BEIJING (APOnline) -- Declaring war on the "white pollution" choking its cities, farms and waterways, China is banning free flimsy plastic shopping bags and calling for a return to cloth bags steps largely welcomed by merchants and shoppers on Wednesday.
The measure, effective June 1, eliminates the flimsiest bags and forces stores to charge for more durable bags, making China the latest nation to target plastic bags in a bid to cut waste and conserve resources.
Beijing residents appeared to take the ban in stride, reflecting rising environmental consciousness and concern over rocketing oil prices.
"If we can reduce waste and save resources, then it's good both for us and the whole world," said college student Xu Lixian, who was buying tangerines out of cardboard boxes at a sidewalk stall.
The ban takes effect barely two months before Beijing hosts the Summer Olympic Games. As part of the pre-Olympic cleanup, the city has been demolishing run-down neighborhoods and working to clear smog.
The games have added impetus to a number of policies and projects, likely boosting odds for the bag ban's implementation.
Under the new rules,
businesses will be prohibited from manufacturing, selling or using bags less than 0.025 millimeters (0.00098 inches) thick, according to the order issued by the State Council, China's Cabinet. The council's orders constitute the highest level of administrative regulation, and follow-through is carefully monitored.
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Retailers Limit Purchases of Designer Handbags
By ERIC WILSON
FOR products that are truly in demand, like Wii game consoles, tickets to the Super Bowl or cans of corn Niblets on double-coupon day, it may seem reasonable to limit the number a customer can buy at one time.
But readers of the fine print on the Web sites of luxury retailers like Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman may be surprised to discover that such a policy also now applies to designer handbags, like Prada’s latest ruched nylon styles, which cost $1,290; Bottega Veneta’s signature woven leather hobos, at $1,490; and the new rectangular Yves Saint Laurent clutch that looks like a postcard addressed to the designer (with a $1,395 stamp).
“Due to popular demand,” potential shoppers are warned, “a customer may order no more than three units of these items every 30 days.”
Popular, the bags may be. But how many of the customers who can afford them really want more than one, or for that matter, three?
On its face, the policy sounds odd; that is because it really doesn’t have anything to do with popular demand. Rather, it is the fear that foreign buyers, taking advantage of the severely weakened United States dollar, will hoard the bags, then resell them in Europe or Asia, where the same items in Prada and Gucci stores typically cost 20 to 40 percent more. The popular Yves Saint Laurent Downtown bag, which is restricted to three per customer at Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman, costs $1,495. At Harvey Nichols in London, the same bag is £910 (or about $1,796).
Foreign tourists who are treating American department stores as if they were a nationwide outlet sale have largely been viewed as beneficial to retailers, and by some estimates those shoppers were the only bright spot in what was otherwise a feeble holiday sales season. But that spending power has not been so welcome to luxury companies like Gucci and Prada, which have spent the last decade trying to reach those customers in their home countries by opening expensive new shops throughout Europe and Asia.
Now those companies stand to suffer a sting from increasingly educated comparison shoppers, if not a more serious blow from a gray market of designer goods resold from American stores.
Ron Frasch, the chief merchant of Saks Fifth Avenue, which has 54 stores across the country, said the number of foreign shoppers trying to buy multiple items in stores was “pretty minor,” but he added, “it is certainly an issue that we watch.” Besides restricting online sales, Saks may deny a customer’s purchases of duplicate merchandise in stores on a case-by-case basis.
“What we try to do is use a lot of logic and common sense if we sense that someone is taking advantage,” Mr. Frasch said. “We monitor at the store level and at the corporate level for any patterns. We are very sensitive, first and foremost, to serving the customer, but secondly to any potential for reselling by customers.”
Ginger Reeder, a spokeswoman for Neiman Marcus, said its online policy applies to certain bags and shoes sold from designers who asked the company to limit sales.
“We work with our vendors,” Ms. Reeder said. “It’s primarily a protection for them, to protect their distribution from bags getting out there on the gray market.”
For now, the policies of Saks, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman apply only to online sales of handbags and shoes from Prada and the Gucci Group labels (Gucci owns Yves Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta), but not other luxury brands like Dior or Givenchy, which are owned by the competing fashion conglomerate LVMH. Meanwhile, LVMH sells its Louis Vuitton handbags online only on its own site, www.eLuxury.com, where the policy is even more strict: two of each style per customer, per calendar year.
Labels: designer handbags, designer purses, handbags, purses
Turquoise Blue Leather Designer Handbag by Pietro Alessanro Designs
