Asda is continuing its trial of product refill zones with a fourth opening at its Milton Keynes supercentre.
The Bletcham Way store will stock over 70 branded and own-label products sold loose in a dedicated area, as well as within specific aisles.
The loose and unpackaged range includes food brands such as Taylor’s of Harrogate coffee, Yorkshire Tea, Kellogg’s cereals, and Tilda rice. There is also pet food from Mars and household cleaning and personal care items from P&G and Unilever. Meanwhile, Soda Stream has a feature bay with nine flavours.
The Milton Keynes refill store is the fourth opened by Asda, following the launch of its flagship store in Leeds last October and the recent openings in Glasgow and York.
Asda’s use of refill is part of the supermarket’s test and learn approach to find ways to make grocery shopping more sustainable.
Susan Thomas, Director of Commercial Sustainability at Asda said: “Opening our fourth refill store is a big step for us as we continue to work with our customers to find out what steps they would like us to take to help them reduce their plastic use.
“We know that refill is a new way of shopping for customers and requires them to change their usual behaviours, but we have seen just like with self-service checkouts and the removal of single-use plastic bags, customers can and will adapt to significant changes in the shopping experience.
“Bringing in a large number of household brand will also provide familiarity and help encourage customers to adapt as we continue to look at innovative ways to reduce, reuse and recycle our packaging.”
NAM Implications:
- If this initiative works…
- (and opening a fourth store appears to point this way…)
- Then anticipate a fast roll-out…
- …and be a part of it?
