Remember Marks & Spencer's refill scheme? Yes, the one where the shoppers could fill their containers with food. Well, the trial scheme just got an extension.
The extension of the trial will be at Mark and Spencer's Hedge End Store in Southampton, and next, it is going to be rolled out in the Manchester city-center store.
As confirmed by a spokesperson, it was a part of supermarket's "action to reduce plastic packaging," which is a much-needed initiative from all the supermarkets especially since UK supermarkets contribute about 58 billion pieces of plastic per year
If you weren't aware of the trial, then to bring you up to speed in the initial trial at the Hedge End retail park store, 44 plastic packaging-free products were being offered, and 25 of those had outsold the packaged alternatives. These products included coffee, cereals, sweets, and pasta.
The retailer noted that one major factor that led to the success of the trial is the willingness of the consumers to shop in an environmentally friendly way.
As per a survey conducted by YouGov for the supermarket, about three-quarters of customers have shown a propensity to cut down on their plastic usage. The research also highlighted that the consumers were struggling to find retailers that had a refill scheme.
To conclude, let's see what Paul Willgoss, the director of food technology for M&S, has to say about the trend of their success:
"Our' fill your own' concept is one area we're focusing on as part of our action to reduce plastic packaging and support our customers to reuse and recycle. We're keen to better understand refill across the entire store process from behind the scenes operations to working with our customers to encourage behaviour change."