Demand curves really do slope downwards

From the Yahoo!Xtra website comes this bit of "news"

Charging shoppers for plastic bags has generated over $145,000 for local charities and seen a dramatic drop in their use, The Warehouse says.

and

Warehouse chief executive Ian Morrice said the scheme had already been successful, with plastic bag use dropping 84 percent over July-September.

Yes, the fact that demand curves slope downwards is actually news! If you put the (relative) price of something up, people use less of it. Who would have guessed?

I guess its been a slow news day.