After BATA penalty, STAR Market Offers Unbranded Plastic Carry Bags To Customers 

Hyderabad: After retail shoe brand BATA was penalised for charging a customer for the paper carry bag which it ought to give for free, Star Bazaar now offers its customers plastic carry bags on two forms - one that has the brand's logo in it and other plastic bag without the logo.

The customer is free to choose the chargeable plastic carry bag that he/she wants. According to the ministry of environment and forests plastic waster rules 2011, no plastic carry bags shall be made available to customers free of cost.

STAR market, a Tata enterprise, multi-format hypermarket chain has now come up with posters across the stores that read, "STAR encourages you to kindly carry your own bags. For you convenience, we have branded as well as unbranded carry bags for sale available at our cash counters. Purchase of these carry bags is not a compulsion but just an option available to you."

The move to charge customers for plastic carry bags is a part of eco-friendly policy of the brand which aims at discouraging the customer to buy plastic bags as it comes a price, said the store manager of STAR market, Vanasthalipuram, Hyderabad.

He added that in the light of the BATA case, the company had decided to also give to its customers unbranded bags. But, due to distribution issues, the unbranded carry bags came in late at some stores.

In Zudio, the clothing line of TATA group company, gives paper bags which is not chargeable, said Vijay, store manager for Zudio.

The move of providing unbranded plastic bags is a welcome one as many customers are now unwilling to pay for the bag which has its brand printed on it.

In the BATA case, a Chandigarh consumer forum slapped a penalty of Rs 9,000 on the retail brand Bata India Ltd for asking a consumer Dinesh Prasad Raturi to pay Rs 3 for a paper bag. The regulator also pulled up the company for harassing its customers and sub-standard services. Bata charged him Rs 402 which was inclusive of the paper bag. The customer had refused to pay for the bag and also sought compensation.

Raturi said that not only Bata was levying the paper bag charge on him, it was also endorsing its brand on the bag which was not justified.

The forum further ordered Bata India to provide free paper bags to its customers and said that if the brands are worried about environment they must provide it free of cost.

Also Read: ‘The Story So Far...’ Why Bata Was Penalised For Charging Rs 3 For Paper Bag?