Having today topped the EIA and Greenpeace ranking of UK supermarkets on their efforts to reduce plastic usage, Waitrose has become the first grocer to integrate its refillable range into its main aisles.
The ‘Waitrose Unpacked’ initiative began in a few stores in 2019 to test demand from consumers for packaging-free shopping.
The chain said it is now taking the concept one step further by becoming the first national supermarket to integrate unpacked items into its regular aisles within its supermarket in Wallingford Oxfordshire, rather than having a single unpacked fixture. Following the addition of 13 Unpacked options in December, the store will offer 51 lines, including frozen fruit, store cupboard essentials such as rice, pasta and grains, cereals, dried fruit, snacking and coffee, as well as washing detergent.
Waitrose stated that trial aims to understand whether customers can be persuaded to incorporate shopping for unpacked items into their routine ‘business as usual’ shopping trips, rather than visiting a separate part of the shop.
The chain highlighted the Unpacked scheme was originally intended to be an eleven-week test when launched two years ago. However, following its success, it continued at its Botley Road store in Oxford and was added to a further three shops in Wallingford, Abingdon and Cheltenham.
Waitrose published its own report today showing its customers were “overwhelmingly supportive” of the unpacked initiative and that nearly all single-use packaging was eliminated across Unpacked products. Feedback also suggested that people wanted to see a broader range of Unpacked products, including more brands, and that the environment-friendly scheme had made them feel better about their purchases.
The separate EIA and Greenpeace report acknowledged that Waitrose had made an absolute plastic reduction of 6.1% since 2017 across both its own label and branded ranges – the lowest plastic use per unit market share of the leading supermarkets, while also highlighting the success of its refillable pilot scheme.
James Bailey, Waitrose Executive Director, said: “We are pleased that Greenpeace’s league table has recognised our efforts to decrease our plastic packaging and pioneer unpacked shopping, but we realise there’s more to do. We know this remains as important to our customers as it does to us so we have continued to explore ways we can do more.
“Waitrose Unpacked requires a fundamental change in shopping behaviour that has been ingrained for years. This next phase will help us to understand if we can make refillables a routine part of customers’ shopping trips that would allow us to roll out Unpacked further in the future.”
NAM Implications:
- The ‘Try and see’ advantage of retailing.
- Meanwhile, given the probable success of the in-aisle initiative…
- …time for big-brand suppliers to try to transfer some of their branding to refill units?
