Sprouts implementing .10 Bag Fee April 3

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storewanderer
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Sprouts implementing .10 Bag Fee April 3

Post by storewanderer »

Message on receipt from Sprouts here in Reno that they are eliminating single use bags and will only be offering "reusable plastic bags" for a .10 fee starting April 3. I was also told by the cashier they will not have paper bags anymore.

With as little as I buy at Sprouts, this doesn't really matter to me. However, this seems like a really dumb policy to implement when no other stores are charging a fee.

I am wondering if this is chainwide or only in my area.
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Re: Sprouts implementing .10 Bag Fee April 3

Post by Alpha8472 »

In California, Sprouts has reusable thick plastic bags for 10 cents. However, employees rarely ever charge for bags or enforce the policy at the self checkout. I have not seen paper bags in a long time. There may be a paper bag shortage, or it may be cheaper just to stock plastic bags.
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Re: Sprouts implementing .10 Bag Fee April 3

Post by veteran+ »

Side note:

Remember I shared about my experiences about the closest Sprouts to me in West Hollywood (and others a tad farther away)?

Well the Sprouts across the street from Trader Joes on Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood is closing! NO surprise!

That store is in an area that was categorically perfect for a Sprouts.

Huge issues: Parking is not free in an area of permit parking (just like Trader Joes and their whimsically designed packaging, it requires more time to understand what the heck you are buying), total failure in quality and freshness, not enough organics, poor variety (way too many supplements for that small store), very few employees and poor customer service, etc.
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Re: Sprouts implementing .10 Bag Fee April 3

Post by ClownLoach »

veteran+ wrote: March 7th, 2023, 8:43 am Side note:

Remember I shared about my experiences about the closest Sprouts to me in West Hollywood (and others a tad farther away)?

Well the Sprouts across the street from Trader Joes on Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood is closing! NO surprise!

That store is in an area that was categorically perfect for a Sprouts.

Huge issues: Parking is not free in an area of permit parking (just like Trader Joes and their whimsically designed packaging, it requires more time to understand what the heck you are buying), total failure in quality and freshness, not enough organics, poor variety (way too many supplements for that small store), very few employees and poor customer service, etc.
Sprouts was absolutely on fire with great quality and prices until Apollo took over. They were clearly going to be the next Trader Joe's. Now they are dead, empty and expensive stores with surly, rude and just plain unhappy looking employees. Has Apollo owned anything in retail and not turned it to garbage? (Yes I know they don't own it outright anymore, but the damage occurred under their watch plus the new CEO was their guy)

The other problem is that Sprouts opened a lot of stores about ten years ago, +/- a few years. So many leases are coming up on that ten year exit/boot window. Because Apollo has so thoroughly broken this brand it is likely that many stores were leased with a low cost for the first decade then a big increase kicking in around that ten year mark. With the kind of volume they used to do this wouldn't be a problem. But now that so many of these stores are ghost towns I would expect to see many more closures especially in the higher rent areas. And the cutbacks in the newer and remodeled stores where basically one little counter becomes a combined deli, bakery, meat and seafood desk is just horrible. They just take a poorly trained employee and put them in charge of everything from making sandwiches to wrapping raw hamburger. This is just a terrible idea in every way. They were going in the opposite direction with their larger format stores that opened in 2018-2019 with expanded deli and bakery into a freestanding counter the customer can walk a full 360° around. Then they came up with the horrible concept store in Tustin, CA designed by the 99¢ Only Stores CEO with almost a full removal of perimeter departments, a 50% reduction in the produce area, mass expansion of frozen foods, and banks of self checkouts. They seem to be rolling nearly every bad idea they can from the new concept, starting with cutting down the service areas and the produce reductions. I expect to see many more closures as they ruin this once fast growing brand.

I wonder if someone can find the capital in this lousy high interest market and start a Sprouts clone that operates the way they used to run - low prices and high volume with a farmers market atmosphere. The public would probably accept a few cost cutting measures like self checkout if they added some smarter tech to make it easier to ring produce and bulk goods. They could easily wipe Sprouts off the map with their own playbook.
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Re: Sprouts implementing .10 Bag Fee April 3

Post by storewanderer »

There is already a clone doing it far better than Sprouts- that Fresh Thyme thing that Meijer seems to own.

It is really interesting. This Sprouts I go to in Reno, it has been pretty lousy for years. But in the past 6 months there have been some significant improvements. The cashiers are VERY friendly. Lines are a bit long and rarely more than 2 registers open, but I've seen them get 4 open at once a few times. The produce area looks pretty good now. Meat area is still very scary and full of brown meat. Bakery is empty some days and full other days (like it only has staffing some days of the week), if it is full it has a good assortment actually. Center store is well stocked at all times but the pricing is not good so that does not surprise me.

I also thought Sprouts was improving its pricing again. I do not receive a Sprouts ad in the mail anymore as I guess I live too far from Sprouts. So when I go into the store I find a lot of pretty good deals on produce. I had assumed they were running hot ads again like they used to. Then I went to the Sparks Sprouts and none of those deals were running. It turns out these deals I had been finding are all in-store specials/store markdowns, not advertised specials.

