One step forward...

Most of the stories we read about supermarkets and ‘green’ products are positive ones – about new innovations reaching our shelves. Unfortunately, things have recently moved in the other direction at Waitrose, where eco milk pouches and jugs – a smart innovation that uses 75% less plastic than traditional bottles and much less energy in production – have been withdrawn from the shelves after poor sales. Even though the pouches are marginally cheaper than traditional milk bottles, but Waitrose believes its consumer preferred the convenience of the old-style containers.

This raises an interesting question about how consumers can be persuaded to try, and adopt, new products that are better for the environment but differ from what they are used to. And not least because Sainsbury’s has had quite a different experience – its milk pouches and jugs have flown off the shelves during trials in 50 stores, and are now being rolled out nationwide. Sales of bags at Sainsbury’s already account for one in every 10 two-pint containers of semi-skimmed sold.

So what did Waitrose do wrong? Are Waitrose and Sainsbury’s customers really so different? Sainsbury’s attributes its success to spending time educating consumers about the new product, starting with handing them out to all employees so that they would become ambassadors for it. Perhaps Waitrose's mistake was to assume that its customers' appetites for greener products were so strong that the pouches would fly off the shelf as soon as they appeared.

The lesson here might be that, whilst consumers consistently express interest in seeing more environmentally friendly alternatives on supermarket shelves, this appetite is something that needs to be carefully cultivated into a willingness to change purchasing habits and accept doing things a little differently. Retailers taking the time to really talk to consumers about green choices, and educate them about new products, can only help. Manufacturers and retailers are doing well to introduce more and more ‘eco’ alternatives into their product ranges, and it would be a real shame if that hard work is undone because consumers haven’t been persuaded to give them a try.