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."

~You can follow Natural~Specialty Foods Memo (NSFM) on Twitter.com at www.twitter.com/nsfoodsmemo.

Retail Innovation Memo - Breaking News: Hybird Natural Grocery-Convenience Store Locali Conscious Convenience Opens Tomorrow In Hollywood, CA USA

Locali Conscious Convenience, the first unit of the small-format, "green" natural and locally-focused hybrid grocery-convenience stores of what retailing entrepreneurs Melissa Rosen and husband Greg Horos hope to soon grow into a chain, opens tomorrow (Thursday, January 22) at 5825 Franklin Avenue in Hollywood, California, co-founder and co-partner Melissa Rosen tells Natural~Specialty Foods Memo (NSFM).

We first reported on and wrote about the new, innovative format and store's development in this September, 2008 story [Small-Format Food Retailing Memo: The 'Eco-Convenience' Hybrid Store Trend Continues to Emerge: 'Locali Conscious Convenience' to Open First Store].

The retailing entrepreneurs had originally planned to open the store in late fall of 2008. However in December, 2008 they decided to wait until the first of the year to open the market, which puts a major emphasis on selling natural, organic and locally-produced convenience-oriented food and grocery items across multiple categories, because they wanted to time the opening with the start of the new year. "A new year, a fresh start, a new, fresh concept," is how co-owner Melissa Rosen described the choice of a January, 2009 opening.

The small-format, eco-grocery and convenience market is only about 1,000 square feet. However the retailers are packing a wide-assortment of natural and organic products into the space. The market is designed to be super-convenient yet extremely "green" in terms of its design and approach to convenience retailing. It's a neighborhood convenience market, designed to serve local neighborhoods and to promote and sell locally-produced products, although it will sell some non-local items as well.

"Our goal is to build a chain similar to 7-11, but on a smaller, sustainable scale," Melissa Rosen says.

"We would like to bring our healthy, fun and delicious food and beverages, eco-friendly home and lifestyle products, and outstanding/reasonably priced organic, biodynamic and sustainable wines, beers and sake to a diverse array of communities across the country. Our stores will continue to built in an eco and energy efficient manner and will vary in interior only with regards to the reclaimed wood used in the build out. While it is Douglas Fir for our first Southern California store, other locations will be furnished with reclaimed version of their own native woods."

"While other environmentally friendly convenience store/fuel stations like The Green Spot Market are pursuing a wonderful concept of making convenience stories healthier by selling organic and natural foods, our concept is different. Instead of making convenience stores more healthy, we want to make a healthy and eco-friendly lifestyle more convenient to pursue," Rosen added in response to a question about what in our analysis is a small but growing trend towards eco-convenience stores, which we wrote about in our September 11, 2008 story.

"This begins with our offering of consumer compost recycling and reverse osmosis filtered water for reusable bottle fill up. No petroleum based plastic bottled water will be for sale in our store," Rosen says.

"It also includes selling practical and affordable eco-friendly household items and gadgets that aid in individual conservation. In an ideal world, it would be lovely if we could all sit down for a two hour slow food organic meal daily, but our daily realities are usually far different. Locali acknowledges and embraces the need for fast foods in our increasingly harried (and budget tightening) world. To that end, we will offer an array of pre-packed healthy meals from local food artisans and restaurants, unique glass bottled juices and beverages, and a small array of kitchen staples including organic rice milk, cage-free eggs, seasonal produce, grains, olive oils and more."

In addition, Melissa Rosen says Locali Conscious Convenience will offer vegan and dairy homestead cheeses, crackers and spreads, natural snacks (popcorn, chips, nutritional bars, trail mix, etc.) and a selection of fresh, prepared soups, deli salads and sandwiches, and other ready-to-eat prepared foods.

"In the mornings, we will serve high-fiber muffins, cold and hot cereals, toast, hard boiled eggs and gluten-free bagels and muffins. We will serve fair trade organic coffee and wild harvested yerba mate throughout the day. In terms of wine, beer and sake, we will favor domestic organic, sustainable and biodynamic brands. In terms of the microbrews, they will be altering seasonally and you will be able to create your own pack based on taste," Rosen says in describing additional merchandising aspects of the the hybrid, convenience-oriented eco-market.

Melissa Rosen says she plans to involve the store, and future stores, in a wide-variety of community-based activities. "Another aspect (of the retailer's plans) that will be interesting is to see the (community) response to the litany of community initiatives we are planning," she says. "We're planning to have regular workshops on wellness, environmental and sustainability concerns. Our vendor sponsors are extremely excited about these plans because it will offer them a greater connection to the consumer than say through "the sample lady route".

Tomorrow's opening of the Hollywood store will be a soft opening, Rosen says. The retailer's contractors are still completing some last minute touches to the store. However, according to Rosen, the owners wanted to get the store open with the soft opening despite these minor contractor completion issues because they are excited to kick the store off in the first month of the new year. The new year, fresh start, new store concept focus we mentioned earlier.

The husband and wife retailing team are working with commercial real estate giant Cushman & Wakefield in a strategic process in which they are lining up additional store sites, first in Southern California, for future Locali Conscious Convenience store locations. The main focus right now though is to get the Hollywood store up and running and to build the business there first. Rosen says. Plans call for both future company-owned stores, as well as franchising to independent owners, Rosen says.

"Strategically we are completely focused on the first store. But we are working with Cushman & Wakefield on expansion plans. Alisi Mataele of Cushman & Wakefield is our guardian angel. She found us the amazing and affordable location for our first store and she introduced us to Leslie Mayer, Executive Director of Retail Services at Cushman & Wakefield. They have been extremely generous with advice as we approach our opening on Franklin Avenue in Hollywood," Rosen says.

In developing its format and opening the first store tomorrow, Locali Conscious Convenience is building on a number of recent and current trends in food and grocery retailing. Those trends include more small-format stores, more hybridization between the conventional C-store and grocery store retailing formats ( more blending of the two), increased focus on neighborhood-oriented retailing, added retailer and consumer focus on locally-produced products and on shopping with retailers that offer such local products, the "green" movement, and a decade long trend towards more healthy natural and organic foods.

It will be key however for Locali Conscious Convenience to offer the food and grocery items, including the fresh, prepared foods offerings, it sells in its first store, as well as in future stores, at affordable prices. In this severe recession even committed natural foods consumers are trading down, looking for the value.

Shoppers will pay more in good times for convenience and "green" and healthy attributes and products. However, right now the premium most shoppers are willing to pay at stores that offer these attributes is a small one. If Locali Conscious Convenience can combine its innovation at the Hollywood store with offering affordable prices, which co-founder Melissa Rosen tells us is a key strategic focus for the retailer, we think its chances of succeeding are fairly high.

Additionally, the hybrid grocery-convenience eco-store concept should play well in Hollywood. The city's young and hip -- and in many cases "green" -- residents should form a solid base for Locali Conscious Convenience. The Hollywood Locali Conscious Convenience store opens tomorrow morning, according to Rosen. Since it is a soft opening tomorrow there won't be a grand opening celebration. However, plans call for one soon.

