Santa Skaba at the Co-op in St Martin’s. The store chain has seen hundreds of baskets go missing since the start of charging for plastic bags. (Picture by Tom Tardif, 0630997)
TAKING a shopping basket home instead of paying for a plastic carrier bag is proving too popular for some shoppers.
Co-operative stores alone have seen 300-400 baskets go missing since the new scheme, under which customers must pay 5p for a single-use bag, came into place.
Retail controller Colin Macleod said stocks of baskets had been going down.
‘We have had to replace all the ones that have gone missing, which is a cost concern,’ he said. ‘I understand that the introduction of paying for carrier bags has posed a problem for many customers and we have had to look at how to tackle the problem.’
The Co-op has now announced a basket amnesty.
‘Some customers are obviously keeping them in the boot of the car for when they go shopping because parking attendants have said they’ve seen some customers take the baskets out of their car when they arrive, then take them into the shop,’ said Mr Macleod.
‘The trend of the baskets disappearing has now tailed off and we are monitoring it. But if the problem continues, then we may have to take a more aggressive approach.’
Tony Creasey, who is Creasey’s managing director and runs the Marks & Spencer franchise in Guernsey, said: ‘I’m not aware of any problem at the Marks & Spencer shops, but that’s not to say it hasn’t happened at all.’
Article posted on 29th August, 2008 - 11.30am
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