Coles caves and will give away free plastic bags indefinitely

Patrick Hatch
The Age
1 August 2018
Coles has hoisted a white flag in the face of angry shoppers aggrieved by having to bring their own bags or pay 15¢ for a “reusable” one, and has promised to give plastic bags away for free indefinitely.
The supermarket chain and its rival Woolworths removed thin “single-use” plastic bags from their checkouts in July and late June, respectively, as a growing number of state governments ban the environmentally damaging items.
But offering only thicker, “reusable” plastic bags for 15¢ each has elicited howls of outrage from some quarters, and led to a series of backflips – including giving the reusable bags away for free for a short period of time while customers adapted to the changes – to quell the outcry.
In the latest backflip, a Coles spokeswoman confirmed on Wednesday that the supermarket would give the 15¢ bags away for free indefinitely.
“When Coles phased out single-use plastic bags on 1 July in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and WA, some customers told us they needed more time to make the transition to reusable bags,” she said.
“We’ve been delighted to see customers grow more accustomed to bringing their reusable bags from home so they are relying less on complimentary bags at the checkout.
“Many customers bringing bags from home are still finding themselves short a bag or two, so we are offering complimentary reusable Better Bags to help them complete their shopping.”
Customers will continue to pay 15¢ for the reusable bags in Tasmania, where single-use bags have been outlawed since 2014, and in South Australia, where they have been banned since 2009, the Coles spokeswoman said.