Get free shopping bags to better the environment

Pick n Pay South Africa has announced that the shopping retailer will give 20 000 customers a free reusable bag every day in every store across the country, until 22 April.

In addition, Pick n Pay will also start using its Smart Shopper loyalty programme to help shoppers shift their plastic bag behaviour by informing them about their plastic-bag usage.

Plastic bags continue to be the most-used shopping bag in South Africa. Pick n Pay has set out to change this and make reusable bags a viable shopping bag alternative.

Customers who spend more than R50 between 8 and 22 April 2019 will stand the chance to win a 100 per cent recycled RPET Pick n Pick shopping bag. They will be informed immediately at the till point if they have won and will be handed their new bag to use.

Pick n Pay Fourways Crossing store manager Itumeleng revealed that customers are happy with the competition, “Our customers are thrilled with the giveaway and are really surprised when we tell them they have won one of the beautiful and bright coloured RPET reusable shopping bags.”

Mhlongo further advised customers to inquire about the Smart Shopper loyalty programme. “Customers can ask any of our front-line supervisors or the customer services manager in-store about any aspect of the Smart Shopper loyalty programme.”

Paula Disberry, retail executive of commercial and marketing at Pick n Pay, said that the retailer has introduced many alternatives to minimise unnecessary single-use plastic in-store over the last year but believes it is important to supplement this with awareness campaigns to further shift customer behaviour, especially when it comes to plastic bags.

“In the last year, Pick n Pay has seen a 21 per cent increase in the number of people purchasing reusable bags in-store.”

During the same period, the number of customers who bought a plastic bag when purchasing five or more products has started to show signs of decreasing. While a small shift, this is very encouraging,” said Disberry.

Part of the campaign will see Smart Shoppers (who have opted in for communication) being informed about their plastic-bag usage, and how this compares each month. It will also demonstrate how much they have spent on plastic bags, and how many reusable bags they could have bought instead.

Disberry also explained why they introduced their R5-budget reusable bag “We understand that a plastic carrier bag remains the most economical bag option for customers, so we took up the challenge to introduce the cheapest reusable bag option. In February, we launched our R5-budget reusable bag and the response has been overwhelming. This shows the need for more affordable reusable bag options.

“While there are many issues to tackle with plastic waste, by driving customer behaviour we believe it can help create other more conscious plastic decisions” Disberry concluded.

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