Lucas_Dad

WRONG decision by Coles. We leave home to go shopping and remember to take our phones, our wallets, our sunglasses, our keys, our kids... A vocal minority complain that they can't remember a shopping bag too, well fair enough say Coles. Stuff the environment, start giving out plastic bags "indefinitely" again. Wrong, wrong, and thrice wrong.

GarryP

RIGHT business decision by Coles, and one I predicted when they first started doing complimentary bags. Kind of hard to stop without giving up business advantage, as Woolies will find. I expect Woolies will fall into line, and there's a reasonable chance that they will have to extend to South Australia, Tasmania, etc.

You can't authentically claim you are doing it "for the environment" when you still have tonnes of other plastic packaging, which means people won't buy in, and it will hurt your bottom line.

In theory Vic is supposed to be implementing a law banning flimsy plastic bags, but they are now between a rock and a hard place. Complementary reuseable bags aren't covered by their existing proposed legislation, but if they try to extend it, then they will suffer at the polls in November for exactly the same reason Coles have taken this decision.

BTW there WAS a smart way they could have continued to offer complementary bags - but they weren't smart enough to spot it.

Amazulu

Good decision. The original idea to ban bags was stupid window dressing and virtue signalling - PC nonsence

Pollyana

Oh for heavens sake, how pathetic are these shoppers.

Personally,I just don't get it. I've been reusing shopping bags since long before I left the UK in 2003. my sister has had a boot full of bags ready to use since around the same time.

If I decide to shop for more items than I can get in the bags I have handy, I pay for more reuseable ones and keep them for next time!

What is wrong with the great Australian public that they cannot deal with the simple concept of "take your own bags or pay for new ones". Its not as if the free ones are any good anyway, 2 bottles of coke and the handles are broken, so whats the point!

Lucas_Dad

This may be a fair point, but as Tesco used to say, every little helps. I don't understand how banning plastic bags can be PC or virtue-signalling. It is a step in the right direction, both for homes and the businesses concerned. Got to start somewhere. Coles have gone backwards. I know they care about their bottom line. I don't.

GarryP

Opportunity cost. If you spend the available effort on something with low impact (like bags) then it's not there when you need it for something important (like closing coal power stations).

Basically, the way 'green' tends to be pushed is as a "doing without" - and there's a very limited desire to do that. Spend your social capital wisely.

GarryP

And Coles have now back flipped on the back flip of the original flip ....... or in other words they flipping well not going to give out free bags past the end of August.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/comp...02-p4zv13.html

There's nothing like good corporate strategy; and this is nothing like good corporate strategy ....

spuddyo

Our local Coles was running our of red shopping baskets, people were taking them home instead of the bags. I guess bags are cheaper than replacing baskets.

bcworld

Where I live a lot of people seem to think its perfectly normal to push the trolley all the way home! And that was pre bag ban. I wonder if they push them back to the store again?

Amazulu

There's a prick down the bottom of our street who does this - but doesn't take them back. Coles are always coming down to pick them up

Really inconsiderate

moneypenny20

Some people are ****ing morons and shouldn't be allowed outside, let alone go shopping. If people can't remember to carry a bag, or dump their shopping back in the trolley then unload the trolley in the boot of the car they need a slap. Coles are morons. Grumpy parent of a Woolies check out chick who has been consistently abused and bullied since the middle of June over something 100% out of her control. Luckily she's a stroppy cow like her mother and doesn't take it lying down but has learnt the art of being rude whilst being incredibly polite.

Gordon Barlow

I think my island (Grand Cayman) is typical of the Caribbean in that shoppers within walking distance of a supermarket almost always walk their laden trolleys home, and leave them to be collected by a truck sent by the supermarket to round up abandoned trolleys once or twice a week. ("Almost always"? Well, very often, then. Even so...) The expense of the round-up is of course taken into account when setting the price. The vehicles are never pushed back to the store.

moneypenny20

A few Woolies around here put sensors up within a certain distance from the store door and when the trolley reaches that point it can't be pushed any more. However you simply turn around and drag it backwards and it moves fine so the sensors have been removed.

GarryP

Woolies have indeed been hurt by their attitude towards plastic bags and their failure to match Coles.

https://www.news.com.au/finance/busi...904fcc0d8ea46b

It will be interesting to see if Coles do indeed stop their 'complementary' bags at the end of August - at the moment it's making them a notable profit.

moneypenny20

Like I say frequently, humans are dumb. The other day Coles had a network issue and every single Coles had to close their doors. Some dumb bitch went into Woolies and whilst going through the check out was bitching and moaning about how Coles couldn't be arsed to open up so she was having to do her shop in Woolies and how she hated Woolies because of the bag issue. On being given her shop total she started bitching that her bill for the same stuff in Coles was higher and she'd never shop there again, that Woolies was better.

Coles need to stop with the plastic bags and the truly moronic plastic toys, both stores need to just move on and within a few weeks it'll all be back to normal.