We were taken by a comment in yesterday's discussion on RetailWire about the new Sears.com promotional program intended to grab book purchasers from Amazon.com, Target.com and Walmart.com. Doug Stephens, president of Retail Prophet, suggested, "In an age where everything is being made exponentially simpler, Sears blazes a trail to complexity."
With Mr. Stephens' comment in mind, we wondered if CVS had perhaps ventured down that same path with its new program for encouraging customers to shop with reusable bags.
While many retailers offer a few cents off for each bag shoppers bring with them (Target, for example, announced this week it would give a five cents credit for each reusable bag its guests use), CVS is giving shoppers an Extra Care Buck coupon for $1 after they shop with the same cloth bag four times. The chain is going to keep track of bag use by providing shoppers with a Green Bag Tag card. The leaf-shaped card, which can be attached to bags or knapsacks, is scanned every time a shopper makes a purchase.
To get a tag, shoppers will pay 99 cents to the drugstore chain, which has said it plans to donate funds to an unspecified environmental group(s).
"It's become part of the competitive landscape to demonstrate that it's part of your culture," David Szymanski, marketing professor at Texas A&M University, told USA Today. "Retailers who want to connect with this generation have to go green."
Discussion Questions: What do you think of the CVS Green Bag Tag card program? Will consumers choose to shop at CVS over other stores because it pays a higher fee for making purchases with reusable bags?