Store Address:
Locali Conscious Convenience
5825 Franklin Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90068
310-779-3439

Website:
http://www.localiyours.com/

NSFM Reader Resource

Related stories from Natural~Specialty Foods Memo (NSFM):

~Small-Format Food Retailing Memo: The 'Eco-Convenience' Hybrid Store Trend Continues to Emerge: 'Locali Conscious Convenience' to Open First Store

~Retail Innovation Memo: The 'Econvenience Store' Will Be the Next New Thing, and is A Convenience Store Industry Green Retailing Trend in the Making

~Small-Format Food Retailing Memo: Savannah, Georgia USA's Parker's Convenience Stores: Taking Hybrid Convenience-Grocery Retailing to Upscale Heights

~Small-Format Food Retailing Memo: Giant Food Stores To Open its First Small-Format, Hybrid Convenience-Grocery Store: 'Giant To Go'

~Small-Format Grocery Retailing Memo: Stretching the Boundaries of Convenience Store Retailing; Some Say Japan's Natural Lawson is Awesome

Green Retailing Memo: Portland, Oregon USA-Based Natural Foods Grocer New Seasons Market Wins State's Top Award For 'Green' Leadership

Nine-store Portland, Oregon natural foods retailer New Seasons Market has won the State of Oregon's 2008 Best Practices Award in the large company category for its environmental sustainability programs and practices.

The award, which is sponsored by the Governor of Oregon, honors the "greenest" of the state's large, medium and small-sized companies for their overall programs, practices and efforts in the sustainability area.

New Seasons Market beat all of the Oregon businesses in the "large company" category that applied for the award, being named the state's sustainable leader in its category this year.

Below (the text in italics) are the primary reasons and sustainable practices the state of Oregon said earned New Seasons Market the top award this year as the state's leading sustainable large business:

"A locally owned and operated grocery, New Seasons Market is committed to promoting sustainable agriculture, community involvement, and a progressive workplace.

Their green practices are modeled from the top down and supported by a staff Green Team at every store. Examples of how they have incorporated sustainable operations are almost too numerous to mention, but here's a sampling of activities that we'd especially like to recognize:

Waste reduction: New Seasons has programs in place at every store to reduce waste through food scrap composting, internal recycling, paper use reduction, and avoiding the use of disposable tableware and flatware.

Alternative Transportation: Besides driving biofuel-blend delivery vans, they encourage both customers and employees to use mass transit, ZipCar and bicycles through the incentive programs and community activities like the BTA Bike Commute Challenge.

Renewable Energy: They use 10 percent wind power and reclaim waste heat from refrigeration systems to heat water.

Modeling Green Practices: Their stores are a model for the community through their display of green building elements, green purchasing practices, public education around nutrition and sustainable food production.

Promoting social equity: New Seasons encourages their employees to volunteer and provides health benefits for any employee who works at least one shift per week. They are also a breast-feeding-friendly employer.

Obviously, operating a green business isn't just a business model for New Seasons, it's a passion and a way of life. Bravo, New Seasons!"

New Seasons Market has a company policy that puts a major focus on the environment and local and community issues. All three areas of focus are part of what the natural grocer defines as sustainability.

For example, it gives preference to and offers incentives to local food producers and vendors in terms of doing business with its stores.

The natural foods grocer, which this year celebrated its 8th birthday as a company, also involves itself with a myriad of community organizations, local groups and businesses throughout the Portland Metropolitan region where it operates its nine stores. In 2007 New Seasons donated over $400,000 to local community organizations and charities, for example.

The retailer gives 10% of its after-tax profits to local non-profit organizations in the Portland, Oregon area.

One of the local charitable organizations New Seasons' is a major contributor to is Loaves & Fishes, the Meals-On-Wheels program in the region. Each of the nine New Seasons Market stores has a different delivery route lined up and volunteers get together weekly to bring food and conversation to senior citizens. The natural grocer also donates 50 cents from the sale of each loaf of its New Seasons Market store brand Organic Sourdough bread to Loaves & Fishes.

[You can read about some of the other local non-profit organizations New Seasons market is involved with in the Portland region here.]

It's interesting and ironic New Seasons Market is involved in the ongoing U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) legal case to overturn Whole Foods Market, Inc.'s acquisition last summer of its friendly acquisition of Wild Oats market, Inc. by virtue of New Seasons' having been one of 96 natural products retailers issued subpoenas by Whole Foods in its legal defense against the FTC. As we've reported and written about, New Seasons Market has filed various motions with the FTC to "quash" the Whole Foods subpoena. Those motions are awaiting a ruling by the FTC.

The irony involved is that New Seasons Market, through its local and sustainable programs which are tied into its marketing and merchandising programs and the entire way it approaches local market natural foods retailing, is the reason it's able to compete strongly against Whole Foods Market stores in the Portland region. New Seasons is doing well, has a strong customer base, and in no way is being "monopolized" by Whole Foods in the Portland market, which just happens to be one of the 18-29 U.S. markets in which the FTC argues Whole Foods post the Wild Oats' merger holds a monopoly in what the regulator calls the "premium organic retailer segment."

As we've argued since last summer, the FTC is wrong that Whole Foods Market, Inc. has such a monopoly. It's premise, that a segment called "premium organic retailing" is relevant also is wrong.

The retailing of natural, organic and premium food, grocer and related products today in the U.S. is a multi-format, hyper-competitive business. Whole Foods holds no advantage in the natural and organic products' retailing business any longer in the U.S., in our analysis. New Seasons Market and hundreds of other independent natural grocers are proving this each day throughout the country, as our huge supermarket chains, regional chains that focus on natural, organic and specialty products, mass merchandisers like Wal-Mart Target and Costco, and natural products discount category killers like Trader Joe's.

In addition to the growing multi-format competition in the natural, organic and premium segments, you can bet once the current recession starts coming to and end, there will be the next new thing in category retailing -- either by an established player or a new one -- that will further challenge Whole Foods Market, Inc. This is something nearly everybody in the natural and organic foods business knows to be the case but appears to be something the FTC either is unable to understand or has chosen it doesn't want to understand.

We congratulate New Seasons Market on its leadership in environmental sustainability, and for winning the 2008 Oregon Governor's award. We also suggest the FTC take a closer look at the "premium organic retailing' category competition in the Pacific Northwest and those other twenty-some U.S. markets it argues Whole Foods Market, Inc. is monopolizing.

Green Retailing Memo: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. to Make Major Purchase of Renewable Wind-Power to Supply 15% of the Power For its 360 Stores in Texas, USA

As we wrote about in this piece yesterday, "Retail Memo: Wal-Mart CEO Steps Down; Head of International Operations Mike Duke to Lead Retail Giant; USA Chief Castro-Wright Promoted," current Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. CEO Lee Scott stepped down on Friday, deciding to retire after three decades with the world's largest corporation and global retailer, including serving in the top spot as CEO for the last nine years.

Scott isn't leaving Wal-Mart completely however; or right away: He will be head of the company's executive board and serve as a consultant to Duke and the board until 2011, according to the company.

Wal-Mart's head of global operations, Mike Duke, will take over as the company's CEO in February, 2009, Wal-Mart announced yesterday. In addition, current Wal-Mart USA CEO Eduardo Castro-Wright was promoted on Friday to the position of vice chairman of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., which is a strong indication he is in line to be CEO as part of the retailer's internal succession planning process.

