Here in Canada, our Federal Liberal Government has made it illegal to buy, sell and import “single use” plastic bags. You know the ones we have used for decades, the ones that allow you to easily carry your purchase out of the store? In today’s Canada if you are going to go shopping (whether that is for groceries, sporting goods or clothing) you, as the consumer, have to bring your own bag(s) for your purchases.
I don’t want to get into the political arguments around this and I definitely don’t want to get into the commonsense arguments around this (we all know there are gaping holes in the restrictions of this law). But I do want to talk about the logistics around this from a business, end-user, standpoint.
Let’s pretend for a minute that removing plastic bags from grocery stores makes complete, logical, sense. I mean, you go grocery shopping with the purpose of shopping, you have an idea of how much you will buy, you have access to a cart to use while you shop so you don’t have to carry the bags around with you and you don’t typically leave the store to continue to shop elsewhere. In theory, you should be able to know how many reusable bags you need for this errand, and it shouldn’t be an inconvenience to tote around with you while you shop. Now let’s think about what happens when going to the mall…
Once upon a time, going to the mall was a leisure activity. You may be going to find something for an event, or you could be going just to go – to see what’s new, what deals are happening… My guess is that most of you at some point or another have gone to the mall and came home with more than you anticipated buying. Not a big deal when the cashier was bagging your items. But today, you need to bring a bag with you – pre-plan what you are going to buy, the size of bag you will need (just think coat season) AND you must carry these around with you while you shop. Like under your arm or in your hand while you are also trying to pull garments off racks (if you even see something you like, which you might not in any particular store).
Retail Training (before): If a customer has their hands full, offer to start them a fitting room. If they are free from clumsy hangers and hands are free, they will shop more.
Having grown-up working in retail, there are just some things that we were taught that won’t work now in this world of BYOB (bring your own bag). Things that impact the customer and customer experience and overall productivity (AKA money). Specifically at the cash register.
When a customer gets to cash, you want to get them through the process as quickly as possible. Retailers have spent some time researching fast (and effective) ways to get a customer through the store and, most importantly through, the register.
From a business standpoint – You need to keep lines as short as possible to avoid customer walking away. The faster you can cash someone out and get onto the next, the less cashiers you need, and the more sales come through. A cashier is trained on not just the register functions but on the order in which to execute a sale – scan item, remove security tag, fold, repeat. Pile neatly as you go. While customer is making the payment and getting their stuff in order, grab a bag. In one swoop, items are ready to go. Most cashier can have the customer’s order (no matter the size) bagged before the customer finishes their payment transaction. That is, before.
Now, the customer waits for the cashier to ring through their items, remove security tags and fold merchandise. Then the customer does their payment and put away their cards etc…while the employee waits. Then the customer bag their order in the bag they brought…while the employee waits and while the next customer waits. And you know this isn’t a smooth action – it’s clumsy, awkward, and rushed. That’s if they opt for a bag at all.
Retail Training (now): I will say retailers need to adjust their training with this new rule. They could start the transaction by asking the customer if they have their own bag and offer to bag it for the customer (which isn’t happening now). That said, we are also coming through a post-covid time where we weren’t allowed or wanted to touch other people’s personal belongings. Even still, in some case, you still don’t. Some of those bags are rough looking!
The other logistical area of retail I think was gravely overlooked with the removal of plastic bags is in the area of lost prevention (LP). Now that making a purchase doesn’t always lead to garments landing inside a bag, it is harder for staff to know (at a glance) if someone has purchased what they are carrying or not. Are they returning something they bought, or have they picked it up off the sales floor on their way in? Is their grocery store branded bag (who’s not in the mall) empty, full of purchased merchandise or unpurchased merchandise?
In all cases of reusable bags, these bags are not transparent like their predecessor single-use bags were. This makes it hard for security and secrete shoppers to watch suspected thieves as they often watch for changes in color and shapes in a bag as an indicator. Hard to do when the bags are solid and often a stiff material.
And yes, before a customer could have shopped at another store and still used it to steal something from your store. And yes, before a customer could walk into your store to do a return without a bag. However, before, as a retail employee, you would pay attention to that. You would notice it and you could challenge it if needed but now you wouldn’t. And from what I’m hearing, with a sudden increase in shrink (missing merchandise) in many stores, this could be part of the problem. Not all but part.
There is a way to handle this new law, without getting the government to scrap it altogether (don’t hold your breath), but it will come at a cost to us consumers. It’s simple, don’t charge for reusable bags and go back to how it used to be just not in plastic form.
Forever the cost of the plastic bags was worked into the cost of the business. It was a lot less than the cost of these bags, sure, but it was worked into the cost. The customer didn’t see it. Then we went to having to charge for bags (I think another brilliant government rule) which led to continuing to charge for reusable and paper bags. That originally hidden cost for plastic bags was never removed, we just accepted being charged for a bag. Double charged now if you think about.
Like most things that are implemented without the proper (real world) testing, the scrapping of “single-use” plastic bags from retail comes with it faults. On paper, in theory, it sounds good but they didn’t think about the logistics of it and how it would affect the people executing it. Especially how it would affect volume. During a busy holiday shipping time when you aren’t dealing with one customer an hour but one a minute.
In my POV, single-use plastic bags in retail should have:
- Started out first (if at all) in grocery stores only
- Been replaced with an environmentally friendly single use alternative, without a charge to customers
- Been studied thoroughly, including feedback from workers in the store before making it law
Or is it just me?