The Co-op Food Stores of New Hampshire and Vermont

November 10, 2008

Summary of the Sustainability Team’s Response to the Dairy Day Shopper Survey Results

18 of 20 team members completed the survey.

Our reading of the survey results:

1. We should continue to pursue a bag charge at the Co-op.

• There is agreement that, short of eliminating disposable bags completely, charging for bags would be the most effective method of reducing bag dissemination.

Ten team members support a bag charge. Most of them have concerns about how the charge would be instituted.

Five team members do not think we should ask management team to institute a charge, at least not without consulting the membership first (either in a member-wide vote or a larger survey).

Three team members did not respond to this question.

2. We need to do more homework to identify why people still take paper/plastic at our registers.

3. If we want to get an accurate picture of shoppers’ responses to additional incentives/disincentives, we need to survey again with a larger number of respondents (and, we need to set a target number of respondents).

4. All options except for eliminating disposable bags (either or both types) are still on the table.

Following on the above results, the Shopping Bag Mini-Team created the following plan:

Summary:
Step 1. Institute new incentives.
Step 2. Increase outreach and education.
Step 3. Continue to pursue a bag charge at the Co-op.

Step 1. We will institute all of the positive incentives listed on our survey except increasing the bag credit to 10 cents.

• Each time shoppers reuse bags, they will be entered into a weekly drawing for a new reusable shopping or produce bag.
• We will work to increase availability of cardboard boxes for shoppers, as needed.

We have dropped the idea of eliminating paper bags, plastic bags, or both. We support both types of bags being available for visitors and for regular shoppers in a pinch.

Step 2. We will step-up shopper education about our 5-cent bag reuse incentive, other new incentives, and the reasons for participating. We will also communicate to our members the negative environmental consequences of continued disposable bag use.

• We will work out a way to provide a shopper exchange/donation point for cloth bags and paper/plastic to be reused.
• We will work out a way to support shoppers who don’t take a bag when they’ve only purchase a couple of small items.
• We will re-iterate the importance of having our cashiers ask “do you need a bag?” or some other alternative to “paper or plastic?”

Step 3. We will continue to pursue a bag charge at the Co-op because we believe it will be the most effective means of limiting disposable bag use by shoppers. We will ask Management Team to reconsider a bag charge within one year. In the meantime we will:

• Support Kids for a Cooler Planet in conducting a shopper survey. Our draft questions for a new shopper survey are as follows:

1. Do you think it would be good to reduce natural resource consumption by reducing the number of paper and plastic bags taken by shoppers?

2. We give shoppers quite a few alternatives to paper or plastic. Which were you aware of?

• Bring your own
• Take from the “free used bags” bin
• Free cardboard boxes
• Carry groceries out in your hands, no bag at all

3. Currently, all shoppers share the financial cost of disposable bags given out at the registers. The Co-op is considering shifting this financial cost to those shoppers who actually use bags, by removing bag expense from “overhead” and charging shoppers 5 cents for bags at the registers. If the Co-op were to institute this change, how would you react (or, “would you support this change?,” “should the Co-op do that?,” “how would that affect you?”)?

• Reframe our bag charge proposal as follows: We do not propose to start charging for bags, the Co-op already does. We propose to shift the charge for bags so that only people who use the disposable bags pay for them. People who don’t take a bag – because they brought their own or have only one or two items and can hand-carry – will no longer have to pay for bags they are not using.

• Consider recommending that the 5-cent bag credit be discontinued.