Monday, April 4, 2011

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Launch Reusable Bag Design Contest Tomorrow

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market will launch its second-annual reusable shopping bag design contest tomorrow, themed to Earth Month (April) and Earth Day 2011, which is on April 22.

This year's Design-A-Bag contest runs From April 5 -to- May 15, 2011.

Fresh & Easy has broadened the contestant universe this year, allowing people 13-years of age or older to enter, compared to last year when contestants had to be age 18 or older. Adults beware: The kids just might show you up this year.

Like with last year's Design-A-Bag contest, this year's designers, inclding those creative 13-17-year old first-timers, can enter the contest by submitting their respective designs online to Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market here.

Also like last year's reusable bag design contest, which generated 1,300 submissions from customers of Tesco's Fresh & Easy and others, according to the grocer, this year's submissions will be reviewed by a panel of judges chosen by the retailer. The judging panel will choose up to 10 finalists, who's bag designs will be voted on by members of "friends of fresh&easy," which is the grocery chain's e-mail-based communications program that it uses to communicate promotions and other information to consumers who sign up for the service.

Last year, 24,000 members of the "friends of fresh&easy" group voted for the first-place winning bag and the runner-up designs, according to Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.

Members of "friends of fresh&easy" will vote on the winners of this year's Design-A-Bag contest beginning on June 21st and through July 10th, 2011.

The grand prize winner in the contest receives $5,000 worth of Fresh & Easy store gift cards. The runners-up each receive a $100 store gift card.

The first-place winner of last year's reusable bag design contest was Los Angeles, California resident Josephine Close, who took home $5,000 in Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market gift cards, as you can see in the photograph pictured in the story here.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy has been selling her award-winning reusable shopping bag (pictured at top) in its 171 fresh food and grocery stores in California, Nevada and Arizona since the first of the year. Ms. Close's reusable work of art sells for 79-cents per-bag in the stores.

This year's winning design will also be sold in the stores, according to Roberto Munoz, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's director of neighborhood affairs.

Beginning tomorrow through April 22, Fresh & Easy will also be offering shoppers one of its Fresh & Easy canvas shopping bags (at left) for free with purchases of $20 or more in the stores. The bags sell regularly for 99-cents each. Coupons for the bags are available on the grocer's website and Facebook page. Like the Design-A-Bag contest, the reusable bag promotion is part of the grocery chain's Earth Month and Earth Day promotional activities.

Fresh & Easy, which is owned by United Kingdom-based Tesco, offers single-use plastic carrier bags for free in its stores but no paper grocery sacks. It also offers a variety of reusable bag options at different price points, ranging from its "bag for life," a synthetic plastic-like carrier bag which it sells for 20-cents each, to the 99-cent canvas bag, along with a higher-end canvas bag made out of 100% organic material.

Related Stories

January 19, 2010: Customer-Designed Reusable Shopping Bag Now On Sale At Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores

July 27, 2010: The Winner of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Reusable Bag Design Contest Is...

June 17, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Picks Eight Finalists in its Reusable Bag Design Contest; Website Voting Through June 30

No comments: