Baskets go missing from supermarkets
Single-use plastic bags are seen as an environmental villain, but eliminating them has created another scoundrel for one supermarket chain – shoppers who make off with their shopping baskets.
Now Countdown is encouraging anyone who has taken a basket home to bring it back.
The chain’s Taranaki supermarkets stopped providing bags for customers on September 3, and a spokeswoman confirmed it had created some problems.
‘‘We understand that sometimes change can be tough and we’ll continue to make baskets available for customers to do their shopping. We’d also encourage any customers who have used a basket to go home to bring it back so we have these for other shoppers to use.’’
The bags were dropped after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and associate environment minister Eugenie Sage announced in August that they would be phased out over the following 12 months.
In October Countdown became the first New Zealand supermarket to get rid of the bags in all 180 of its stores.
The move was estimated to remove about 350 million plastic bags from circulation each year but has also had an impact on supplies of shopping baskets at some stores.
‘‘Some stores have had a few teething issues with baskets going missing but we’d expect that to settle down once customers get into the habit of remembering their bags,’’ the spokeswoman said.
‘‘All of our Countdown stores have now moved away from plastic bags and we’re happy to say that customers seem to be adjusting really well to the change and are mostly bringing
their own bags.’’
At Countdown in Spotswood on Tuesday, Julianne Stolte said she wouldn’t dream of stealing a basket while shopping. ‘‘I couldn’t do it; I would feel really guilty.’’
She had been well prepared to make the change to reusable bags after holidaying in the United States a couple of years ago.
‘‘They had reusable bags everywhere so coming back it was quite easy just to hook into it,’’ Stolte said.
Thelma White also found the idea of taking her shopping home in a supermarket’s basket unthinkable. ‘‘I think that’s just rude,’’ White said.
She had a couple of reusable bags stashed in the boot of her car. ‘‘It’s no hassle at all to wheel your trolley to your car and then put your groceries in a reusable bag to take them inside when you get home.’’
Another woman, who wouldn’t be named, said while people had to find other ways of transporting their groceries, taking baskets wasn’t the way. ‘‘I just can’t believe that people would steal baskets,’’ she said.
Rob Dowman, owner of New Plymouth’s New World, said his store planned to phase out the bags by January 1, but many customers had already taken the initiative.
‘‘Literally thousands of our customers have already made the change a long time ago,’’ Dowman said.
He said his store hadn’t lost any baskets. ‘‘Honestly we haven’t had any issues at all.’’
Pak’N Save New Plymouth acting manager Gina Jenkins said the store didn’t have a plan to combat the theft of baskets yet.
‘‘It’s definitely something that we will have to keep an eye on,’’ Jenkins said.