“If I had a dollar for every bag, I have at home I would be a millionaire!”

In December 2019, Sokos switched from plastic carrier bags to carrier bags made of Paptic® Tringa. Four months after launch we asked consumers shopping at the Sokos flagship store how they felt about the new carrier bags. Some people liked them; the majority loved them.

All the interviewees saw the replacement of plastic bags as a positive development. 97% of them said that this kind of initiative has a positive effect on how they perceive a brand like Sokos.

And this is more than just appreciation as one of the surveyed puts it “it affects my buying behaviour.” And that proves the point that investing on sustainability is not just for goodwill, it is good for business. But then again, there are consumers who expect their favorite brands to act sustainably: “This is what I expect Sokos to do, they have promised to be sustainable, and to replace single-use plastic bags is one part of that.”

Companies need to be in the forefront of change, and when they are, consumers take notice. These investments affect the way consumers think.

”If Sokos, a leading retail and leisure conglomerate, makes such an investment, it must mean something.”

Consumers do not like single use plastic bags. Bags made of cotton or thick plastics may be viable alternatives, but as the headline reads most of us are drowning in them. And if they are only used once and are difficult to recycle, they are probably not the most sustainable choice. Many of the respondents saw a Paptic bag, that can be used for tens of times and then recycled as an ideal replacement or complementary to cotton or non-woven bags. “one bag for groceries, another for clothes.”

But there are less obvious ways in which Paptic can upgrade the shopping experience, as one of the surveyed put it, “Large paper bags make an annoying noise, Paptic is way nicer as it´s silent.”