storewanderer wrote: ↑October 13th, 2023, 10:22 pm
And what about the stores that switched to super thick plastic bags as a result of these laws and don't offer paper bags at all?
Sprouts is one such chain.
In OR I've dealt with Target, Safeway, Walgreens, and Rite Aid and they have NO standard grocery order size paper bags (Rite Aid has some small lunch sack type ones). They only have super thick plastic bags. Worse in OR the super thick plastic bag is more than twice as thick as a CA super thick plastic bag. It is the equivalent of like 15 thin plastic bags. For just a 5 cent fee.
But you are right Whole Foods made this transition many years ago with no problem. And no bag fee either (unless it is mandated). Trader Joe's- yes before COVID, since COVID, not so much- I keep getting super thick plastic bags there lately.
1) Oregon's bag fee is 10c/bag. I got overcharged this weekend at a Safeway (more to follow on that... maybe)
2) I miss Target's rattan handled paper bags. I have a set of battery jumper cables in one of them and they held up so well. Unfortunately they like most retailers swapped to the 'heavy plastic' instead. As a reminder/comparison, Walmart stopped offering bags of any type in Oregon (other than more expensive ones).
3) I am not sure what happened to the Albertsons Co's stores here, they did used to have paper (as did Kroger) but seem to only have plastic these days.
4) I have never seen plastic "single use" in an Oregon Trader Joe's location. The update from @storewanderer was interesting.
Last edited by SamSpade on October 18th, 2023, 12:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
When did the statewide fee go to 10 cents? It was 5 cents when the law passed. Nothing said the stores couldn't charge more... and I think some stores were right from the start...
storewanderer wrote: ↑October 18th, 2023, 12:28 am
When did the statewide fee go to 10 cents? It was 5 cents when the law passed. Nothing said the stores couldn't charge more... and I think some stores were right from the start...
Ugh, you are right @storewanderer it is only 5c legally. **Yells at Safeway - Albertsons**
We are on a vacation and needed to use some of the store sold bags. I was overcharged for the number of bags and they were charging 10c/bag. Sorry.
storewanderer wrote: ↑October 18th, 2023, 12:28 am
When did the statewide fee go to 10 cents? It was 5 cents when the law passed. Nothing said the stores couldn't charge more... and I think some stores were right from the start...
Ugh, you are right @storewanderer it is only 5c legally. **Yells at Safeway - Albertsons**
We are on a vacation and needed to use some of the store sold bags. I was overcharged for the number of bags and they were charging 10c/bag. Sorry.
Maybe the stores were just charging 5 cents for themselves and the 5 cent fee? Nothing to stop them from doing so (just as stores like Aldi have charged for bags long before anyone heard of fees or limiting what kind of bags were allowed).
storewanderer wrote: ↑October 18th, 2023, 12:28 am
When did the statewide fee go to 10 cents? It was 5 cents when the law passed. Nothing said the stores couldn't charge more... and I think some stores were right from the start...
Ugh, you are right @storewanderer it is only 5c legally. **Yells at Safeway - Albertsons**
We are on a vacation and needed to use some of the store sold bags. I was overcharged for the number of bags and they were charging 10c/bag. Sorry.
It figures, the bag cost is well above even 10 cents for the OR-compliant bags. This is a big reason why Wal Mart made the decision to go bagless. I think Target and Walgreens in OR are still charging just the 5 cents unless the city has a higher fee. Rite Aid as I recall always charged 10 cents in OR statewide, not sure if they are confused or what. Some cities like Eugene or Ashland per city rules charge 10 cents though, not many cities in OR have their own bag fee bag ban (Portland's ban had no fee before the statewide 5 cent fee was put in).
So it is possible the store you went to in OR was in a city with a higher bag fee than the statewide 5 cent fee or Safeway is just trying to get more cost recovery on the bags as those OR-compliant super super super thick plastic bags cost the store more than 15 cents each.
WA is supposed to be 8 cents fee, going up to 12 cents at some point. Some cities like Seattle were only 5 cents, I think they had to go up to 8 cents with the statewide fee.
