“We think eliminating plastic grocery bags is the right thing to do and we are confident our customers will understand and accept this as a positive step in the right direction. In fact, we know from asking our Customer Panel that some 80 per cent of Thrifty Foods customers surveyed agree that plastic grocery bags should not be used,” said Milford Sorensen, President & CEO of Thrifty Foods.
But two years later, something changed. And well, it was us.
On August 18, 2011, Thrifty Foods reintroduced the disposable bag, claiming “customers prefer plastic.”
Hearing that, one must think, how far will society be pushed, until the planet’s needs are no longer trumped by our own perpetual desire for short term convenience?
Will it be when governments declare a global ban on bags, simply because we’ve extracted the last drop of oil needed to produce them? Or will it be because the 46,000 pieces of plastic in every square mile of the ocean has reached an irreversibly damaging 50,000?
The need for group validation is wide spread. This is why people look around before they stand up to offer an ovation at the end of a concert. Why should it matter if any of these strangers felt the way you did about the event? Because it does. A lot. Social proof matters.
So let’s look around together, at each other, and be the early adopters everyone else so desperately needs to see. Bring a canvas bag, carry a reusable mug, ride your bike, take transit, establish your office’s environmental policy. Tell your kids you were the part of the lasting environmental movement; the one that kept moving forward until we got it right.
