by the plastic grocery bag ban, Ms. Stanley has created a line of reusable grocery bags made from repurposed rain jackets, reports theChronicle. Her line of grocery bags, City Bag Trade, recycles as much of the rain jacket as possible, including the zippers and pockets.

Ms. Stanley is selling the bags on her website. She told the Chronicle she has thus far given away about 50 of the "green" grocery bags as a way to create awareness of her line and to encourage responsible environmental behavior. She calls her strategy 'guerrilla bagging,' a word-play on guerrilla marketing, and says "it's a way to get people to think about the overuse of plastic bags and their damage to the environment." On her website Ms. Stanley not only sells her bags but even offers to give consumers one for free if they'll send her an old raincoat which she can make a new bag from.

Four of San Francisco "eco designer" and entrepreneur Kendra Stanley's reusable shopping bags made from old raincoasts. (Courtesy SF Chronicle.)

San Francisco city Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who wrote the plastic bag ban legislation, says local entrepreneurs and artisans are approaching him with requests to create an "official" San Francisco reusable bag, according to today's Chronicle story. Mirkarimi says he's asked the San Francisco Arts Commission and local arts-advocacy groups to look into offering grants for local artisans who want to create "eco-friendly" shopping bags.

San Francisco sources tell us entrepreneurs have approached Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, along with local independent natural foods stores like Rainbow Grocery and others, offering to produce lines of reusable grocery bags made out of 100% post consumer recycled, repurposed, fair trade and other environmentally sustainable materials for these grocers. These would be locally-produced bags, made "by San Franciscans for San Franciscans" as one entrepreneur we talked to described the scheme.

Virtually all the grocers mentioned in our piece currently are selling reusable grocery bags in their stores. However, none are "San Francisco made." This "buy local" angle would fit well with the "eco-friendly" nature of such bags we believe. The "buy local" and green movements generally go hand-in-hand in the minds of most sustainable-oriented consumers.

With its plastic bag ban going into effect in a little over a week, San Francisco is taking a new California law which was implemented in September, to the "next level." The statewide law requires all grocery retailers in the state with stores over 10,000 square-feet to place plastic grocery bag recycling bins in their stores and to offer reusable grocery bags for sale in-store. The law was supported by the California Grocers Association and has been successfully implemented by the state's grocers over the last two months. The grocer's association hopes the law will stave off outright plastic bag bans like San Francisco's elsewhere in the state.

Conventional wisdom has it that laws like San Francisco's are "anti business," and rather than creating commerce stifle it. However, it seems the San Francisco ordinance is doing the opposite, creating a beehive of activity among entrepreneurs as well a getting the support of the majority of the city's grocers.

The plastic grocery bag industry isn't happy about the new law going into effect on November 20, and opposed the ordinance when it was voted on in late March. However, we're assured the paper grocery bag makers are pleased.

Add further to that pleased list the numerous local entrepreneurs looking to create and sell reusable grocery bags, as well as the city's grocers, who not only won't need to have the plastic bag recycling bins in their San Francisco stores, but also will be able to eliminate the need to pay a recycling company to pick the plastic bags up each week. The ordinance also should reduce the grocer's paper bag costs, since shoppers will be using reusable bags much more often. And, in politically liberal and "green" San Francisco, the grocers will garner good will from shoppers for not using plastic bags and offering reusables for sale.

The plastic bag ban will greatly reduce the number of plastic bags San Francisco sends to its landfill each year. The city's Department of the Environment estimates 181 million plastic grocery bags are currently distributed by the city's retail food stores each year. Most of these bags go to the city's landfill rather than being recycled do to a variety of reasons, the city says. The ban will eliminate these bags from the landfill.

San Francisco, like other high-density urban regions, is running out of landfill space. Open land is virtually unavailable in San Francisco for a new landfill. The city already hauls its garbage outside the city to landfill space it owns miles away. This practice angers residents and officials of the cities near the landfill. They oppose allowing San Francisco to obtain any additional space, saying San Francisco shouldn't "export" its garbage to their neighborhoods.

San Francisco is the first city in the U.S. to ban plastic bag use by large retail food stores. Other U.S cities are considering similar bans. The nearby Bay Area cities of Berkeley and Albany have municipal ordinances working their way through the legislative process. The Chicago Board of Alderman also is considering a plastic bag ban in their city. Laws to ban plastic grocery bags are being discussed in places as diverse as New York City and Louisville, Kentucky.

Local governments, the retail food industry, the plastic bag industry, consumers and other interested parties will be watching what happens in San Francisco beginning on November 20.

We're likely to see numerous U.S. cities and states propose plastic bag ban legislation in 2008. With the marketplace moving faster than governments in the environmental and sustainable arena, we're also seeing many grocers offer, promote and even give away free reusable bags in their stores.

As more and more consumers bring their own reusable grocery bags to the store we'll see the eventual disappearance of the traditional plastic grocery bag we believe. In its place will come biodegradable bags made from natural substances like corn and soybeans. These bags already are on the market--and getting more widespread use by grocers each week.

We'll also see--like in Europe--the common use of reusable grocery bags made from canvas and other materials become excepted in the U.S. Celebrities are making it hip to use "green" reusable shopping bags, and its only a matter of time before designer grocery bags are as popular in the U.S. as woman's designer handbags are. In fact, we're waiting for Coach, Gucci and a few others to debut their lines of designer shopping bags. When that happens, you'll know the trend is becoming the norm. It's coming sooner than we all think, by the way.