UK Question; How much money are supermarkets making out of "Bags For Life"?

Question

I suppose this question may sound a little cynical, but I assure you I'm only asking it to satiate my curiosity!

While in Asda at the weekend I was offered their plastic "bags for life" at 5p each, as it would be kinder to the environment than using standard carrier bags.

I know that you get a free replacement when the bag breaks, but at 5p each are the supermarkets making large amounts of money out of these bags? Or are they selling them on a purely environmental basis; to care for our planet's future rather than for just their own?

It got me to wondering how much these bags cost to make/ship etc - and also whether the increased production (ie the strong bags surely go through more manufacturing processes) negates any environmental benefits they may claim to have.

For the record, I tend to use material shopping bags - the sort you get free with Marie Claire or Glamour magazine.

Answer 1

M&S donate money taken from charging for plastic bags to an eviromental charity, while Sainsburies and Tesco actually Lose money on selling the bags-for-life - so I don't think we need to be too cynical about that.

There are far many more things to moan at supermarkets about - such as them trying to kill off British farming...!

Answer 2

I think these bags for life are more environment friendly the plastic bags they used to give for free... most of the time.

I mean, I used to keep all of the bags I took at tesco to use it as a bin bag. And if I get too much of those bags, I took some of them with me to reuse them. So, it wasn't bad for the environment at all. Know, I have to buy bin bags, so, at the end, it's all the same.

In fact, supermarkets only acts to get the most profit, the most money. If they do something you might think is 'environment frienly', it will improve their image and people would tend to go in this supermarkets rather than another one. So, it's all business.

In addition, selling bags for life for as cheap as 5p will only cost them less than giving free bags usable one time. And giving no bags would sure be even cheaper ! The price they give to these bags are symbolical only : customers now know that these bagsn their bags, have a price. They won't let it in forest or anywhere else.

good question btw

Cedric

Answer 3

I used to work for Tesco a while back.

Tesco had a budget on the amount of carrier bags each store could buy each year.  As it was coming closer to the year end the bags were getting thinner and thinner because they were buying the cheapest which were really bad quality.

If everyone used bags for life then 10 bags of shopping could fit in around 3 or 4 of them bags.

By selling them to you, you think you are getting a good deal by saying you will get another one if it bursts -  but how many people would take it back and ask for a 5p bag, or would save it in their pocket after the handle bursts off it in the street?  

So again you spend another few 5p's on bags.

So in short, they are selling bags to you making a profit and also doing away with spending less budget on the free bags you can take if everyone used bags for life.

(As far as I can see they are not anymore economical as they are still plastic, but the theory behind it would be that you wouldn't use as many as it would be recycled and reused)

Answer 4

Actually, they are not making as much as you would think. In fact I've spoken to a few supermarkets who are selling them for cost (which means they are not making a profit at all)

A lot of them have targets which their CEO's etc have given them e.g. did you know Tesco have reduced the amount of plastics bags their customers use by half in the last year? That can't be bad.

Regarding the environmental impact - It all depends on the break even point (the number of times the bag needs to be re-used to offsets the extra energy and material put into it to make it stronger) This will depend on the design of the bag but studies have shown consumers are re-using the bags more times than the breakeven point.

So on the whole - yes they are more eco-friendly and no supermarkets aren't making as much profit as the cinics out their believe.

But everyone seems to forget the real issue here. Plastic bags are designed brilliantly to minimise material used in order to hold maximum weight AND they can be easily recycled. The real issue is all the c**p which goes into the bags which can't be recycled, all the food waste which ends up in landfill and products (like free toys etc) which perhaps should never have been made in the first place.

Answer 5

LOADS !!!!!

They don't do things for free !!!!!!