MEET THE CHALLENGE OF BAG LEGISLATION and reduce your packaging costs

Laws against plastic bags continue to become more prevalent, and that creates a challenge for you as you plan your retail packaging needs. In some cases, such as New York and California, the bans are statewide, but in most cases the bans are in municipalities all over the country. Do you have a store in those locations? How do you know? How do you manage it all? Consider the following:

• Stay up to date on the laws by making occasional visits to www.baglegislation.com, which will provide updates on every plastic baglaw in America. It also includes relevant news articles.

• Run a test market of reusable bags and reduce your overall spend

• Mix some reusable bags with your current program

• Sell the bags at a low price, but enough to offset all costs

• Publicize what you are doing. You are a retail leader in sustainable packaging and you should be proud of that.

Your customers feel good about your environmental commitment and many of them will use and reuse the bags, which also serve as valuable advertising.

It is possible to comply with laws and reduce your costs at the same time.

Gary Shippy, President