On Thursday we wrote about two major corporate social policy initiatives outgoing (nobody knew he was outgoing on Thursday by the way) CEO Lee Scott made and Wal-Mart announced that day. Those two major initiatives are:

>A $2.5 billion donation to Feeding America (formerly America's Second Harvest Food Bank), along with a promise by Wal-Mart to donate 90,000 pounds (70 million meals) each year to the group that supplies food to organizations assisting the hungry throughout the United States for the next couple years;

>Guaranteeing a $12.5 million letter of credit to the group planning to build a memorial to the late civil rights leader martin Luther King Jr. on the National Mall in Washington DC USA.

Read our two stories from Thursday, November 20 at the links below:

~November 20, 2008: Food Retailing & Society Memo: Wal-Mart Steps in; Gives $12.5 Million Line of Credit to Group Trying to Secure Funding to Build King Memorial

~November 20, 2008: Food Retailing & Society Memo: Wal-Mart Donates $2.5 Million to 'Feeding America;' Will Also Give 90 Million Pounds of Food A Year to the Organization

Also on Thursday, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. announced it would make the single-largest purchase of renewable wind energy by any U.S. corporation.

Wal-Mart said it will buy enough wind power from Duke Energy Co. to supply up to 15% of the retailer's total energy load in approximately 360 Texas stores and other facilities. The renewable energy will come from a Duke Energy wind farm under construction in Notrees, Texas, and is expected to begin producing electricity for Wal-Mart by April of 2009.

The project will provide roughly 226 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of renewable power each year or the energy equivalent of washing 108 million loads of laundry -- enough for every household in Austin, Texas to do laundry for a year, the company said.

Texas currently is the leading wind power-producing state in the U.S. The new project by Duke Energy will solidify the state's position. Additionally, former oil barron T. Boone Pickens is planning a multi-billion dollar wind farm initiative, which would include major wind farms in Texas, as part of his "Pickens Plan" renewable energy initiative for the U.S.

One of Lee Scott's major initiatives during his nine years as head of Wal-Mart has been environmental sustainability. He's pushed suppliers to decrease product packaging sizes, launched "green" retailing initiatives across Wal-Mart's logistics system and stores, introduced "green" products under the retailer's store brands, pushed energy efficiency initiatives and numerous other programs that fall under the sustainability category.

It appears he wants to go out with a "green retailing" bang between now and when he leaves his CEO's office at the end of January, 2009.

Wal-Mart's wind power buy from Duke Energy is important in the larger, macro scale for wind power because its an endorsement in the U.S. of the renewable energy source by the nation's and world's largest corporation and retailer. The company's move will likely result in other corporations and retailers in Texas buying into the huge wind farm project being built by Duke Energy in the state.

A number of publications have written about Wal-Mart's major, new wind power initiative in Texas. Below is a sampling of those stories:

[CNN-Money: Wal-Mart To Buy Wind Power From Duke Energy For Texas Stores...Dallas, Morning News, Dallas, Texas: Wal-Mart buying power from wind farm...Associated Press: Wal-Mart buys wind energy supply...Wall Street Journal Business Blog: Wal-Mart: Wind Power’s Good for the Bottom Line, Even With Cheaper Gas ...Austin-American Statesman, Austin, Texas: Wal-Mart buying wind power for Texas stores...Houston Press, Houston, Texas: Wal-Mart Turns To Wind Power, A Little...

The Morning News-Arkansas: Wal-Mart Pushes Wind Power...Energy Matters, Australia: Wal-Mart Gets Into Wind Power...Clean Energy Update, New York, NY: Wal-Mart Makes Major Commitment to Renewable Wind Power...Environmental Leader: Wal-Mart To Buy 226 M kWh Wind Energy To Help Power 350+ Stores...Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. press release: Texas Wal-Marts go green with wind power.]

Our sources tell us CEO Lee Scott has a few more corporate social policy and environmental retailing surprises up his sleeve, which the company will announce before he turns over his CEO's office to Mike Duke at the end of January, 2009. If they are on the order of the three announcements we've written about -- all three announced by the company on Thursday, November 20 -- it should be an interesting remaining two months in 'Wal-Mart World.'

As the CEO of a $400,000 billion a year global corporation and retail empire, it appears Lee Scott, like a President or head of state does, also wants to leave a legacy. It appears he also wants to set a tone for the new, incoming CEO of a Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. that maintains its heavy involvement in corporate social programs and "green retailing" initiatives, both of which are needed even more strongly now in the current global recession and environmental and energy crisis than they were even before.

Green Retailing Memo: July Big Month For Plastic Bag Ban and Fee Legislation in the U.S.; Seattle, Los Angeles Other Cities Pass New Laws

The city of Seattle, Washington this week passed legislation that will impose a 20-cent per-bag fee on consumers who request single-use plastic carrier bags at the city's supermarkets, drug stores and convenience stores.

The new law was passed by an overwhelming 6-1 vote by the Seattle City Council.

The new per-bag fee on single-use plastic carrier bags will go into effect in January, 2009.

In addition to passing the 20-cent plastic bag charge, the city council voted 7-0 to ban certain types of styrofoam food containers.

That new legislation will be implemented in two-parts: A ban on styrofoam food containers currently used at take-out restaurants will take effect in January, 2009, at the same time the bag fee at Seattle's supermarkets, drug and convenience stores is implemented.

Phase-two of the foam container ban eliminates the use by supermarkets and other food retailers of foam trays used for fresh, raw meats and seafood displayed for sale. It will go into effect in July, 2010. The Seattle City Council said it believed that would give food retailers enough time to find an alternative to the foam trays for meat and seafood merchandising.

The Seattle legislation imposing the 20-cent per-bag consumer fee on single-use plastic carrier bags at supermarkets, drug and convenience stores, combined with the ban on foam containers, is the most comprehensive legislation enacted at the same time we've observed to date in a U.S. city or county.

Retailers will still be permitted to use paper grocery sacks to packaged shoppers' purchases.

Bag ban and fee legislation picking up steam throughout U.S.

The Seattle plastic bag fee legislation also comes at a time when single-use plastic carrier bag ban and fee legislation is picking up steam in cities and counties throughout the U.S.

On July 1, the city of Manhattan Beach in Southern California enacted a total ban on the use of non-reusable plastic grocery bags for stores of all retail formats in the city.

Under the Manhattan Beach plastic grocery bag ban legislation, grocery stores, food vendors, pharmacies and city facilities have six months to phase out the use of single-use plastic carrier bags in their stores in the city.; all other retail establishments have a year to do the same.

The Manhattan Beach single-use plastic carrier bag law is the first we've found in the U.S. that bans retailers of all formats--ranging from supermarkets, drug and convenience stores, to discounters and department stores-from using the free, single-use carrier bags.

On July 22, the Los Angeles City Council passed legislation banning the use of single-use plastic carrier bags in grocery and other retail stores in the city by 2010--but only if the California State Assembly fails to pass pending legislation that would would impose a 25-cent per single-use plastic carrier bag fee on shoppers who request the bags in a California supermarket.

The Los Angeles plastic bag ban was proposed by Councilman Ed Reyes, who called plastic bags "the graffiti of the L.A. River," (his way of describing plastic bag litter) which passes through his district.

The Los Angeles plastic bag ban law is designed to encourage California legislators to vote for a proposed California State Assembly Bill, AB 2058, (currently being debated in the Appropriations Committee) that if passed would place 25-cent per-bag fee on all single-use plastic bags requested by consumers in all California supermarkets. The consumers would pay the 25-cent per-bag fee at the point-of-sale.

