Retail stores face the challenge of meeting many targets, not only sales but 'green' targets, too. Latest reports show that most shops and stores are failing to meet the pledges that were set up to reduce packaging and product wastage in Britain in the supply chain itself. Albeit voluntary targets set in place by the British Retail Consortium these goals are seen as relevant to some modern consumers who will often be led by retailers who are seen to be doing their bit for the current ecological climate. This can often be a selling point for larger retailers who signed up as part of the pledge.
There are some sensible solutions addressing issues such as the nonsensical de-selection of odd shaped fruits and vegetables. Now that EU rules have relaxed some supermarkets have taken this concern on board and are offering smaller or odd shaped vegetables as part of a cheaper pack. Personally I prefer carrots that look as if they’ve just been pulled out of the ground than ones that are manufactured to look a certain ‘carrot’ shape anyway.
The main concerns from the BRC report were that retail companies were not on target for reducing waste in the supply chain and only achieved 0.4% of the 5% required for improvement. I wonder if cost implications were a relevant part of this failure. Retail stores are being hit hard and are struggling to stay afloat and so to add another strata of investment may be just a little too much at the moment. Clearly companies need to meet their ecological targets but they must also continue trading if those practices are to be carried into the future with successful companies. With this in mind Tesco have recently announced that they are to discontinue adding a ‘Carbon Footprint’ guide to their packaging, purely due to time and costs restraints. So in reality although retail is being hit hard by the economics of the country savvy companies will still push to raise their 'green' credentials but it will have to be in a cost effective way. Again smaller retailers probably find it cost prohibitive to fight alongside the big boys but can still do their bit economically and ecologically.
One area that does enrage me is the lip service paid to issues such as carrier bags. The large supermarkets were all fired up to eliminate the use of plastic carrier bags within the store. Some shops even offered free replacement of bags for life when they became useless or gave ‘green’ points for use of your own shopping bag. I think that may well have run out of steam – yes they have less bags on the cash desk itself but what is one of the first questions you’re asked as you pile out your shopping? “Do you need a carrier bag?” So much for re-educating the shopper – I still think we should have to pay for carrier bags like you used to years ago – paying for a bag makes it seem less essential somehow!
I think that manufacturers and wholesalers have to take a share of the problem,too and start making goods with less packaging and wasteful wrapping to ensure that retailers can reach their targets with waste reduction. It can be done – look at Cadburys Easter eggs. In the past the amount of packaging for a small chocolate egg and a bag of sweets was outrageous and yet in recent years they have managed to reach up to 68% less packaging on the same product range. So let’s hope that clever thinking, financial management and improvement of ‘green’ issues can also be a sales point for retail stores into the future.
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