Countdown getting rid of plastic bags

The Herald reports:

Supermarket store Countdown has announced that single-use plastic bags will be removed from its stores and online shopping by the end of next year.

About 350 million plastic bags are set to be removed every year, as supermarkets SuperValue and FreshChoice also commit to becoming single-use plastic-bag free.

“Now is the right time to take the lead, phase-out single-use plastic carrier bags and introduce better options for customers,” Countdown’s managing director Dave Chambers says.

“We have been tracking customer sentiment for two years and our most recent research, concluded in August, indicates that 83 per cent of our customers support phasing out single-use plastic carrier bags.”

People say that in a survey as it makes them feel good. But the fact is around 90% of customers still use the bags, not 17%. It’s like free range eggs. 90% say in surveys they’ll pay more for free range eggs but they make up only 15% or so of sales.

It will be interesting to see what Foodstuffs does.