Bagless fruit and vegetable aisles, as well as refill stations for goods such as pasta, rice, grains and cereals, are seen increasingly in supermarkets like Morrison’s and Waitrose. According to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, these practices are in line with a greater willingness among UK shoppers to buy unpackaged food, with 71.3 percent interested in using these services.
Hannah Thomson, Retail Analyst at GlobalData: “Amid growing awareness of the harmful effects of single-use plastics on the environment, retailers are keen to prove that they are acting responsibly and responding to consumers’ concerns. After initial set-up costs, retailers could benefit from selling certain goods unpackaged and removing packaging costs. Waitrose has said that its ‘Unpacked’ trial resulted in cost savings from goods arriving in store in re-usable containers.”
GlobalData’s monthly survey of 2,000 UK respondents found that 44.1 percent of 16-24 year olds who had purchased food and grocery products in July had used a refill station in the last 12 months, compared with 35.0 percent of 25-34 year-olds and just 25.4 percent of 35-44 year-olds.
Of the consumers who said they would not use a refill shop, the main reason cited was an unwillingness to take containers to a store. The solution could be to provide shoppers with recyclable paper bags or to offer a discount as an incentive for bringing re-usable containers, as is now common in coffee chains for customers with re-usable cups. Such a discount could also help convince the 19.2 percent of consumers who believe it would be more expensive to buy goods unpackaged.
Source : insidelogistics.ca
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