Retailers go green bag makers red

Retailers in China are now fighting a battle for the "green" highground in a bid to turn fashion-conscious customers into eco-awareshoppers, as plastic bags face the ban. Muji, the Japanese lifestyle store is offering simple but stylishlinen and cotton bags in its newly launched outlet in westernBeijing. While Levi's, the US clothing maker is printing its insignia, theback-pocket seagull stitch, on its non-woven shopping bags - whichcustomers get free when purchasing jeans at its stores. Shuang'an Department Store, located near Beijing's West Third RingRoad, held a recycle bag design competition last month and receivedaround 400 applications, indicating the interest in more ecofashion. The "green" shopping bag campaign seems to be a win-win for allinvolved. Companies can adopt it as a brand-building tool.Consumers see it as an iconic statement against throwaway plasticbags, which are given away in billions every year. "I like cloth bags, they are green and fashionable," says Lucy Liu,a 25-year-old office worker in Beijing. She said that carrying arecycled bag can send out two messages at the same time: Caringabout the environment and being fashionable. The State Council has banned the production, sale and use Building Plastic bags starting from June 1. Shops are alsoforbidden to provide free plastic bags. Retailers who continue tooffer free plastic bags will be fined between 5,000 and 10,000yuan. Supermarkets now charge 0.2 to 0.5 yuan for each plastic bag andsell cloth bags priced between 3 and 10 yuan. While the new government policy has forced some plastic bagproducers to shut down their businesses, others like Shi Jingdongsee the move as a chance to boost business. "Our business grew at least 50 percent during the past two months,"said Shi, sales manager of Beijing Color Printing PackagingMaterial Co. The company can produce 100,000 non-woven bags amonth. Businesses from outside of the retail market are also investing ineco-bag branding. May Flower Dental, a one-and-a-half-year-old private dental cliniclocated on Beijing's Financial Street, last week teamed up with OleSupermarkets and the Oriental Plaza to offer customers freenon-woven bags. The company distributed 10,000 bags in a week. The clinic, which also has English-speaking doctors, said it hassimilar target consumers as Ole as more than half of the storeshelves are packed with imported or organic food. "It is impossible to expect that shoppers come to our clinic rightafter they get the bags. But we do hope that when they have troublewith their teeth one day, our clinic's name will jump into theirhead," said Song Min, from the company's marketing department.
2008-06-04 14:37:25