Commenting on the legislation, Los Angeles City Councilman Alarcon says the city council would eventually pass a law regulating plastic bags. But for now, the council's vote is designed to persuade state lawmakers to impose a fee on the bags

"If they (state of California) don't do [a fee], then we do a ban," said Alarcon, who represents the northeast San Fernando Valley. "So yes, at some point there would be an ordinance."

The city of Los Angeles estimates that Los Angeles consumers use 2.3 billion plastic bags each year. According to the state of California, only about 5% of plastic bags are recycled statewide.

In May, another Southern California city, the coastal community of Malibu, passed a law banning the use of single-use plastic carrier bags in the city known among other things as the home of numerous Hollywood celebrities.

The law applies to all retailers (just like the Manhattan Beach legislation), including grocery stores, restaurants, pharmacies and city facilities. These Malibu retailers have about six months (from May) to comply with the plastic bag ban law, or face a fine of up to $1,000. Smaller vendors will have up to a year, as is the case with the Manhattan Beach law.

In Northern California, The San Francisco Bay Area city of Palo Alto, home to Stanford University, passed a law earlier this year that places a per-bag fee on each single-use plastic carrier bag requested by shoppers in the city's supermarkets and pharmacies.

Palo Alto is the third San Francisco Bay Area city to enact either outright bag ban legislation or a per-bag fee law.

In June of last year, San Francisco became the first city in the U.S. to enact a ban on the use of the single-use plastic grocery bags in supermarkets and drug stores. The San Francisco law applies to stores that do $2 million or more in annual sales. It allows the city's convenience stores, numerous corner groceries and all other format retailers to continue using the single-use plastic carrier bags.

Nearby Oakland last year also passed a bag ban similar to San Francisco's law. However, a plastics industry trade group chose to challenge Oakland's law in court. Earlier this year a court ruled in the trade group's favor, preventing Oakland from enacting the legislation. The Oakland City Council is considering whether and how to rewrite a single-use plastic carrier bag law that will hold up in court.

The plastics industry, through a couple trade organizations, has said it plans to challenge the Manhattan Beach and Malibu bag bans as it did Oakland's No trade groups have yet challenged the San Francisco plastic bag ban law, which has been in effect for over a year now.

A few other U.S. cities have passed either bag ban of fee legislation since last year. Many more are currently debating and considering such legislation.

With the cities described above enacting bag bans or fees all in the last few months, we're seeing increased emphasis being put on the issue throughout the U.S. This is especially the case in California because the proposed 25-cent per single-use plastic carrier bag legislation currently being debated in the State Assembly's Appropriations Committee is creating more attention to the issue in cities and counties throughout the state.

Global bag ban and fee legislation

The fact that counties like Australia, China, Ireland, and many nations in Asia and Africa have either banned the bags outright or imposed a fee on them also is serving to galvanize attention to the issue in the U.S.

Additionally, the issue is super hot in Europe, where the European Union is discussing a nationwide ban or fee scheme, and where individual nation's like the United Kingdom have said unless that country's retailers drastically reduce the number of single-use plastic carrier bags they use by the end of this year, it will pass legislation early next year either banning the bags or imposing a fee on them.

Numerous European cities in countries like France and Germany also have either inacted bag bans or fee laws.

Individual retailers in the UK like Marks & Spencer and a couple others have already announced plans to charge customers for the single-use plastic carrier bags in their stores. The UK's Co-operative Group grocery chain says it's in the process of eliminating the single-use plastic carrier bags and is testing 100% compostable carrier bags in some of its stores as a possible alternative.

Whole Foods Market, Inc. stopped offering single-use plastic carrier bags completely in April in all of its stores in the U.S., Canada and the UK.

We expect to see single-use plastic carrier bag ban and fee legislation continue to pick up in the U.S., as it is in Europe and elsewhere, for the rest of this year. It's becoming the primary environmental focus in terms of retail impact among scores of city councils and county governmental bodies throughout the U.S. It's at these local levels in the U.S. where we expect to see most of the new bag ban and fee legislation being implmented, rather than on a statewide basis.

Retail Innovation Memo: The 'Econvenience Store' Will Be the Next New Thing, and is A Convenience Store Industry Green Retailing Trend in the Making

Alvaro Garza of Dallas, Texas is a retailing pioneer in a brand new green-oriented retailing concept which Natural~Specialty Foods Memo predicts will become a convenience store industry retail niche trend in the not to distant future.

Mr. Garza and a partner recently opened an "econvienece store" (the 'e' stands for eco) named the green spot market and fuels in Dallas, Texas, in a converted and remodeled Mobile gas station.

The two retailing eco-entrepreneurs' have turned the traditional convenience store, the product mainstays of which are gasoline, snacks (mostly junk food) and beverages (mostly soda and beer) on its head, creating a format which not only doesn't merchandise junk food but puts an emphasis on selling natural and organic foods, including grab-and-go prepared items, healthy snacks and generally good-for-you beverages that taste good too.

The green spot market and fuels also sells fair trade organic coffee rather than the traditional C-store java, and serves the organic fair trade brew in compostable cups made from corn, which also are used to contain the all-natural soda's from the store's soda taps. No Coke and Pepsi at the green spot.

The Dallas "econvenience store" also offers biodiesel fuel in its fuel pumps and is the only service station or convenience store in Dallas County (which is a huge area) doing so currently, according to co-owner Garza.

Garza has researched the "econvenience store" concept in the United States extensively and says other then his green spot market and fuels, he's found just one other similar comprehensive and fully-integrated "econvenience store" in the U.S. That store is in Portland, Oregon, he says.

Dallas TV station WFAA recently did a report on the Green Spot, which its customers are calling one-part Whole Foods Market, one-part 7-Eleven.

You can read WFFA's report here, as well as view the video of the piece the station aired in Dallas here.

Natural~Specialty Foods Memo believes Garza and company are onto something major with their "econvenience store." The C-store format, which has as its two main product categories fuel and food and drink, offers a perfect concept for green retailing in a niche manner.

We believe this to be particularly true for entrepreneurs who are looking for a way to differentiate themselves in convenience store retailing. Chains control the C-store arena in the main, and it's difficult for independents to compete in the retailing category.

However, the "econvenience store" format offers a real point of differentiation for independents. It also taps into something consumers already spend their money on in the billions of dollars annually in the U.S.--natural, organic and healthy foods and beverages. There's nothing radical anymore about selling these foods and beverages in any type of retail format store.

While its true biodiesel is in its infancy and therefore not a very lucrative proposition, start up "econvenience store" retailers can still offer gasoline alongside the biodiesel at the pump. Additionally, as electric cars become more common, we see a niche for having battery charging kiosks at the stations as well, which can provide an additional revenue stream.

Further, we would suggest having numerous pressurized air hoses (say at 25 cents for a certain period of time) so bicycle riders can fill their bike tires up at the store. Once they learn its availability, they will make it a regular stop, thereby also buying beverages and snacks at the store while filling their bike tires. In fact, anything that's an logical "eco-product niche" makes since for the "econvenience store."

Another idea is to hook up with a local group and hold weekly farmers' markets in the "econvenience store" parking lot. A farmers' market fits the format perfectly, as well as being a great way to introduce consumers to the store, along with generating lots of food traffic, which in-turn will generate even more word of mouth communications.

