I don't even want a card. Name or phone number or I just don't use their "rewards" program.
this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2023
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My idea was to make customers use a sturdy bag instead of one-use plastic ones.
Then just stop having single use bags. No need to be annoying AF by forcing them into one alternative that sounds janky anyway.
What makes it sound janky?
Having to get a scanner to read a chip in a huge bag would be cumbersome as hell.
As it doesn't exist yet, we can imagine anything. Like thesr chips being in handles for example.
Which would be cumbersome.
I would've loved to have me and you being managers of the same shop in neighboring districts to test it and see if I'm wrong.
It doesn't take a real world test to know you're wrong. It's as simple as thinking about it for a couple minutes. It's a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. Having the chip built into a bag means they have to scan the bag which means they have to orient a bag around to get it positioned correctly for scanning. This is objectively more difficult than using a card.
Also, you now have to deal with all the problems that come with bags if the chip is built into the bag you have to use THAT bag for that store. You can't find a bag, crate, whatever that is to your liking and use it when you go shopping. You have to carry the specific bag for the specific store you are going into instead of getting one that you use everywhere which means having a bunch of different bags for all the stores you go to. If the bag is damaged you now have to get an entirely new bag instead of just a replacement card. If you live with other people that also have their own memberships then you will have to keep even more bags around.
In spite of your adamant conclusion, I would've liked this being tested. In a fashion of some Discovery Channel's older programs. The battle royale of marketing practices.
Having the design of this bag, the check out zone, the cart under control, one can dictate how it would work. You can even place it on the bottom and have it automatically scanned as it rolls through a checkout table. Or, if it stays in a cart (and you can adjust it to be 1:1 to cart size), a chip on the side can also be read by the scanner on a side of said table. So many variants.
I don't see how it's more confusing than having all these loyalty cards. If it's a general store like Walmart, Auchan you visit daily (or weekly) and buy most things here, it's not really a problem. If they are freely interchangeable and have just one tier of price-cutting (like my cards in a local Lenta general store do), you don't need bags for every person in your household, you can bring any one at hand.
And it should be build at expense of the store and have a symbolic price, say $1, but being alike to IKEA ones - those I pick with myself everywhere by choice because I know they would carry 30kg of groceries if I'd need that. This investment into loyalty of returning customers and having brand being associated with zero waste wouldn't be for nothing. If it's not a metropolitan area, but a rural one, I think these bags would be, just like Xerox, a new coloquial naming to all good bags one encounter. They'd carry your ad everywhere, and everyone would know it's from Your-Store. And having that thing at hand promising you better prices at Your-Store, you'd probably come here, not to Other-Store.
Why? Sounds terrible. So many down sides.
Arguably, it's better than selling metal straws. Lots of single-use plastic is used for shoping bags alone. And these loyal customer cards... Why not to make them one thing?
Welcome to Europe, we are actually doing great
You have reward card chips in your shopping bags?
There is so much less plastic bag litter here in NJ since we banned single use plastic bags. Its not hard to keep a couple reusable bags in your car.
That had nothing to do with this topic. The topic here is having a rewards chip built into a bag, which is what i was saying is a bad idea.
My idea was to make customers use a sturdy bag instead of one-use plastic ones.
Didn’t sound like that was the part you were objecting to given this is the comment you replied to.
What are some down sides?
Fun fact:
In terms of total greenhouse gas emissions, you'd generally have to use around 400 disposable bags made from sustainable products to equal one reusable tote.
This is because the vast majority of those totes are imported from southeast Asia.
It's important to note though that emissions are not the only thing to consider. My state banned single-use plastic bags a few years ago, and the number of them you see caught in trees or thrown away as litter has dropped to almost zero.
Plus, I think you could absolutely use those bags 400 times if you make good use of them. A few of the ones I have are from at least a decade ago and have probably been used far more times than that.
I don't disagree, I just thought that was a fun fact.
I work on sustainable packaging, and it's something not a lot of people think about. The company is extremely passionate about supply chain efficiency (both as a cost and as environmental impact), so it's something that comes up with us pretty regularly.
