User post: Should we pay for plastic and paper bags?

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  Posted by another hockey fan Sun Aug 30, 2009 5:43pm PDT

  No. The consumer is choosing to shop at their store. The grocery bag (paper or plastic) is a COURTESY item that is necessary for the consumer to get their purchased items to their car and then home. I think it's out of line to charge anything for it.

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  Posted by Sevvies hot Mistress Sun Aug 30, 2009 6:15pm PDT

  Aldi and many other chains have been charging for bags for as long as I can remember. Shoppers are free to take empty boxes though.

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  Posted by Mandy R Sun Aug 30, 2009 6:47pm PDT

  If you bring empty bags (even by well meaning ppl and their re-usabe totes,) unfortunately I'm gloing to watch them as a possible theft suspect as empty bags (or bags within bags) are common tricks used by shoplifters. It's a no-win situation...

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  Posted by Theresa Sun Aug 30, 2009 8:20pm PDT

  working in retail, that is part of the costs for consumers. It all combines. Take microeconomics, they should agree.

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  Posted by Bonnie Sun Aug 30, 2009 10:12pm PDT

  Wow! Whole Foods gives you 10 cents in Seattle for bringing your own bag? FYI, I used to live in Seattle, and that high refund is only because you live in Seattle (an extremely environmentally-conscious city). Where I live now (a city with a much higher cost of living), Whole Foods gives 5 cents and every other grocery store gives a bag refund of only 3-5 cents. Some give none at all. Since when does it cost 20 cents to produce a plastic bag? That's price gouging. I would guess that most people in Seattle already use reusable grocery bags anyway, so what's the need to charge so much for someone occasionally forgetting theirs at home? It's not as though we don't all reuse those bags to line our trash cans. And even the trash can liners that I purchase at the store don't cost 20 cents per bag.

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  Posted by allee Sun Aug 30, 2009 11:14pm PDT

  I had gotten to the point that I had a decent collection of re-usable canvas or plastic bags. Some stores even asked how many I had and gave me 5-10 cents per bag off of my total bill. Really not much but after a few times it covered the cost of buying the bags in the first place. !!!

  What drove me nuts was getting our weekly grocerys, or just a few items, and I would come home with 15 plastic bags instead of just a few. They would double bag a single two liter of soda. I mean come on. THey would put two small items in a bag, then 15 items in another bag. It was a waste.

  I not only started to bring my own, but bag my own as well. It saved me from having to take it all out to the car and rebag it myself anyway. Why not get it right the first time. And re usable bags can hold a LOT.

  I moved from the states. In Italy now. And they charge about 20 cents for each plastic bag. So I make sure to bring my own. On occasion we do buy one or two plastic. But we use them for garbage bags. IN two months, we have yet to buy a box of garbage bags. lol.

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  Posted by TAY Mon Aug 31, 2009 4:24am PDT

  I'm glad they voted it down. Just because some people want to spend $1 or more on a little tote bag doesn't mean everybody else should be forced to. And if you have a big family to shop for you're going to need quite a few of those bags. I can't even find paper bags at the stores here, but I readily use plastic. When I take my food out I use the bags to put garbage in from week to week. I also put them down when I'm painting (I'm an artist) because I like to spill paint on them and not my floor. I have to pay for the food, I shouldn't have to pay for a bag to cart it out the door and home in too.

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  Posted by katie Mon Aug 31, 2009 5:55am PDT

  No, I don't think consumers should be charged. It is part of the curtosey, and it's not like EVERYONE just wastes them. I use each and every plastic bag I get from the grocery store/Kohls/Target/etc as a garbage bag for all of the smaller trash bins in my house. So (in a way) it's like they're being recycled.

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  Posted by Ahleah G Mon Aug 31, 2009 6:44am PDT

  I don't think that we should be charged extra for plastic bags as the store has already included the cost of the bags in the food/product markup. And sometimes I intentionally get plastic bags to later use for trash or kitty litter. I do think that we should be given a discount for bringing our own though, or some other incentive. Trader Joes has a weekly drawing for a $25 gift card and you get an entry for bringing your own bags.

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  Posted by __A_YAHOO_USER__ Mon Aug 31, 2009 6:57am PDT

  I tell you what when my store starts charging for bags, I'll start shopping somewhere else.

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