Woolworths Australia has labelled the unauthorised sales of its designer bag “unacceptable”.
This comes just days after the release of the Anya Hindmarch Universal Bag in stores across the country.
eBay has been flooded with customers attempting to sell the $20 creations for more than double the cost, with one listing $50.43 as the “Buy Now” price.
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A Woolworths spokesperson has told 9honey: “We are aware of the unauthorised resale of the Anya Hindmarch Universal Bag.
“We do not encourage the resale of these items. It is clearly unacceptable and does not meet our expectations, and those of the wider community.”
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The spokesperson confirmed the Universal Bag has not sold out and is still in stock in stores.
One 9honey customer said the bags weren’t on display at their local Woolworths, however they simply had to ask and it was provided from stock being housed behind the counter.
Other stores do have the bags on display for $20.
eBay sellers attempting to profit from their purchases of the Universal Bag are located in Hurstville in Sydney as well as Hillside and Balwyn in Victoria. It appears sellers have made multiple purchases of the sought-after creation with plans to profit online.
One listing has been viewed 57 times in the past 24 hours. Another lists two as having been sold in the past 24 hours.
The eco-friendly bag is the work of British designer Anya Hindmarch, who collaborated with the supermarket chain to design The Universal Bag.
The bag is a tote-style creation that comes in both green and blue. It is stylish, robust and folds easily to fit into handbags and backpacks for use during grocery shopping trips.
Hindmarch collaborated with Woolworths for the eco-friendly enterprise which she hopes will inspire customers to rethink their use of single-use bags.
The bag is a tote-style creation that is stylish, robust and folds easily to fit into handbags and backpacks for use during grocery shopping trips.
Hindmarch, who made her name with stylish environmentally bag designs favoured by celebrities and royalty alike, spoke about her creation on Today.
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She explained the idea for the bag came as early as 2007 when she says she was “approached by someone to try and amplify the message around refusing to use plastic”.
“The project went completely mad,” she says, explaining it led to her creation titled ‘I’m Not A Plastic bag’.
”We sold it through supermarkets because we felt if we went to the source, to the coalface of the problem, we could try and encourage people to think differently,” she said.
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She said it “really caught the zeitgeist” with 80,000 people queuing in one day for the limited edition creation.
“But the project actually led to a tax and charges for plastic bags in the UK so it actually changed the law which was wonderful,” she says.
Eight years later and there were still eight billion tons of plastic on the planet, so she and her team wanted to revisit the project by working once again with supermarkets across the globe “to try and encourage people to use a bag that would last for a long time that was made of completely recycled materials”.
“And it was just a better alternative to a bag for life,” she added.
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