Bring-a-bag, Take-a-bag idea takes off

BRING A Bag, Take a Bag is trending on social media after Woolworths became the latest retailer to make shopping a bit easier for consumers who had forgotten to bring their own shopping bags.

The retailer has erected a hanging device in a tree shape in some of their stores, where people who had forgotten to bring their reusable bags can help themselves to one brought along by a thoughtful shopper.

The idea is to bring the bag back and hang it on the hanging device to make life a bit easier for the next shopper who forgot to bring one.

While this concept has been used in countries like Australia, this idea was sparked locally by Brent Lindeque, known as South Africa’s Good Things Guy.

He has for the past year been lamenting the accumulation of shopping bags in his cupboard, the car boot and every other available space in his house.

“But now there’s a solution,” Lindeque said.

He told Independent Media the discussion actually started last year..

“I then found a Reddit post in August this year with this concept being rolled out in Australia which I posted to my social media, tagging Woolworths with the idea. That post had over 32 000 likes and reached more than 500 000 people, who mostly all agreed.”

Lindeque said Woolworths didn’t seem keen at first, so he contacted SPAR who loved the idea and rolled it out in just a few days.

“I am disappointed they did not call it the Good Things tree, but I am happy they listened to my suggestion,” Lindeque said.

While many retailers are phasing out plastic shopping bags and replacing them with reusable bags, it has created a separate problem. Many shoppers forget to bring their reusable bags along and are then forced to buy others. The result is that these bags pile up at home.

Lindeque earlier pitched his idea on social media, where he said: “I think Woolworths SA should buy back bags … or let you donate them at the door so that you could bring them all back at once and then really re-use them.

“I mean, the bags were a good idea to stop the plastic problem, but we’ve just created a Woolies bag problem.”

He later wrote to Woolworths via social media, where he posted a picture of the bags situation in Australia.

Replying to his tweet, the retailer responded by saying: “The idea is that customers will only need to buy bags once or twice, then reuse them over and over again.

“We understand that change takes time and forming habits happens in the long term, and we really appreciate all the patience our customers have shown.”

Social media users on Twitter in turn complained about having to buy a bag at the till when they forgot to bring their own. Lindeque’s idea thus received a lot of support.

“We as South African consumers have gone from having a plastic shopping bag problem to having a reusable shopping bag problem,” Lindeque said.

He said the reality was that while some remembered to take their bags when shopping, there would always be those who did not.

SPAR meanwhile started rolling out Lindeques’s concept of “leave one, take one” from last month at some of their stores, followed by Woolworths.

Lindeque has been an inspiration to many over the past few years, as being the social media “good news guy”.

Lindeque, the editor of the online Good Things Guide, is on a mission to bring smiles to people’s faces and to give them hope.