I'm just wondering what other people's thoughts are on charging for grocery bags. I work in a grocery store, and I think it's a great idea. One of my biggest pet peeves are the customers that st there and insist that they need a double bag for their carton of OJ, and make sure to wrap it in a few plastic bags first so I stays cold... (does that even really have any effect? My cold stuff I still cold when I bring it home just in my little clothe bag... ). Or the customer that needs a bag for their bottle of water and power bar. And aside from that, think of how much better it would be for the environment if we didn't make and use so many bags. Yeah, I know a lot of people are good about recycling, but why not take it a step further and just not even have the need to recycle paper bags because we've all got our own shopping bags.

I don't think they should charge people for bags but maybe give like 5 cents for every bag returned. Because honestly if I'm being charged to bag items that profit the business, then I'd be upset

I can purchase re-useable bags for shopping for about a $1.00. They have the store's logo on them.

Some people may have to carry their items far. Remote parking in an apartment complex and live on the 3rd floor. They also might live in the city and cannot park in front of their house.

I sometimes ask for two bags because one will be my garbage bag. Example: subs and soda that I plan to eat in the car. I might also ask that the sub be double paper wrapped because the paper will sit on my lap and the oil penetrates one layer.

We have some places that do charge for bags too.

OK, so I'm going to play the devil's advocate now. If you have to carry your heavy bags far, then that's all the more reason to to use the reusable bags. The bags that most stores sell are made of clothe or other materials much stronger than paper.
And I really don't see why anyone would need to waste an entire bag for a sandwich when it seems a couple napkins or paper towels would suffice. But maybe we're talking about two different bags because I'm talking about when people insist that they be given a regular sized paper bag for the little non oily (egg salad, tuna salad, etc) half sandwiches my store carries even though we have small bags specifically for small items.

And as for being charged to bag things that profit the store, think of how much money stores waste on bags. We go through hundreds, even probably at least a thousand or more bags every day. If we didn't have to waste so much on bags, we might be able to improve other areas of the store, like say prices.

Lol I work for a grocery store I think charging for bags is brilliant. But my store won't charge because our ceo believes more people will shop at his stores to avoid paying 2 dollars for 10 bags!?

Yeah, everyone at my store thinks we should charge but we can't for the same reason. But if my area followed the example of other places, where it wasn't so much the store charging, but, I guess a tax from the government, then we wouldn't have to worry about that. It could be the same as crv when you buy certain canned or bottled drinks. If you go and recycle it you can get your money back, sometimes even in store, but you still have to pay for it first.

There are certain grocery chains that have always charged for grocery bags. It is not a big deal really. I like the idea that if you have extra bags and when you return the bags they give you that money back but in reality these bags that we bring home can be used for many things. So what is 5 or 10 cents a bag.

Yeah I think the sooner we start the faster we help save the earth... I think students should watch when the earth stood still that way it makes kids think that if we don't save the earth now then we will all be in trouble in the end

At the supermarket where I used to work we weren't allowed to give plastic bags to customers with less than 3 items. To be honest, the supermarkets don't give a crap about the environment, it just means they spend less of their budget on bags.

We have a town here (only a few hundred people) that have completely banned plastic bags, they ran a campaign and gave people free cloth bags and the community loved the idea.

I carry along canvas, reusable tote bags when I grocery shop. Keep them in my car trunk. I think they are $1 apiece, are very sturdy, have the store logo on them (which is fine with me), I don't need to dispose of those plastic bags, saves the environment.

In my area stores are talking about charging a deposit on carts to guarantee they are returned to the cart corral because the insurance carriers are beginning to pay claims for cars damaged by carts in parking lots.

Ha. I'd never thought about charging a deposit for carts. But I like that idea too. Even thought there are designate cart returns all through the parking lot people that shop at my store seem to prefer to leave there carts right in between the parking spaces so that we have to wait until there's a empty spot to even get the cart out without scratching all the cars in the spaces. Or they'll leave them throughout the shopping plaza and it takes us an hour just to go find them all and get them back in front of our store through the crowds of people.

We need to get these awful plastic bags out of our environment!
They are not eco friendly and if charging people will make them think twice about the overuse of plastic,it's a good thing.

I am very involved in the ecology movement and have been since the first earth day in 1970.

I always use my totes for shopping.They are inexpensive and the benefits are long term and proven.

If everyone just did some simple things ,we can save our planet.

