There was much gnashing of teeth a month ago when it emerged that Brown Thomas was going to charge customers 60 cent a pop for branded paper carrier bags. No doubt some customers would be irked by being asked at the till to pay for a branded paper bag in which to carry home their purchases after spending hundreds of euro in store.
The move is part of a wider sustainability initiative by the Irish department store retailer, which will involve the profits from the bag initiative being diverted to fund a scheme to plant 100,000 trees here over the next 10 years, in partnership with Crann, a voluntary organisation promoting hedgerows and woodlands.
According to Brown Thomas chief Donald McDonald, the first trees will be planted in the next month, 1,000 of them, at a location that has yet to be revealed.
He told Cantillon that “surprisingly” the move to charge for paper bags has been “well received” by customers.
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“Most customers understand the reasoning behind it and our commitment to sustainability,” he said, noting that it hands out about one million bags a year. “There are customers who say they don’t think it’s right but we have to have the courage of our convictions.
“We’ve eliminated exotic skins out of our offering and lost €10 million worth of sales over the number of years we’ve introduced it. As a business, we’ve always had that principled positioning. We want to invest into reforestation in the country and recognise that as being a key issue on the sustainability. We think we’re doing the right thing.”
McDonald also noted that other retailers here are charging for paper bags. He’s right. Cantillon recently purchased a child’s school lunch box in Smiggle in Dundrum and was asked by the assistant at the till if I needed a paper carrier bag, which would cost €1.50.
Cantillon isn’t that green.
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