That actually sounds like a pretty cool job! I only said something because unfortunately a lot of people tend to use that fact to put down reusable bags, which sucks because even though they're far from perfect, they're still the better alternative (assuming you don't buy a new one every time you go to the store).
Your company has a vested interest in pushing sustainable disposable single use bags over reusable bags, your data is biased, and as mentioned, emissions are less of an issue than the physical pollution and damage of single use packaging being disposed of and ending up in the environment. One reusable bag ending up in the ocean isn't as bad as 400 sustainable ones.
I have been using the same two cotton bags for 15 plus years. By my count that is at least 4,000 single use bags that have not been used.
The best time to ~~plant a tree~~ start using non-plastic bags is twenty years ago.
The second best time is today.
Even better, let's start making reusable totes in the US and cut that ratio down, so this is no longer true.
I can say, with insider knowledge, that the reusable packaging industry could start cranking out totes any time, should demand (or, better, legislation) prove sufficient.
Wouldn't hurt the industry at all, either, as sustainable single-use packaging - much of which is shifting to paper -is heavily on the rise
Sustainable packaging has almost unlimited growth potential and is seeing massive private investment, and we should leverage that market to curb both pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
The ones I use were made locally, from cotton produced in this country so the threshold is way lower than 400.
To go one step further, make them yourself out of old cotton clothing.
Well that's not fun at all
This is kinda brilliant.
This is a really good idea!! I wish big corporations gave any amount of thought to not destroying the planet, this probably would be popular already if they did.
IKEA makes good sturdy bags already, I think other brands can see a benefit in doing so too.
My experience with shopping in California, they make the plastic bags (that you have to pay for) pretty sturdy so you can reuse them. At least at Target.
The issue with this though is people still litter these bags and being thicker plastic theyre even worse.
The downside for them would be that families share bags, but carry cards in personal wallets
If they want to data mine purchases, they might want it on the individual level
Hmm, I wonder what they think of me using my sister's phone number for some places, and the last land line I had in others?
Yeah, jokes on them - I use my ex’s number. She buys the craziest stuff
I try to keep 2 bags in my car and the rest in my house, that way I have enough with me for a quick unplanned stop but don't need to flood my car with bags. With this system I'd need to have 1 bag per store and make sure to always have all of them in my car to avoid not getting points/discounts? Current system where you just use whichever bags and don't need to worry about what store they originally came from seems simpler.
All big stores here sell sturdy bags for like $2 that will last for over a year. My oldest one is like 5 years old at this point and it still works great.
It's just a little push to have these with you every time.
In the EU single use bags cannot be sold anymore, so everyone now has some of what they call "bag for life". It's a similar material to the blue IKEA bags (if that's a thing in the USA).
They last really long and since the material requirements are basic as can be, they are usually made out of 100% recycled plastic.
That's why I love them so much.
My idea is about further benefit the bag holders.
My country is head deep in single-use plastics right now and only a minority uses these cool bags.
Was the same here before they were banned.
Single use bags can be sold, and are sold, for wrapping fruit and vegetables, and thin polyethylene carrier bags are atill sold, they just can't be given away for free.
At least over here (Austria) only biodegradable bags are allowed to be sold in this capacity.
But they are also not comparable to the old single-use plastic bags when it comes to plastic used, but rather comparable to a clingfilm around e.g. a salad.
Around my, most everyone uses the same old bags for groceries (Trader Joe's ones in particular) but I imagine this idea would be best for the big box stores. Their clientele not only seem to care less about the environment, but they also stand to benefit more from giant reusable store bags. Plus plenty do store membership requirements (like Costco) and verifying membership by the bags you carry would be easier than a card, haha.
Collapsible Crates from Costco replaced my reusable cloth shopping bags.
Easier for me, albeit heavier than smaller bags would be.
What would the chip contain? Storing your credit card information on a bag? And then you have to somehow tap that chip against a reader when it's full of your contents?
It would just need to be the discount card/clubcard. Just a user id number. The payment can be separate.
You are right. Just a club card code. The only exception - is that it shouldn't have an obvious way to add it to one's NFC cards app in order to keep most having these bags.