It’s no joke. From April 1, virtually all greeting cards on display in all Sainsbury’s supermarkets will be ‘naked’. The only exceptions to this will be delicate laser cut designs or those with protruding embellishments, due to the extra protection they require.
“This means that well over 95% of the cards we will stock will not be cellowrapped,” Carly Pearson, card buyer for Sainsbury’s confirmed at Tuesday’s (February 26) GCA Speed-dating with Dragons event. “This move is likely to result in Sainsbury’s reducing its plastic waste by 77 tons per year,” she quantified.
Having run trials in select stores, Sainsbury’s issued its aim last December allowing publishers a four month run up, which coincides with the new replan of cards going into stores.
https://www.pgbuzz.net/sainsburys-to-go-naked-on-all-cards-from-april-2019/
Asda however was the first supermarket to commit to going naked on most of its cards and started a move over to uncellowrapped cards at the start of 2019. Like Sainsbury’s, the only exceptions are to be for the more delicate, hand-crafted cards that will remain in a plastic ‘sleeve’ to protect them against damage.
https://www.pgbuzz.net/asda-is-to-go-naked-on-most-cards-from-the-new-year/
The environment and how the greeting card industry is seeking to minimise its environmental impact cropped up during the course of the afternoon, including how Tesco is understood to now also be transitioning towards a move to unwrapped cards from June with publishers involved in supplying the grocer via brokerage preparing for the change.
John Lewis & Partners has made no secret of its aim to also minimise single use plastics and is only days away from the first deliveries of Woodmansterne cards using its close-seal solution going into store.
Lisa Rutherford, card buyer of John Lewis & Partners told PG Buzz: “Based on the trials we have run so far with Woodmansterne, I would like to think that we will be requiring our supplying publishers to also adopt the same mechanism. We have a meeting with publishers scheduled for April at which this will be covered and put into action as soon as possible after that.”
Top: Sainsbury’s is counting down to the move to unwrapped cards.
