Fred Meyer discontinuing single use bags?

[Super S]

I was at Fred Meyer last night, and noticed that the bag racks and bags have been removed from the self checkouts. They did have paper bags available (which are smaller than large bags at stores such as WinCo) but it got me wondering if they are following Walmart's lead and plan to do away with single use bags. I have heard no formal announcement and have seen no signage. I also didn't have a chance to ask about this last night.

Kinda ironic because they still have the "pickup" bags in the pickup carts lined up at the front of the store. I know Kroger was working toward this, but Fred Meyer operates where there are quite a few paper mills that make bags. Hopefully they at least keep the paper option.

[storewanderer]

I have not heard of any initiative at Kroger to do what Wal Mart is doing in OR, WA, Maine, NY, and some other states where the only option is buying reusable bags at about $1+.

In CA, most stores eliminated the bagging racks when the bag bans were imposed and do not have any bags at each self checkout. You had to ask for the bags and then the employee watch to make sure you charged yourself for the bags.

With COVID that changed. Safeway/Albertsons re-installed bag racks on all self checkouts and most locations put bags onto the racks by default (some like the ones in San Francisco you have to ask the employee but the vast majority just fill the racks with bags). Wal Mart also fills the racks with bags in most CA stores but some of them also do not have bags out and you have to ask the employee. WinCo is most odd as at self checkout you have to ask the employee for bags yet since COVID at a lot of NorCal WinCo units the bag racks at the self bagging area on the regular checkstands are filled with bags and you basically tell the cashier how many bags you think you need, pay, then go down and bag. Nobody is checking to see if the amount of bags you paid for equals the amount of bags you use. Ralphs down in SoCal still has bag racks but typically they do not have bags on them and you have to ask the employee (this varies by store but most do not put bags onto the racks).

Fred Meyer in OR had actually removed the bag racks before COVID delayed the OR bag ban. They had removed the bag racks then had to put them back in place in 2020 when the OR bag ban got delayed, some stores just stuck them back onto the self checkouts with velcro or something.

[babs]

I think it depends on location. In some locations, you see people not pay the fee for bags so they hide it a bit. While at other locations, it's not an issue. I'd be curious to see how many people are honest about paying 5 cents for a bag. I bet it's lower than we all think at self checkout. Loss Prevention isn't going to stop anyone over a 5 cent bag.

[storewanderer]

I think it depends on location. In some locations, you see people not pay the fee for bags so they hide it a bit. While at other locations, it's not an issue. I'd be curious to see how many people are honest about paying 5 cents for a bag. I bet it's lower than we all think at self checkout. Loss Prevention isn't going to stop anyone over a 5 cent bag.

I pay for 100% of bags used when I use self checkout in places where there is a bag fee. However when I go to a cashier, it seems I am not charged for bags close to half of the time even when I am using bags and this is made known to the cashier before I pay. Funny how that works. I do find them to be quite a bit more anal about charging for bags at Ralphs down in SoCal than any other major chain I've dealt with in the state but even there I had a transaction where the cashier charged me for one bag then ended up using 2 bags for my transaction and didn't bother to add the second bag.

I see many customers select 0 bags on self checkout and take many bags. Many customers do not pay these fees and nobody cares. I have also watched multiple times when an employee has to do something on the self checkout unit and the bag fee prompt shows up and the employee hits zero or bypasses it to do whatever they need to do on the self checkout, even if the customer is using the store's bags.

This situation is why Wal Mart is going toward the bags only being as a merchandise item sold pre-checkout. The number of bags used and number of bags being paid for is, for lack of better words, way off. Not many people care. Because these fees are a joke anyway. The stores still consider these 10 cent bags a "supply" item, not a sales inventory item. There is no accountability.

Now, in states where part of the bag fee is to be remitted to the state as a tax, I am curious how this will work with places that do not consistently collect the fee. I suspect those states may start to get more strict about it and start to demand the stores pay tax based on the bags shipped to the store. Not all states call for free bags for EBT users either but that would be easy enough to record on the registers if necessary to track how many bags are given for free to EBT users.

[veteran+]

I am proud to say I have never paid a bag fee.