Today, natural and organic food and beverage items taste as good or better than conventional C-store fair. They also can be sold at a reasonable retail price by "econvenience store" retailers as long as they don't try to make Whole Foods Market gross margins.

Since convenience store format stores have much lower overhead (small and no frills) and have far less operating expenses than say a Whole Foods Market does, doing so is achievable. Further, "econvenience retailers" can make a higher margin on the products than traditional C-store retailers do in many cases and still do well in terms of volume.

Imagine the look on the face of the traditional C-store customer in Dallas when they go into the green spot for a six pack of beer, a pack of cigaretts (which the store doesn't sell at all), a couple of ham sandwiches on white bread, a cheap burrito and a couple of Cokes.

Of course, once they get inside, they will buy despite their startled look because they're hungry and thirsty.

Perhaps after they instead purchase a bottle of Vitamin Water, a delicious sandwich on whole wheat bread, a tasty organic instead of cheap, tasteless burrito, and a six pack of organic craft beer, they just might not only be happy, but also might go out and convert their pickup truck to biodiesel fuel, as well as stopping in every morning at the green spot for a fresh-brewed cup of organic fair trade coffee in a compostable cup made from corn, on their way to work.

Ethical Retailing Memo: David vs. Goliath: Planet Organic Markets Beats Out Whole Foods Market, Others as the 'Top Organic' Grocer in Canada

Canada's Planet Organic Markets, a national natural and organic foods retailer, edged out U.S.-based Whole Foods Market, Inc's Canadian division for the honor of top organic food retailer in Canada, in a survey and analysis by Corporate Knights magazine, a national publication which covers ethical and responsible corporate and business behavior and practices.

Planet Organic Markets received an A grade, and Whole Foods Market-Canada a B+ in the publications first "Green Grocer" survey, which is modeled after the United Kingdom's National Consumer Council's ethical grocers' survey.

Corporate Knights magazine rated Canada's top grocers--Planet Organic Markets, Whole Foods Market-Canada, Loblaws, Safeway, Metro, Provigo, Sobeys and a few others--in five areas: climate change, which looked at the availability of locally-produced food, the sale and promotion of CFL light bulbs, and in-store conservation efforts; consumer education, which looked at how organic and local food, Fair Trade products, and a reduced-meat diet are promoted; food sustainability, which surveyed the availability of organic products as well as responsibly-farmed fish and meats; household sustainability, which examined the stores' availability of "green" household products; and waste recycling, which looked at the recycled and Forest Stewardship Council content in product packaging , along with the stores' efforts to reduce the use of plastic grocery bags.

You can read more details about the survey and analysis here. There's also two links here, one for the actual survey methodology, and the other to view the survey questionnaire filled out by the Canadian grocers participating. The links are located in the yellow "resources" box on the right hand of the linked page.

While Planet Organic Markets and Whole Foods-Canada scored and A and a B+ respectively, the mainstream grocers mentioned above who were surveyed scored between a C and C+ overall, with their individual stores scoring a bit higher in the C to B range. This is because some stores take it on themselves to do more in the environmental and ethical categories surveyed compared to the chains as a whole.

Regarding Whole Foods Market-Canada, the Corporate Knights magazine survey was conducted before the supernatural grocer eliminated the use of all single-use plastic carrier bags from its U.S., Canadian and UK stores on April 22, Earth Day 2008.

Therefore, since plastic grocery bag reduction efforts are one of the criteria in the survey, Whole Foods' elimination of the bags completely in all its Canadian stores might have pushed it up a notch, from a B+ to an A, therefore perhaps coming in a dead heat with Planet Organic for first place. We don't know that for sure however.

Planet Organic Markets uses biodegradable plastic carrier bags in all its Canadian stores.

For a more detailed overview of how each of the grocery chains scored in the survey, as well as the differences between Planet Organic Markets and Whole Foods vis-a-vis the mainstream grocery chains, you can read this piece from Corporate Knights magazine about the survey.

Among some of the highlights of Planet Organic Markets' "green" and sustainability efforts, is the fact that its store employees were uniforms made out of bamboo, the grocer buys wind energy to power much of its operations, the store janitorial crews use sustainable cleaning products and all of the plastic grocery bags used in the stores are biodegradable.

Ironically though, one the question of local foods sourcing, Whole Foods Market-Canada did much better than Planet Organic Markets. Whole Foods also buys wind energy to power 100% of its Canadian stores.

The survey-takers said all of the Canadian grocers--with Whole Foods and Planet Organic at the top--are making good progress on reducing the use of single-use plastic carrier bags in their stores but there's much more progress to be made.

Canada is debating passing a law that would either put a per-bag fee on the plastic grocery bags or perhaps even ban their use completely in supermarkets. As we mentioned above, Whole Foods voluntary has stopped using single-use plastic carrier bags in all its stores in Canada.

As we've written about in Natural~Specialty Foods Memo recently, Canada's Planet Organic Markets' parent company, Planet Organic Health Corp. is expanding rapidly, including making two recent acquisitions of regional natural foods retail chains in the U.S.

Those two acquisitions, of 11-store Mrs. Green's Natural Foods Markets in New York and New Leaf Community Markets in Northern California, are the natural products' retailers first entry into the U.S. Market.

As we've also reported, Planet Organic is spending over $1 million to build a new, state of the art prepared foods facility in upstate New York for its Mrs. Green's retail operation. The grocer also plans to add additional Mrs. Green's stores in the upstate New York region and most likely elsewhere nearby.

Planet Organic also is building a brand new New Leaf Community Market natural foods store in the seaside town of Half Moon in the San Francisco Bay Area's coastal region. That will give the natural grocer four New Leaf banner stores when the new store is completed later this year.

Both Planet Organic and Whole Foods Market, Inc. are expanding the number of stores they have in Canada.

Although Whole Foods Market, Inc. with sales over $6 billion annually, is a natural foods' retailing Goliath compared to Planet Organic Markets, with sales of about $120 million a year, Planet Organic is in a hyper-growth and expansion mode. Just seven years ago when the current Planet Organic Health Corp. parent company was formed as an umbrella for the stores and the company's other operations, retail sales were only $1.6 million annually.

Planet Organic Health Corp.'s move into the U.S. market with the Mrs. Green's and New Leaf acquisitions also demonstrates this natural foods' retailing David isn't afraid of Whole Foods post its acquisition of Wild Oats Markets, Inc., despite the fact U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) persists in wasting taxpayer money to go back again and again to the federal appeals court, trying to get the Whole Foods/Wild Oats acquisition-merger broken up.

While we certainly believe there are instances when the FTC is warranted in stepping in to stop acquisitions and mergers which would restrain competition and pricing, the Whole Foods/Wild Oats merger isn't one of the instances in our analysis.

Just ask the marketplace, and natural foods' retailers like Planet Organic, Sprouts Farmers Markets, Sunflower Farmers Markets, Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets and others who are expanding rapidly, and in the case of Sunflower and Sprouts, getting ready to open stores right in the heart of Whole Foods Market Country, in Texas.

Also ask mainstream supermarket retailers like Safeway, SuperValu, and Kroger, and mega-mass merchandisers Wal-Mart and Target, as well as scores of regional chains and thousands of independent grocers in the U.S., which are all getting deeper and deeper into the natural and organics categories. There's plenty of competition--and more coming--for Whole Foods Market, Inc. in the United States.

