[CINC] Albertson's is going "bagless"

[thusone at aol.com]

 This is interesting... and not even published in our local paper yet.
As i understand below only one in our little town of Carpinteria of two stores in the whole country going
bagless as a pilot program.    Shirley

******  



 
Last Wednesday, March 2, Albertsons Director of Environmental Stewardship, Rick Crandall, and Carp Store Manager Ahmed Jahadhmy, met with representatives of our south coast environmental organizations to present their breakthrough pilot project: Going Bagless. 
As of April 27, the Carpinteria store and one other in Alpine, CA will no longer offer plastic OR paper bags to their customers. If successfully received in the communities, this pilot program could spread throughout Albertsons corporate family (Supervalu) and hopefully to other market chains.
Carpinteria Beautiful has offered our support to this project, one aspect of which is to keep you & your organization informed and to encourage your support and participation in helping to make this a (wildly!) successful pilot program.
Here are the basics:
o   March 28 (Monday) 10:00 am at the store: A media event/rally to kick off the “phase in” part of the Project. Lots of hoopla!
o   Extensive signage for store & parking lot, newspaper ads & press releases to inform the public
o   5000 free reusable bags given away during the month long lead-up to final implementation
o   A wide variety of bags to be offered for permanent sale, including a very low cost one ($.30) and a spiffy “Carpinteria” one.
o   A school contest to have students bring in plastic bags from home to earn a bench (recycled plastic) and other goodies for their schools.
o   Full implementation to take place April 27th. (Bye bye single use bags!)
How can you help?
o   Come to the kick-off rally. There will be good media coverage (remember, this is one of only two stores in the country chosen to pilot this program!). A great opportunity to demonstrate that critically important community support.
o   Write a letter (or email) of support from your organization, giving Albertsons permission to use your org’s name in their outreach campaign. (Address below)
o   Inform your membership! Help get out the word.
o   Once the program gets under way, support it with letters to the editor.
o   Let the other stores know how much you’d like to see them follow suit.
If you have comments or questions or further ideas, please feed them back to me and I’ll direct them accordingly. Albertsons specifically asked for our questions/concerns in order to help them be prepared. 
Bottom line: here’s a major corporation that really seems to be walking the walk. Thanks for getting out there and helping to support their efforts!
-Donna Jordan, Carpinteria Beautiful
 
Albertsons corporate contact:                    
Rick Crandall                                     
1421 S. Manhattan Ave
Fullerton CA 92831
Rick.crandall at supervalu.com 

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