In line with its environmental advocacy, Fortune Mart will be giving tokens to customers who bring their own shopping bags.
Fortune Mart proprietor Evansuenda “Inday” Quiamco said that those who will bring their own bags, or who prefer paper bags over plastic at the check-out counter, will get a P 1.50 rebate while those using big paper bags will get P 2.00.
“It may be a small amount but we hope it sends a message about everyone’s responsibility in taking care of our planet,” Quiamco said.
Opened by Inday and husband Ernie Quiamco in 1970 as the first self-service grocery in Negros Oriental, Fortune Mart continues to serve Negrenses with the same pioneering spirit that has survived the tough challenges in the last four decades.
The idea of giving out tokens to environmentally- conscious shoppers is a refinement of the store’s policy of not using plastic wrappers on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. “We noticed that some shoppers would not enter our store upon learning that we would wrap their groceries in paper bags or boxes,” Quiamco said. This may be understandable, she continued, because most shoppers drive motorcycles and would prefer plastic bags which they could sling on their handle bar.
Fortune Mart also made eco-friendly shopping bags, which they sold for half the cost. People readily bought them but failed to bring them back on their next shopping trip. “We forgot it at home,” or “it would be a waste to use it just for grocery shopping” are the most common excuses offered for not using those bags.
Because of the need to reconcile their advocacy with the bottom line, Fortune Mart will continue its “paper bag day” only on Wednesdays.
The Dumaguete City Council has passed an Ordinance declaring Dumaguete as a plastic-free City. With this law, stores will not be allowed to use plastic for wrapping. This law will take effect in February 2012, but Quiamco said Fortune Mart, in its own little way, is already blazing the trail.
One “paper bag day” saves 200 pieces of plastic wrappers from finding their way into the garbage dump or worse, into the city’s canals.
Shoppers who insist on having their groceries placed in plastic bags may still get their wish, although Quiamco hopes this would someday become a thing of the past. “If they think of the future, they will do their share in making Dumaguete plastic-free.”