M&S makes pounds from plastic

by Kate Pritchard - Thursday, 28th February 2008 - - Business comment

The beacon of British retail has gone and set another new trend. In a bid to save the environment, M&S will start charging shoppers for plastic bags.

Customers will have to cough up 5p for every grocery bag they use. And no, the profits won’t go straight into the pockets of Stuart Rose, the company’s chief exec. The money will be scooped up by environmental charity Groundwork to create more green spaces across the country.

The move follows a trial at 50 of M&S’s stores in Northern Ireland and south-west England, which resulted in demand for polythene bags falling by more than 70 per cent.

Rose says that if that figure was replicated across the country, it could reduce the number of bags used by a whopping 280m each year.

So is this all a big fat PR stunt? Are M&S just jumping on the environmental bandwagon?

Not so, says Rose. All he's doing is listening to his customers. Speaking on BBC Breakfast today, Rose said he spends hours wandering around the aisles of the stores, chatting to customers. He also claims to personally reply to around 200 customer complaints each week (no doubt including Jeremy Paxman's scathing comments about the quality of the store's underpants).

Will the likes of Tesco and Asda follow suit? And what does this mean for smaller retailers? Let’s hear your views.

Sir Stuart Rose will be discussing the green theme at the Real Business Legendary Dinner, taking place on April 2nd. For more information click here.

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