Walmart Bags Plastic to Attain a Golden State
Bags are becoming a big deal at retail, and Walmart (WMT) is testing a scenario that might have seemed unlikely just a few years ago.
The location of the test suggests why the unlikely has become a reality.
In three California stores, Walmart has stopped providing free plastic disposable bags. Customer can't even get one for a token payment, such as a nickel. A small reusable bag costs a whopping 15 cents, whopping for a plastic bag that replaces something that was free, but Walmart rates it for 75 uses. An larger version of the bag costs 50 cents.
Walmart is positioning the effort as part of its larger environmental program, one that has involved enough cost savings â€" as happens when replacing traditional with low energy consumption LED lighting â€" to cause some critics to dismiss the effort.
With the bag initiative, however, Walmart risks alienating customers and so takes a step into more pristine environmental territory.
Territory is a factor in more ways than one. Famously, Walmart has encountered opposition to its store expansion in California, although it certainly has realized enough support to keep opening locations in the Golden State.
Walmart initiated its test without publicity. At least, it didn't issue a press release or make a general announcement, although the company did post a story about the program published by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in its website's news section. Still, that's pretty deliberately low key for the retailer, one that has become nuanced enough in its public pronouncements that it posted a letter to employees about Sam's Club layoffs in that news section rather than issuing a press release that might have obligated it to expand upon the communication.
In the case of its experiment with eliminating plastic bags, Walmart may get more credit by letting others tell its story, as it doesn't pay to toot your own horn too much when you're trying to fit in.
San Francisco banned disposable plastic bags in grocery stores in 2007. Los Angeles and a slew of other California municipalities have considered, enacted and even had bag bans thrown out by the courts. The issue obviously is an active one in the state, and the Walmart effort is having an effect. By launching its test and offering the reusable bags even in those California stores that still offer free sacks, the retailer lands itself in the middle of the debate and on the side of environmental activists who might otherwise be inclined to look askance at it. With Walmart supporting their position, those very people may find it advantageous to identify the retailer as at least a tolerable part of the California landscape. They may never love Walmart. Yet, they might be more inclined to accept the retailer, which is all it can expect and probably all it wants.