I spotted this ad for reusable bags at the supermarket, and I think it's brilliant! After a quick chat with the clerk at checkout, though, I left the grocery store with some mixed feelings about it.
How They Got it Wrong
When I spotted the sign at the checkout counter, I immediately asked the clerk if I could take a picture of it. She was happy to let me, saying I should show my friends who don't bring their own bags.
Then, she said it's a good thing I snapped a picture, since they change out the checkout ads all the time. What do they do with the old plastic signs? According to her, they throw them in the garbage.
That seems more than a little bit incongruous to the whole reusable bag campaign. I wondered how many plastic signs they went through every year. There were around 10 checkout lanes at this store, so if they're changing the signs out weekly, that's 520 signs each year in that location. According to their website, there are 1023 stores here in the U.S., which adds up to over half a million of those little, plastic signs headed to the landfill, if they're all engaging in this practice.
How They Got it Right
What really struck me about this ad is that it doesn't appeal to folks' feelings about the environment. If someone is still taking disposable, plastic grocery bags at this point, the environment is probably not high on their list of concerns.
Instead, it highlights direct, immediate benefits for the person buying the bag: their bigger, more convenient bag means fewer grocery bags to carry. In case you can't read the copy on there, it says, "Three times the groceries in a Publix reusable bag means fewer bags for you to tote home." Simple and elegant!
I think that there's a lot to learn from this marketing strategy. Unfortunately, not everyone is convinced that we're in the midst of a crisis, and we may not have time to change everyone's mind. What other eco-friendly life choices could we frame in terms of immediate, personal benefit, rather than talking about frightening but far off consequences?
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it’s kinda sad, though, that in order to appeal to people on environmental issue we have to AVOID the environmental issue and reach out to other aspects. i guess as long as those people are going green (knowing or unknowing) it works for me!
great investigating, Becky
Totally, and I’ll be the first to admit that my attitude about this is a little pessimistic. I guess I just think that if at this point you’re still using disposable plastic bags regularly, chances are the environment isn’t on your list of priorities.
Thanks, Taylen!
There are plenty of things that are also personally beneficial. Turning off the lights, faucet, or computer when they’re not being used saves energy and thereby money. Buying things from garage sales and thrift stores, rather than new things, means one less product needs to be produced, but it usually also costs less, and it may even mean that you get a sturdier product (remember mom’s or grandma’s indestructible vacuum cleaner or sewing machine? They’ll probably outlast their plastic-age descendants.)
And seasonal, homegrown veggies or veggies from a local farmer’s market, even a few of them, tend to taste better and be more nutritious than supermarket models that have been shipped in from Timbuktu.
I think that even people who intend to take back bags may not be doing it as regularly as they should. I often remember my bags about when I get to a checkstand. In that case, I often ask for no bag at all, but I have to ask quickly and loudly (and sometimes more than once) for that request to go in. It’s ingrained. I’ve even had the occasional concerned employee intercept me on the way out, worried that a) I hadn’t been to the checkstand at all or b) those sloppy lazies who were supposed to bag my groceries, hadn’t.
No, even this simple measure is not mainstream yet.
I live in a state of Australia which has actually banned the use of plastic bags in supermarkets. Meaning we use these ‘green’ bags [which ironically aren't that green-they come individually wrapped in plastic and don't biodegrade at all. But then again it's better than plastic]. There are also biodegradable bags that cost 15c a bag.
People did kick up a stink at first, but people get over things pretty quickly. And seriously the amount of plastic bags thrown away to blow around the roads and countryside is almost next to none. People think harder about chucking a bag out the car window when they have had to pay for it.