I personally think it's a great idea to charge for carrier bags, the supermarkets near me only charge for the reusable bags at the moment and give you evils if you ask for normal ones (which they only give you a few of anyway)
But it would mean that people would bring their own shopping bags and then the supermarkets don't have to order as many taking the prices down a bit and also less litter on the streets

I shop at Aldi's where you purchase your heavy weight large reusable plastic bag for $0.15 or a paper bag at $.05 each or you can buy their heavy weight cloth huge bag for $1.99 that you can cram a lot of stuff into. I also shop at an Ohio store called Buehler's where you can purchase heavy weight cloth bags for $1.00 and receive a $.05 cent rebate every time you go through the checkout and use their bags. I own 4 so I get $.20 back per trip.

Aldi's also has the shopping cart system where you put in a quarter into the locking system and get the cart to use and then when you return the cart to the outside storage area you get your quarter back.

Aldi is a basic food store without a lot of frills and has practiced the "use your own" bags for years as well as the shopping cart system. If more stores used the shopping cart system it would eliminate the shopping cart theft and car damage as well. Shopping carts are surprisingly expensive to replace for stores. They cost $150 and upwards each!

Aldi has opened it's 1,000th store in the US recently. I guess more food shoppers are waking up to the fact that thrifty ways pays off. They have 150 stores in Ohio so far and just added a bunch in Florida as well. Most of the East Coast has Aldi stores in them. Granted you can't buy everything you want, but you can probably get at least 75% of what you need there at better prices than WallyWorld on certain items. I avoid WallyWorld and try not to give them too much of my money if I can help it.

Here in Tasmania they have a $1000 reward for people who call up about found trolleys/carts. Once a week a random caller wins the cash, makes you wonder exactly how many get lost or stolen :confused:

We also have the carts at Kmart that you have to put $1 in to use them then when you take them back to the bay you get your $1 back.

My grocery store in town sells canvas tote bags for $l (same as Judy's) and I too, carry them in my car ready to use when shopping. In fact all major stores where bagged items are heavy sell tote bags for a nominal price. Good idea. Keeps plastic out of land fills.

Tick

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by shazamataz

Here in Tasmania they have a $1000 reward for people who call up about found trolleys/carts. Once a week a random caller wins the cash, makes you wonder exactly how many get lost or stolen :confused:

We also have the carts at Kmart that you have to put $1 in to use them then when you take them back to the bay you get your $1 back.

---

Wow, shaz, just noticed your avatar showed Australia and you actually live in Tasmania ! And you still found us.

Tick

I hate the bags but not so much for environmental reasons but they make them so thin. Then they break in the parking lot and does the store want to replace the orange juice or whatever got broke when the bag broke?? N0
Where I live Aldi's and some others have .25 cent deposits on shopping carts. Then you can pay a dime for a GOOD plastic bag or .25 cents for a GOOD freezer bag or you can find boxes in the store and use them for free.

I am not for charging for the flimsy cheap bags because I am sick of paying for my so called convenience. Like I went to pay for a loan the other day and the recording said ''a $14. Convenience charge... '' I got a money order and mailed it but why do I have to pay to give MY money to somebody for what they want me to believe is my convenience when they are already charging interest and other fees for their convenience?

They introduced a government levi on plastic bags in ireland about 5 years ago,it actually worked out pretty well.
Most people buy a 'bag for life',(reusable),
And it created a market for small businesses to make 'bags for life'.
There is also a system about to be put in place where fast food restaurants will have to use bio degradable containers.The amount of rubbish on the streets after a Saturday night is disgraceful. I wonder what state these peoples houses are in.Do they just throw food and rubbish on the floor when there done? Yuck.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tickle

wow, shaz, just noticed your avatar showed Australia and you actually live in Tasmania ! And you still found us.

tick

---

Of course, and you'll never get rid of me :p :)

Being that most of the OP's are american there's a few things a can't answer like things about a specific dog food brands or products but I try to help out where I can.

I have a penpal in pretty much every corner of the world, a few weeks ago I sent my canadian penpal vegemite... she is too scared to try it lol :D

I'm loving the idea of biodegradable fast food containers redhed. There are still some coffee places here that use polystyrene cups :( you just want to get out your pocket watch and hypnotise them...
Cardbooooooard cups...
You will use only cardboooooord cups...
Lol

We have the same problem here where I work.
We have been told we are not to give bags unless the customer asks.
Almost every customer has a bag even the kids when they buy a few sweets, although I'm sure that's so they can go around the store and put a few more in their bag.

We are now only allocated a limited amount of bags.

Senior citizens are the least bother,the majority of them always bring their own reusable bag.

I think a charge will soon be brought in, which I can see will cause all kinds of upset amongst customers,however I do think it's a way around the problem.

I even have people coming in asking for a carrier bag, because their dog has done it's business on the street and they had forgotten to bring their own bag.