Sprouts already has its system configured to scan all produce. That should be making it easier (I don't think it is easier though).

But with stupid ideas like charging a 10 cent fee for super thick plastic bags in Reno, Nevada in stores where literally only a couple customers per hour use reusable bags, is just a completely stupid idea, it is clear this operation is really lost. I have no clue how this idea got past management. I suspect they are supplying Reno from a California distribution center and they decided they didn't want to slot thin bags for 3 stores anymore so some idiot came up with this idea to bring in the thick plastic bags to Reno AND charge the fee for them. The irony is as cost on these thick bags starts to exceed 10 cents, suddenly they will be losing more money on each thick bag, than each old thin bag cost. I also do not think it is fine that they want to throw around a ton more plastic with these super thick plastic bags, and to charge a bag fee in a region where no other grocery store in the entire state does, is a really bad idea.
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Re: Sprouts implementing .10 Bag Fee April 3

Post by arizonaguy »

storewanderer wrote: March 6th, 2023, 7:20 pm Message on receipt from Sprouts here in Reno that they are eliminating single use bags and will only be offering "reusable plastic bags" for a .10 fee starting April 3. I was also told by the cashier they will not have paper bags anymore.

With as little as I buy at Sprouts, this doesn't really matter to me. However, this seems like a really dumb policy to implement when no other stores are charging a fee.

I am wondering if this is chainwide or only in my area.
It would be incredibly stupid to do this in Phoenix (where they have the largest concentration of stores) as there are no bag bans here (made illegal by the state legislature) and everyone else is passing out free plastic or paper bags like candy (except for Aldi).
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Re: Sprouts implementing .10 Bag Fee April 3

Post by storewanderer »

arizonaguy wrote: March 11th, 2023, 10:49 am

It would be incredibly stupid to do this in Phoenix (where they have the largest concentration of stores) as there are no bag bans here (made illegal by the state legislature) and everyone else is passing out free plastic or paper bags like candy (except for Aldi).
Are you sure they aren't doing this in Phoenix too? There is no bag fee or bag ban at any store in the entire state of Nevada but that isn't stopping them up here in Reno.

The signs they have posted at the store state that by doing this they will be saving 200 million single use plastic bags from the landfill annually. The 3 Reno Stores definitely were not dispensing that many bags.

They fail to mention that as they save 200 million single use bags they will be putting in probably 100 million super thick plastic bags which have 6 to 10 times the plastic of the thin ones straight into the landfill. Complete fools and really shows how lost this chain is.

Other chains and various cities are moving away from these super thick plastic bags. Wal Mart has dumped them in multiple states just not giving bags at all (poor move but at least it gets rid of the super thick plastic bags).

The super thick plastic bags are the absolute worst option environmentally of any option when it comes to bags, bag bans, etc.
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Re: Sprouts implementing .10 Bag Fee April 3

Post by rwsandiego »

I use reusable bags, but think this charge is a very stupid move. The occasional customer (you know, the ones they want to convert to regular customers) will be surprised by the fee and leave the store feeling disgruntled. The regular customer will know about the change, but invariably forget their bags and be stuck.

Why don't they hand out paper shopping bags like Whole Foods has been doing for years?
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Re: Sprouts implementing .10 Bag Fee April 3

Post by storewanderer »

rwsandiego wrote: March 11th, 2023, 10:08 pm I use reusable bags, but think this charge is a very stupid move. The occasional customer (you know, the ones they want to convert to regular customers) will be surprised by the fee and leave the store feeling disgruntled. The regular customer will know about the change, but invariably forget their bags and be stuck.

Why don't they hand out paper shopping bags like Whole Foods has been doing for years?
There is no reason to charge a bag fee when you are high-ish priced store in an area that does not require a bag fee. Give whatever bag you want (or don't give any bags at all)- but don't charge a fee.

Trader Joe's on the paper bags for years too. Haven't seen their Made in Germany super thick plastic bags in months. Good riddance to those super thick plastic bags at Trader Joe's, I hope.

Sprouts seems to have stopped carrying paper bags unless they are in a place where the bag ordinance requires them to do so.

This move tells me a lot about the current state of affairs at Sprouts.
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Re: Sprouts implementing .10 Bag Fee April 3

Post by storewanderer »

Appears Sprouts is going to be having this 10 cent bag fee and selling these super thick California-model plastic bags chainwide by the end of the year.
https://www.winsightgrocerybusiness.com ... astic-bags

Great way to run customers off.

The plastic bag sales people seem to have won this one. The customer and the environment sure don't win here.

Can't believe how proud Sprouts is of these super thick plastic bags. They should be ashamed and embarrassed. They could just go bagless like Natural Grocers if they actually cared about the environment.

I also find it interesting they are calling out paper bags as not being a good environmental solution, yet somehow think the super thick plastic bags are better....? Just, wow.
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