Planet Organic Markets is bringing its Canadian brand of "green" and ethical food retailing to the two natural foods chains its acquired in the U.S. As such, there are going to be some interesting changes at the Mrs. Greens and New Leaf stores in the coming months.

We also know Planet Organic is looking for other multi-store natural foods retailers in the U.S. similar to the two it acquired last year (Mrs. Green's) and this year (New Leaf).

Doesn't Planet Organic remind you of another fast-growing natural foods' retailer, say in about the late 1980's and early 1990's? That one from Austin, Texas. The one that was just starting to boom about that time and didn't even carry the title "supernatural" grocer yet?

You know, that Texas natural foods grocer who today, about 15 years later, is not only a national chain but an international natural products retailer as well? and continues to grow rapidly--and in new ways?

It does us. In many ways, today's Planet Organic, with its rapid-growth and innovation, looks much like Whole Foods Market, Inc. did 15 or 20 years ago. It will be interesting to chart the Canadian-based natural foods' chain's growth, both at home and now in the United States.

In conjunction with its responsible grocers' survey and rating project, Corporate Knights magazine published a special feature in its April, 2008 edition on responsible and "green" retailing in Canada. You can read the various articles on the topic in the magazine's April issue here.

Green Retailing Memo: Upscale British Supermarket Chain Waitrose Comes Up With A Bright 'Green' Idea For its Chesham, UK Store

A Waitrose supermarket in the United Kingdom town of Chesham has introduced what the upscale food retailer is calling a "green till."

The Chesham branch of the Waitrose supermarket chain has created a "green" checkout lane which can only be used by customers who either bring their own reusable shopping bags or previously received single-use plastic or paper carrier bags to be reused in the store.

No single-use carrier bags will be given out at the "green" checkout.

The move by the Chesham Waitrose is in part a response to a campaign in the town to get the city's lawmakers to ban the use of single-use plastic carrier bags in that community.

A local group called CarryAbag is campaigning for a law that would ban retail stores in Chesham from giving out single-use plastic carrier bags to shoppers. It's the town's goal to be plastic bag-free, either with voluntary compliance by retailers and residents, or eventually through a law banning the single-use plastic carrier bags.

CarryAbag is even linked on the town's official webpage, where it sells an attractive "CarryAbag" canvas reusable shopping bag.

Julia Brammer, a spokesperson for the CarryAbag group, said the organization welcomes the Waitrose supermarket's "green" checkout lane idea.

"It's absolutely brilliant they're taking the issue of bag use seriously and are doing something to encourage shoppers to use their own bags," Ms. Brammer told Natural~Specialty Foods Memo.

Chesham, a town of about 20,000 residents, is a very "green"-conscious community. In fact, in 2006 the town adopted its own comprehensive environmental policy, which you can read here.

Chesham also is a "Fairtrade" town, meaning it's the city's official policy to support Fairtrade goods and services. The town was the first in Buckinghamshire to achieve Fairtrade status when it did so in 2005. Fairtrade status is granted to towns, organizations and businesses in the UK by the UK Fairtrade Foundation.

We think the Waitrose supermarket in Chesham's idea to create a "green" reusable shopping bag lane in its store is a good one.

Like "express" lanes for shoppers who only have ten items or less, it offers a priority to shoppers--in this case for exhibiting positive environmental behavior. It's also a reward in the form of faster checkout service for doing so.

The "green" checkout lane concept, which we haven't seen any other supermarket adopt as of yet, reminds us of freeway carpool lanes in concept. Drivers are rewarded for carpooling (positive environmental behavior) and thus allowed a special lane on the freeway, which always has far less traffic in it than the other lanes. In some countries drivers of hybrid vehicles also can use the carpool lanes.

Both of these concepts--the carpool lane for drivers and the Waitrose Chesham reusable shopping bags-only lane for customers--create an incentive for consumers to behave in an environmentally positive manner.

Human beings like and respond well to positive reinforcement--and as such we expect the Waitrose store's "green" checkout lane to not only be popular, but to change shopper behavior over time. Once many of the supermarket's customers notice the "green till," and how much faster its users are getting waited on, they will start to bring their own reusable carrier bags to the store.

We think this is a winning idea Waitrose should expand to its other UK supermarkets. It's also a great idea for grocery retailers throughout the world--especially in the U.S.

It would be simple for a typical supermarket that has say 12 checkout lanes, to convert one or two of those 12 lanes into "green lanes," in which only shoppers with either reusable shopping totes or their own "reused" single-use plastic or paper carrier bags could use.

We believe the "green" lanes would be a big hit. Further, the U.S. supermarket chain that does it first, for example, is going to have a competitive advantage--at least until others follow suit--and generate lots of publicity over doing so.

The idea is equally good for other UK supermarket chains like Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's, which all have promised to reduce the amount of single-use plastic carrier bags they use in their stores by 25% by the end of this year.

In fact, Sainsbury's CEO Justin King recently announced the retailer is looking for ways to create incentives (carrots not sticks in his words) to get shoppers to request fewer single-use plastic carrier bags rather than to see the UK impose an outright ban or a per-bag charge on the carriers.

The Waitrose "green" checkout lane--which shoppers can only use if they bring their own bags--seems to us to be a very good and innovative carrot.

Green Retailing Memo: Judge Slaps Injunction on Oakland, California Single-Use Plastic Carrier Bag Ban; Ruling Could Have Implications Elsewhere

Alameda County (where the city of Oakland is located) Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch has issued a ruling placing an injunction on the single-use plastic carrier bag ban the Oakland City Council passed into law last year.

Oakland's plastic grocery bag law would ban food and grocery retailers with stores that do over $1 million a year in sales from offering the single-use plastic carrier bags in their stores. The grocers would still be able to offer paper grocery sacks to shoppers for no charge however.

A single-use plastic carrier bag trade association called The Coalition to Support Plastic Bag Recycling sued the city of Oakland last summer after the bag ban was passed by the lawmakers.

The trade group argued in the lawsuit that single-use paper grocery bags take more energy to produce and use more landfill space when disposed of than single-use plastic carrier bags. They further argued the city of Oakland should have conducted an environmental impact review (EIR) comparing the energy inputs required to produce the paper grocery sacks and the plastic bags, as well as studying the landfill disposal issue as part of that EIR before passing the single-use plastic carrier bag ban law.

California has a statewide law which requires supermarkets to put single-use plastic carrier bag recycling bins in their stores and have the bags picked up regularly in-store by a certified recycling company, as well as requiring the retailers to sell reusable shopping bags in those stores.

Although the single-use plastic carrier bag ban law was past last year, Oakland has yet to implement it because of the lawsuit. Judge Roesch's ruling states: "The court...finds that substantial evidence in the record supports at least a fair argument that single-use paper bags are more damaging than single-use plastic bags."

John Russo, Oakland's City Attorney, says he will ask the city council this week if it wants to contest the court's ruling or do an environmental review of the ban, which he says will cost the city about $100,000 to conduct.

In response to Judge Roesch's ruling in favor of the Coalition to Support Plastic Bag Recycling's lawsuit, Keith Cristman, the senior director of the American Chemistry Council's plastics division which opposes the Oakland law, said in a statement that "banning plastic bags would dramatically increase energy use, double greenhouse gas emissions and increase waste. Recycling plastic bags is the right approach and makes plastic bags the environmentally responsible choice."