It's the worst of two evils really... do you leave the mess on the street for a passer by to walk in and maybe carry into the store.. or do you just give yet another carrier bag!!

I think charging for bags is a good idea in theory, but will it really cut down on how many bags end up in the garbage? People still throw away cans and bottles - and their deposits have been in place for at least 20 years.

I think people are either conscientious about the issues or they are not.

I don't know, I think it could cut down on the number of bags in the trash because it doesn't seem like people will want to pay for them. So if they're not buying them, they're not being thrown away by those people either.

At the public library where I work, we have always had available heavy plastic bags (with a library-type logo on them, silhouette of a girl reading a book). We would hand them out during rainy or snowy weather, or if someone checked out a lot of books that would be hard to carry, especially if he/she was also wrestling with a child or two. These plastic bags got to be expensive, and patrons didn't seem to bring them back to and reuse them at the library.

A couple of years ago, we bought sturdy navy blue canvas bags that hold maybe ten (or more) books. A patron had to pay $2 for each one. That didn't work, so we put a bar code on each bag and checked it out like any other library item. (We still also have bags available for purchase, the money to benefit the library in some way.) Now patrons can check out and return the bags just like they do other library materials. This has worked very well.

That sounds like a great idea Wondergirl!
The library here doesn't even have bags :eek: You just have to juggle the books.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by shazamataz

That sounds like a great idea Wondergirl!
The library here doesn't even have bags :eek: You just have to juggle the books.

---

Your library might appreciate hearing from you about this idea... Janway is our source for the canvas bags.

http://63.174.244.217/sub-productlis...sp?id=396&cid=

Thanks for the link, I'll definitely suggest it.

While we're on the subject of bags... do plastic bags really help to keep cold items cold? I have so many customers tell me, put this or that in a plastic bag so it stays cold. I just don't see how a thin, flimsy plastic bags keeps things colder then the paper bags (which are way easier for me to open lol). Especially when there's a lot of cold things that I could put all in one bag together vs spreading them out into a bunch of plastic bags.

I don't think they make a lot of difference keeping things cold.
It is handy for cold items as the wet condensation doesn't get everywhere when you put them in a plastic bag.

We have insulated cooler bags at our supermarket, they cost $2 and they have that silver shiny stuff inside them to keep everything cold :)

To top it all off now they said they had some micro biologists analyze used cloth bags and they had bacteria from the foods from previous shopping trips so I guess that means we need to run them through the washer after every use.

I was thinking about making some grocery totes cause I hate how the plastic breaks.

That's believable. Usually I like it when people bring their own bags but every now and then some people bring some bags in that I'm a little nervous to reach into... lol I guess I should start washing my bags regularly

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by N0help4u

To top it all off now they said they had some micro biologists analyze used cloth bags and they had bacteria from the foods from previous shopping trips so I guess that means we need to run them through the washer after every use.

I was thinking about making some grocery totes cause I hate how the plastic breaks.

---

It's a great idea and they are easy to make...
Just please don't make them with drawstrings or anything silly!
Trust me, the supermarket staff will hate you! Lol

Put some hard cardboard or plastic on the botton too for your groceries to sit on.

I've often wondered if the grocery store would coroperate with me if I just used some cardboard boxes left over from work. Personally, I'd rather use boxes than bags. Especially since our county really has not recycling program. They have recycling boxes by the dump, but they just dump the recyclebles in the landfill (just in a separate place).

I have saved up a few cloth bags, I have a few from walmart and the dollar general. I keep meaning to use them for groceries, but I always forget and leave them at home. Every once in a while I do like to get some plastic bags though because I use them for liners in small trash cans. I also have about 20 other uses for plastic bags around the house.

Personally, I miss paper bags.

Same here.
I like Saves A Lot and Aldi's because you can just take some empty boxes off their shelf and use them. Their plastic bags you pay a nickel or whatever for are way better than the other grocery stores.
I have to tell Shop 'n Save and Giant Eagle to triple bag groceries because there are ALWAYS rips down the sides before they even put anything in them. You'd think they wouldn't make them so cheap since in the long run you have to use two or three.

Well yea, it's like at the autoparts store, if I'm going in for an oil change, I normally get a case of oil, open it, remove the quarts I don't need and stock them on the shelf, then put my filter, and other items in the oil box and check them out that way.

Smaller grocery stores are hard to do this since they always keep their shelves nice and tidy, thus removing the trays that cans and such went in, but in big box stores, you can take a cardboard tray from the canned veggie isle and use that.

Yeah, my store doesn't usually have many boxes laying around but I love it when people do happen to find one and just want everything loaded into that.