Starting Jan. 1, we’ll all be paying for plastic shopping bags (for sale, buying)

[otowi]

If someone really laments losing 'free' bags for lining your trash cans or picking up dog poo, Sam's Club sells 1000ct boxes of bags, at what amounts to about 1/4 the price of paying the 10cent fee. If one pays attention, almost any outing around town reveals a site of poorly-discarded plastic bags blown around all over our roadsides, etc. BYOB(ag) has already been in place at many stores for years - it really isn't that big of a deal, it is just an adjustment and I think people didn't hear it was coming for the most part until the past month or so, hence a bit of a shock to the system. But environmentally, it certainly doesn't hurt. I have had reusable bags that I have sometimes used for years and one advantage of them has been that they often can hold far more than the plastic bags so I can bring groceries in in fewer trips.

[Spot]

I have no problem with bringing my own bags. I'd rather not see all the trash that plastic bags create anyway. However, we should all understand that this isn't really about the environment. Grocery stores don't care about the environment, they care about money. I know they are using the environment as an excuse in this case, but this is all about increasing profits and providing less service.

60% of the revenue will go to the respective municipality, which will use that money for a "Bag Fee Enforcement Program." Whatever that is...

I'm sure you all already know that the grocery stores are keeping 40% of the revenue from the $.10 bag fee. It's not going to some environmental fund. It's just a brand new source of money for King Sooper's, courtesy of our government. And they certainly aren't going to adjust their pricing down to reflect the millions they will save on purchasing plastic bags. According to the article below, Kroger currently uses about 6 Billion bags annually. Even if they only pay a couple of cents per bag, that saves them over $120,000,000 a year. Not to mention that if they charge $.10 per bag, they are making a huge profit from the sale of the bags. That could add up to almost $240 Million in annual revenue that they didn't have before. It's a great deal for the grocery store to make you pay for the bag you use.

https://www.9news.com/article/news/n.../507-586803562

And that's why this is happening. Soon you'll be bringing your own carts and stocking the shelves off the truck in back just for the privilege of being allowed to shop there. They'll probably even tell people it saves the whales or something if shoppers unload the trucks themselves. And people will do it with a virtuous smile on their faces.

[COcheesehead]

Went to Walmart for the first time since the new law. The checkout lady was beside herself. She said everyone’s bag is different. Some fit the holder, some do not. Each one is its own engineering project on how to pack. She said it just makes the whole process slower.

[BabyBoomers2]

It just feels so weird walking out of a store with items in a cart and not bagged. We don't want to buy bags, so we take the stuff we buy out in a shopping cart and put into the two Egg Carton Crates we have in our vehicle.

When checking out at the Self-Service area, many people don't even take their receipt with them. So, here we go. Walking out of a store with items in a cart that aren't bagged, because a person doesn't want to buy a bag or have their own, and no receipt. As far as I know, Walmart doesn't check a customers receipt like they use to and I no longer have any idea if their security/bar code system still works.

When it comes to a security system, a Checker once missed the 32 pack of drinking water we had on the bottom of our cart, and we forgot to mention it to her. We walked right out the door and no alarm went off. But, when we got to our vehicle, my wife looked at our receipt and found out we weren't charged for the water. Took it back into the store and paid for it.

[pekemom]

Guess if you don’t buy the bags you have to go to your car with items unbagged and your receipt. I didn’t see any plastic bags to buy for 10 cents each today. I bought their Walmart bags last time.

[Hschlick84]

With no more plastic bags, do you think with people bringing their own bags, this will encourage thieves to steal more?

[Hschlick84]

Originally Posted by Spot

I have no problem with bringing my own bags. I'd rather not see all the trash that plastic bags create anyway. However, we should all understand that this isn't really about the environment. Grocery stores don't care about the environment, they care about money. I know they are using the environment as an excuse in this case, but this is all about increasing profits and providing less service.

60% of the revenue will go to the respective municipality, which will use that money for a "Bag Fee Enforcement Program." Whatever that is...

I'm sure you all already know that the grocery stores are keeping 40% of the revenue from the $.10 bag fee. It's not going to some environmental fund. It's just a brand new source of money for King Sooper's, courtesy of our government. And they certainly aren't going to adjust their pricing down to reflect the millions they will save on purchasing plastic bags. According to the article below, Kroger currently uses about 6 Billion bags annually. Even if they only pay a couple of cents per bag, that saves them over $120,000,000 a year. Not to mention that if they charge $.10 per bag, they are making a huge profit from the sale of the bags. That could add up to almost $240 Million in annual revenue that they didn't have before. It's a great deal for the grocery store to make you pay for the bag you use.

https://www.9news.com/article/news/n.../507-586803562

And that's why this is happening. Soon you'll be bringing your own carts and stocking the shelves off the truck in back just for the privilege of being allowed to shop there. They'll probably even tell people it saves the whales or something if shoppers unload the trucks themselves. And people will do it with a virtuous smile on their faces.

At this point, I'll just pay a small price and have them deliver to my house. Not going to do all that work when I'm not working for them.

[pikabike]

Originally Posted by Hschlick84

With no more plastic bags, do you think with people bringing their own bags, this will encourage thieves to steal more?

Absolutely yes. The store will need to establish protocol for making sure that customers’ bags don’t have something concealed in them that isn’t in there before being filled by the cashier/bagger. Same as for when people brought their own bags before the new law. In other stores, what we do is toss flat, obviously empty bags to the end of the checkout. Haven’t been in Walmart since before the new law, so we’ll see if they allow this—I bag my own groceries at supermarkets anyway. Maybe Walmart won’t allow this.

The Walmart in our area is one of the most frequent targets of shoplifters, as revealed in crime blotters week after week, year after year.

Even before the bag change, I noticed that the exit checkers were not always asking to see receipts. Maybe they come to recognize some of us and know we don’t steal. Or they saw us paying for the items and immediately heading out.

I am glad that BB2 and his wife did the right thing. Let’s hope most people will.

[leadfoot4]

Originally Posted by BabyBoomers2

It just feels so weird walking out of a store with items in a cart and not bagged.

I agree. I'm old enough to remember that part of the mindset about bagging purchases, was that it was a sign that the customer went through a check-out line, and actually paid for the item that they were leaving the store with.

[Pahn]

I hope retail theft continues to skyrocket until the stores move away from self-checkout. It's fine to have a few kiosks, but to have only one aisle open is ridiculous.