REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
IC 13: Do you think that the implementation of this Directive is going to affect the prices of your products reflecting the increase of cost?
5.6. Wholesalers – Retailers (WR)
5.6.1. Questionnaires: Wholesalers – Retailers (WR)
Wholesalers and Retailers, are the most “powerful” link of this supply chain.
By this, it is their ability to influence the prices of the products they buy. Jerry Polster, manager of a consulting company in the USA, underlines that because of the competition among the retailers, who can’t raise their prices due to consumer resistance to price increases at the retail level, distributors and manufacturers have trouble raising prices too, being pushed by their customers (retailers) (Prizinsky, 1997). At the same time, Wholesalers and Retailers, could easily substitute a product, with another product, offered at a slightly better price (Buss, 1994). This could mean a catastrophe for a manufacturer.
Question WR1, categorises the participants based on their annual turnover.
The annual turnover helps to make a distinction between the small, medium and big
Chapter 5 -Analysis and discussion
182 companies. In general, the bigger the company, the higher the volume of packaging it uses.
Question WR2, asked participants if they have ever noticed and in what frequency damage to the products, happened either internally or externally from their warehouses due to improper handling, as already described, combined with:
• IC5 and IC6 (production of packaging waste due to improper handling and what amount),
• IC12 (lighter packaging in the link of Industrial Customers),
• C6 and C7 (asked the Customers if they had ever received a damaged product or if they had caused a damage due to improper handling),
were going to show us the importance of packaging in the protection of goods and products. In general, the quality of packaging should not be downgraded (in order for the different links of the supply chain to decrease their debts to the government), because this could cause other, bigger problems such as aggravation of the environment with more waste and damaged products, before they will be even used.
However, it is expected that the problem of packaging quality downgrading –if it happens- is going to be solved by the mechanisms of the market.
Questions WR3 and WR4, dealing with the amount of each packaging material sent for recycling and disposal by the participants of this link, were included in order to inform about the procedure that the participants follow concerning packaging and furthermore to make a distinction between the environmentally friendly materials (sent for recycling) and those that aggravate the environment (sent for disposing). Questions WR3 and WR4 could also act as a verification tool, compared with the S4 (asking the suppliers the volume of waste that they receive from the reverse flow) and PM4 (asking the packaging manufacturers what amount of waste generated during the manufacturing process is sent for recycling and disposing). Purposely, the Industrial Customers, were not asked this specific issue, since they use packaging as a medium to send their products and not as customers of the packaged product itself.
The purpose of Questions WR5 and WR6, asking the Wholesalers-Retailers how they send these packaging materials to the recycling centres and who pays for the transportation, was to check the data already collected in Questions S6, S7 and S8, dealing with the same issue at the Suppliers level. In addition, it was included to see if there was already a reverse system concerning packaging materials. The
183 results were planned to validate the intentions of the government evaluating the measures that are planned to be taken.
Question WR7, was designed to verify the answers of Suppliers in Question S8 (asking them if they pay anything for the wasted packaging materials that they collect from the supply chain). In addition, it would help to strengthen conclusions on this matter and to understand (along with Question S8), the way that the reverse channel of distribution –if there was any- is structured and how it operates.
Question WR8, investigated if the participants knew about the existence of the Directive and -as described above- this has been included in all five different questionnaires.
The following questions:
• WR9 (asking the participants if they think that the implementation of the Directive is going to be affordable by the companies),
• WR10 (prompting them to comment on the way in which they think that the Directive is going to affect their business), and
• WR11 (asking them if they think that the Directive is going to contribute in a better environmental performance),
were once again included in the Questionnaire, in order to evaluate the level of acceptance of the Directive by the Wholesalers and Retailers. The possibility of increased costs due to environmental taxes, that would cause further increases in the prices of the products they sell, was expected to cause opposition from the participants, especially nowadays, where competitive forces in the market keeps prices down. It is described that “…the days of having customers walk in the store because of a lot of foot traffic are gone” (Anonymous 1, 1995).
In Question WR12, where participants were asked if they have ever thought of asking their suppliers to change the packaging of their products in order to be more environmentally friendly, the participants were asked if they have ever thought to push their suppliers to act in a more environmentally friendly way, providing them with products, packaged with recyclable materials, without being forced by external factors, such as the imposition of taxes. The results to this question, along with those in Question IC7 (asking the Industrial Customers if they have ever thought to use only recycled packaging materials), could be the basis for future research, examining the different factors that mainly force companies to proceed with serious
Chapter 5 -Analysis and discussion
184 changes in their operations (e.g. the imposition of taxes or environmental conscience etc).
In Question WR13, participants were asked if they intend to pass the cost generated by the environmental law to their customers (Final Consumers). It was expected that most of the respondents were going to pass the cost generated by the law –when adapted by the government- to their customers. As already described, the study examined –among others- the cost issue. This cost-related question, has been included in all questionnaires of the participants of our supply chain, except from the final consumers, who were expected to be the final absorbing link in the supply chain.
Finally in Question WR14, participants were asked to say what in their opinion, was the most environmentally friendly process concerning the most common packaging materials: paper, plastic, metal and glass. The different options were:
• Recycle,
• Reuse,
• Incineration,
• Disposing.
Recycle and Reuse were expected to be the most popular answers.
However, the process of Incineration, is also an important alternative to Recycle and Reuse of some materials. According to INCPEN26, incineration is an effective process of recovering some of the energy from waste and reducing its weight and volume to a significant level. Furthermore, INCPEN underlines that: “…incineration is a safe and efficient way to dispose of waste”.
The purpose of this question (along with Questions IC14 and C13, where Industrial Customers and Final Consumers were asked the same question), was to see if the participants could evaluate the advantages of the different processes, concerning each one of the materials used in packaging. Deep knowledge of the issue could act as a pressure on the Industrial Customers and further to Packaging Manufacturers and lead to:
• the substitution of some (if not all) of the packaging materials with others that are more easy to recycle,
26 The Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment (1998), ISBN 1 901576 00 0
185
• the circulation of more resistant packaging in order to increase the frequency of reuse, or
• the use of packaging made from such kind of materials that could be incinerated providing with energy the society.
5.6.2. Results of the Questionnaires: Wholesalers – Retailers (WR)