Coles and Woolworths giving Flybuys and Reward points for own bags

STAFF have been throttled, bags have been given away and one man even stole a trolley as customers expressed their rage over WA’s plastic bag ban.

Now, Australia’s biggest supermarkets have taken to bribing customers to try and entice them into bringing their own reusable shopping bags.

Coles and Woolworths have announced they will give away loyalty card points to customers who bring their own shopping bags.

Describing it as a “way of saying thank you” to those who have embraced the Statewide single-use plastic bag ban, which came into effect on July 1, Coles said it will offer free Flybuys points to those who bring their own bags.

Operations director Paul Bradshaw said customers will receive 30 points, up to once per day, for bringing their own shopping bags.

“Offering Flybuys points is a small way of saying thank you to our customers for making the switch to reusable bags,” he said.

Meanwhile, from tomorrow, Woolworths will also offer two Rewards points for every shopping bag customers bring with them, up to a maximum of 30 bags.

Last week, both Coles and Woolworths offered free 15-cent reusable bags to customers while shoppers got used to the change.

The move followed a wave of so-called “bag rage”, which saw shoppers unhappy about having to pay for plastic bags abuse check-out staff.

Last month, The West Australian reported one customer in Mandurah put his hands around the throat of a Woolworths employee because he was unhappy with the bag ban.

Staff have also told of dozens of cases of abuse, including being called “money-grabbing scum” and having shopping thrown at them by irate customers.

From January 1, WA shops and supermarkets will face fines of $5000 if they’re still circulating plastic bags of less than 35 microns.