Christman is basing his arguments above on the coalition's argument that banning the single-use plastic carrier bags in the Oakland food and grocery stores with $1 million or more in annual sales would lead to a significant increase in the use of paper grocery bags.

There is some evidence in nearby San Francisco for the paper bag increase in use argument. That city passed a similar plastic bag ban before Oakland passed its law last year. The San Francisco law, which was implemented last year, banned grocery chains and independents that operate stores over 10,000 square feet in size from offering single-use plastic carrier bags in those stores. The law allows the retailers' to continue to offer free paper grocery bags to shoppers.

Numerous grocers in San Francisco, such as Safeway Stores, Inc., regional chain Mollie Stone's and others, have reported paper bag use in their stores increasing dramatically since the plastic grocery bag ban law went into effect last year.

However, they also have reported a significant increase in shoppers bringing their own reusable shopping bags to the stores, along with an increase in the number of reusable bags their stores are selling since the plastic grocery bag ban went into effect.

Further, the City of San Francisco argues, and many agree, that because the city's system of curbside recycling for paper grocery bags is so simple and is available in every neighborhood in the city, over 70% of those single-use paper grocery bags are being recycled, unlike plastic grocery bags which they say end-up either in the city's landfill or littered on the streets.

Many food and grocery retailers in San Francisco also give shoppers a five cent credit for every paper grocery bag they return to the stores. Whole Foods Market stores in the city give customers a 10 cent per-bag credit for each returned paper grocery sack.

The Coalition to Support Plastic Bag Recycling didn't oppose San Francisco's ban in court for some reason. Rather, it chose to file a lawsuit against the city of Oakland's plastic bag ban law instead. The two city's laws are nearly identical expect San Francisco's bases the ban on the square footage of a grocery store (the 10,000 square feet size), while Oakland's law is based on annual store sales (the $1 million number.)

If the city of Oakland doesn't appeal the court's ruling and the injunction stays, that means the city's single-use plastic carrier bag law can't be implemented. As such, it will be interesting to see what decision the city council gives City Attorney John Russo this week.

If the coalition does win the case on appeal (if Oakland appeals), it could set a nationwide precedent regarding municipal plastic bag bans in the U.S.

We've located at least 30 cities in the U.S. that currently have proposals to ban the use of the single-use plastic carrier bags in supermarkets in their city's and towns. It's likely if the Oakland injunction holds, the coalition and other industry groups will use it as the basis of fighting similar proposed legislation in cities and counties throughout the U.S.

If the Oakland City Council decides to conduct the environmental review, the second option Russo has presented to the legislative body this week, it can use the results (if favorable to the bag ban law) in its appeal.

Natural~Specialty Foods Memo will continue to follow this story for our readers.

Green Retailing Memo: Arizona-Based Supermarket Chain Basha's Launches 'The Ultimate Green Bag' Earth Day Reusable Shopping Bag Giveaway and Promotion

Arizona-based Basha's supermarkets and one of its suppliers, Shamrock Farms dairy, have teamed-up to offer Basha's customers what the grocery chain says is "a new kind of reusable shopping bag" for Earth Day 2008.

We're calling it the 'Ultimate Green Bag' because it's good for the environment and good for your wallet," Johnny Basha, the vice chairman of the family-owned, multi-format chain told Natural~Specialty Foods Memo.

The Basha's-Shamrock Farms dairy reusable bag promotion kicks-off tomorrow on Earth Day in all of the grocer's Arizona supermarkets and will run for the rest of this year.

Store customers can get a free (one per-person), reusable 'Ultimate Green Bag' by bringing in and exchanging five or more single-use plastic carrier bags for the reusable bag. Bashas' will recycle all of the plastic grocery bags brought in to the stores by shoppers.

Customers also can get a free 'Ultimate Green Bag' by purchasing one gallon of Shamrock Farms' milk at any Bashas' supermarket.

Additionally, the reusable shopping bags are currently on sale and will be for the foreseeable future for 99 cents each in all Bashas' stores, according to Johnny Basha.

The grocery chain also is using the 'Ultimate Green Bag' as part of a value-oriented promotion for shoppers. The chain will have numerous in-store and advertised weekly promotions which will allow customers to earn more free reusable bags when they purchase certain products, similar to the current promotion which gives shoppers one free bag when they buy a gallon of the Shamrock Farms milk. A variety of Bashas' suppliers and vendors are participating in the promotional program.

Johnny Basha says the retailer's goal is to get as many of its customers as possible multiple, free 'Ultimate Green Bags' so they can bring the reuseable bags with them when coming to shop the stores, thereby reducing both the number of single-use plastic carrier bags the chain uses, as well as decreasing the overall amount of plastic grocery bags that enter the waste stream in Arizona.

The reusable bag giveaway and ongoing promotion is one of the grocery chain's numerous environmental initiatives. Those initiatives include energy, water and fuel conservation programs, packaging source-reduction and recycling programs and other "green" measures for all of its 160 stores.

Johnny Basha says the retailer currently is recycling about 25,000 tons of cardboard and plastic materials each year, is at present conserving enough energy annually to power 7,500 homes in Arizona, and is launching a fuel-efficiency program for its distribution center truck fleet, with the initial goal of eliminating 1,775 tons of carbon emissions annually. Bashas' said it arrived at this initial goal because it represents the equivalent of removing about 1/3 of its current trucking fleet from the road.

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.

Green Retailing Memo: City of Los Angeles, CGA, Grocers Team-Up For Big Reusable Bag Giveaway Program Today and Tomorrow

The California Grocers Association (CGA), the trade group for the state's chain and independent grocers, is spearheading a major, multi-grocery retailer Earth Day 2008 reusable shopping bag giveaway in Southern California in partnership with the City of Los Angeles.

Beginning today and through tomorrow (Earth Day) a group of retail grocery companies which includes: Albertsons, Inc. (a division of SuperValu, Inc.); Ralphs Grocery Company (a division of Kroger Co.); Vons and Vons Pavilions (owned by Safeway Stores, Inc.) ; Food 4 Less; Smart & Final, Inc.; Henry's Farmers Markets (owned by Smart & Final); K.V. Mart supermarkets; El Super supermarkets; and Superior Grocers; is giving out about 50,000 free reusable shopping at more than 40 stores throughout Los Angeles.

Each district of Los Angeles has at least one store participating in the reusable bag giveaway, which is designed to encourage shoppers to bring their own bag to the supermarket, according to Ronald Fong CGA's new president.

"Reuseable shopping bags are a readily available, viable, and cost effective alternative to traditional (single-use) shopping bags," Fong told Natural~Specialty Foods Memo. "We commend the city of Los Angeles for taking the lead in reuseable bag awareness and education and hope this event sets the stage for partnerships with other municipalities throughout the state," Fong added.

The two-day Los Angeles Earth Day 2008 free reusable bag giveaway promotion began this morning at 6am. Each store customer will get one free bag per-transaction today and tomorrow or until the available 50,000 reusable shopping bags run out.

The reusable shopping bags being distributed to shoppers for free by the Southern California grocers are constructed of a polyester-like fiber material and are made from 100% post-consumer recycled material which includes recycled water and soda bottles. The bags have a message on them touting the fact they are made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic. That message is: "Great Taste and Zero Waste."

