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.
“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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