Ease Customer Adjustment for Obeying Laws

At the start of this month, following a lead of many cities worldwide, Seattle initiated a ban on single-use polyethylene plastic bags. According to a Seattle Times article, some shoppers were caught by surprise and ended up cradling items in their arms while walking to the car.
     How would your shoppers react to such legislation? Research indicates that an irritated shopper is likely to buy less and might become spiteful. Responding to another part of the Seattle law, requiring retailers to charge 5¢ for a paper bag, a Seattle Times interviewee named Alex said he’ll be driving out of town to avoid the fee.
     Alex’s temper might cool when he figures the extra costs of travel. Or just with the passage of time. Researchers at University of South Australia tracked the responses of more than 1,200 consumers to a ban on plastic bags. They found that, regardless of whether people supported or were opposed to the ban, any resistances pretty much faded away over the four-month span of the tracking study. In Seattle, a major complaint has been no more serious than the interrupted supply of free small plastic bags for use in picking up dog droppings.
     A caution from the Australia study: People who were highly supportive of the ban before it began became more spirited in expecting others to conform. That could lead to some shoppers harassing those others who do complain.
     To head off problems, ease the adjustment.

• The Seattle law allows retailers to provide a heavy-weight plastic bag for a fee of 10¢ and small paper bags for free. Those small plastic bags used for meat, fruit, bulk items, and home-delivery newspapers are exempt, as are the large, thin plastic bags used for dry cleaning. 
• The first day of the ban, July 1, was a Sunday, which is a busy grocery shopping day. On that day, each Safeway store in Seattle offered a free tote bag to the first 2,000 customers who asked. 

     After consumers have adjusted, a plastic-bag ban might morph into more, as it did when Asda in the UK allowed customers in some stores to pay less if they brought in their own container to purchase fabric softener.
     Again, ease the adjustment.

• Decorate the container with the name of your store in large letters so that the container becomes a token testimonial to customer advocacy as others watch the container being filled. 

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Short & Wide for Reusable Containers