CGA and its member-grocery chains and independents are trying to increase consumer use of reusable shopping bags in California, along with decreasing the amount of single-use plastic (and paper) carrier bags used in the state's supermarkets and grocery stores.

The grocers' association and its members supported AB 2449, the law which was enacted last year requiring California grocers with larger stores to place plastic grocery bag recycling bins in those stores, as well as to sell reuseable shopping bags in all those stores.

As we reported yesterday a new bill AB 2058 passed the California State Assembly Natural Resource Committee last week.

That bill, written by Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, the same Southern California Assembly Member who authored AB 2449 (the in-store bag recycling bill), would require the state's grocers with larger stores to meet two single-use plastic carrier bag use reduction goals, one by 2011 and another by 2013. If either of those goals aren't met, the law would then require the grocers to charge a 15 cent per-bag fee to any customer who requested plastic.

AB 2058 now goes to the California State Assembly Appropriations Committee for debate and an eventual vote.

The city and county of Los Angeles also is considering a proposed single-use plastic carrier bag law which would either levy a fee on each plastic grocery bag shoppers request in the city's supermarkets and drug stores or perhaps ban the bags completely.

The California Grocers' Association represents about 500 retail members, who collectively operate about 6,000 food and grocery stores in California. The association also has over 200 supplier members who do business with these retailers.

Grocery Retailing & Legislation Memo: AB 2058, the Plastic Bag-Reduction and Potential 15 Cent Bag-Fee Bill Passes California Assembly Committee Vote

One of the two single-use plastic carrier bag bills, AB 2058 debated and voted on by the California State Assembly Natural Resource Committee last Tuesday, passed in the committee with five -to- three member-vote and now will go to the Assembly Appropriations Committee for debate and possible markup as a bill in which the full Assembly would then vote on.

If eventually passed, AB 2058 would require all supermarket and drug retailers in California to charge consumers 15 cents per single-use plastic carrier bag requested unless the state's retailers meet a series of plastic bag reduction benchmarks or goals. These benchmarks require the retailers to meet a 35% reduction rate in plastic bag use by July 2011, followed by a 70% reduction by July 2013. If either goal isn't met within those time frames, the 15 cent per single-use plastic carrier bag customer fee would go into effect.

The legislation's author is Assemblyman Lloyd Levine from Southern California. Levine was the author of legislation which was enacted last July in California requiring supermarket and drug retailers operating larger stores to place single-use plastic carrier bag recycling bins in those stores. The legislation also made mandatory the offering for sale of reusable shopping bags in the stores.

A second bill, which the Natural Resource Committee debated but didn't put to a vote on Tuesday would levy a 25 cent per single-use plastic carrier bag fee on shoppers who request it at larger supermarkets and drug stores in California. There are no reduction goals in that bill. Rather the 25 cent bag-fee would be mandatory.

That bill remains in the committee where it either will be further debated soon or left sitting while AB 2058 goes through discussion, debate and an eventual vote in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. [Read more about that bill and related issues here.]

All proposed legislative bills in California, and most other states in the U.S. as well as at the federal government level, go to the Appropriations Committee after being passed by a respective committee like Natural Resources. It's the Appropriations Committee that's charged with appropriating any and all monies for legislation. Without the committee doing so, a bill will die in committee.

The next step for the plastic bag reduction/15 cent bag-fee bill, AB 2058, is for it to get what's called its first policy committee hearing in the Appropriations Committee. That's expected to happen soon.

A number of groups are supporting AB 2058 and are launching a public relations and grass roots campaign designed to get the Appropriation's Committee to support and vote the bill out to the full California State Assembly for a vote.

Leading the charge is a non-profit environmental group called Californian's Against Waste. Other signed-on supporters include the City and County of San Francisco, The Easy Bay Area Municipal Utilities District, the Marin County Board of Supervisors, the Northern California Recycling Association, and the Sonoma County Waste Management Agency.

Since the bill just passed the Natural Resource Committee, the California Grocers Association which represents California's chain and independent food and grocery retailers, hasn't taken a position on AB 2058 as of yet.

Additionally, because the bill just passed in the committee, it's still a bit early for the Golden State's supermarket retailers to start voicing either opposition or support for AB 2058.

However, as we reported in this piece last week, it's far from a sure thing that all or even the majority of the state's grocery chains and independents will oppose the law. One reason this is the case is that the grocers' would likely prefer AB 2058 to the 25 cent per plastic bag legislation which remains in the Natural Resource Committee and can be voted on any time the chairman of the committee puts the legislation up for a committee vote.

Another reason is that the grocers are well aware of the numerous proposed outright single-use plastic carrier bag-bans being debated by local governments throughout the state. Their are currently at least 30 California cities proposing such bans. San Francisco already has a plastic bag ban as law and Oakland has passed a similar law which is currently in court being fought by a plastic carrier bag trade association.

The Bay Area city of Palo Alto is set to enact a single-use plastic carrier bag fee law for that city later this week. Other California cities not considering bag-bans are considering bag-fee laws like Palo Alto's.

Therefore, the California Grocers Association (CGA) may decide to support AB 2058. The group's decision as to whether to support or oppose the bill will be based on what the majority of its chain and independent grocer-members decide.

CGA supported the previous legislation by Lloyd Levine, AB 2058's author, which requires the grocers in the state to place the plastic grocery bag recycling bins in their stores and sell the reusable shopping bags, the latter which most of the grocers already did before the law was passed and enacted last year.

However, the benchmarks--35% by 2011 and 70% by 2013--might be a little steep in the CGA's--and grocers'--opinion. Therefore, we believe the grocers might support AB 2058 if they can get two things changed: a reduction in the percentages the grocers' would be required to achieve, along with an extension of the 2011 and 2013 dates perhaps.

If some sort of compromise can be achieved in these two areas--for example, hypothetically speaking, say a 25% reduction by 2011 and a 60% reduction by 2013--we believe the grocer's association and the majority of the states supermarket chains and independents might support an amended AB 2058 bill. That's just our analysis though, and we will have to wait and see the result as the bill progresses through the Appropriations Committee.

There remains a long road for AB 2058 to become law. First, it has to pass the Appropriations Committee. From there it would then go to the full California State Assembly for an up or down vote by the members.

Should AB 2058 pass the full assembly, it then has to go to the California State Senate and begin the committee debate and vote process in that body. If the bill--which gets another name and number in the state senate (SB #) passes the senate committees' and then the full body, it still must be signed by the Governor in order to become law. The Governor has the power to kill the bill with a mere veto.

AB 2058 also can be amended during this entire journey through first the California State Assembly and then the state senate. Depending on the severity and economic backing of the opposition to the plastic bag-reduction and fee bill, AB 2058 could end up very much different than the original bill. On the other hand, if the opposition isn't stiff and well-funded, the bill could eventually emerge with only minor changes.

These compromises go all the way to the end, which includes any changes the Governor might want to make in order to sign a bill such as AB 2058.

Like the old saying goes: Laws are like sausages, it's better not seeing them being made. However, just like in sausage-making, the end result of any legislation that passes can either leave a fairly good taste in the majority of citizens' mouths, or just taste plain old horrible to everybody. Such is the art and process of lawmaking.