I make many trips to the supermarket and have noticed the gentle shift towards reusable bags, or biodegradable bags. But my problem is that many of these are not practical, typically buying a ‘bag for life’, which for me should be called ‘leaving it in the car’ bag. So I end up stumping up more cash on the next visit.
There are a multitude of reusable shopping bags, varying from cotton bags that are quite small in capacity, to very strong plastic bags. Both have the problem of where to put them so they are handy for the next trip, and another issue is how to fold them so that you can get a number of them into a reasonable sized space. Looking at a typical supermarket shopper, the number of bags vary from 1-8 depending on whether it is an individual shopper or the family stocking up.
Some supermarkets are taking the initiative and handing out eco-bags for free or at a discounted price, but this still does not resolve the practical aspects of how to get your shopping home.
I recently came across Footprint Bag, a company that is run by two women who had a brilliant idea on how to be eco-friendly, and practical. The concept is quite neat, addressing the need for style, compactness and robustness.
Taking Footprint Bag as an example, the age old problem of producing plastic bags should be a thing of the past. Although I appreciate that this is not a trivial problem, and commercial realities are to be considered.
The Credit Crunch is here and starting to bite just about every business, irrespective of size. So when times get tough, what happens to business strategy? Is it put to one side and everyone focuses on survival? Seems like a good idea, if there is no short term, then why worry about the long term.
However, I notice that business people are more receptive to ways on saving and making money, improving their customer perception and customer service. This fine tuning of the business can improve the survival rate, but also strengthen the company in perhaps ways that would not have been, had there been no credit crunch.
The Internet now means we all live in the global village and things change at a pace, so keep optimistic, realistic and watch for changes in your market. Doing the same old thing cannot always guarantee the same result anymore.
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