IT’S BEEN A YEAR since New Jersey banned all plastic bags from grocery stores, and yet I’m still wandering into our local store without my reusable bags. You would think I’d have gotten the memo by now.
I used to keep the bags in the trunk of my car—but out of sight, out of mind. As a visual reminder, I now keep them inside my car on the passenger side. But they might as well still be in the trunk. Maybe I should hang them around my neck.
While walking through the parking lot during my last food shopping venture, I saw another shopper heading in the direction of the store, bogged down with bags, which reminded me that I’d forgotten mine—again.
I’m on line at the checkout when I notice the shopper ahead of me has a neatly folded, organized pile of reusable bags. They’re uniform in size, color and pattern, with the logo on the bag matching the store we’re shopping at. Meanwhile, I have a motley wad of bags in various sizes, shapes, colors and patterns—some with a psychedelic melange—and almost all of which were freebies from various sources.
I have bags with logos from three different supermarkets in my area. I feel a little sheepish when I hand over some of the bags at checkout in the Wegmans food store, while trying to hide my bag with the Aldi store logo emblazoned on it.
One of my bags announces, “Surely Not Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting,” which would leave you completely lost unless you’re old enough to remember the song. I also have a bag with a New York attitude that reads, “You Got a Problem With That?” And from the Sopranos: “Fughgeddaboudit.” My logic is that, if others think I’m a thug, it might keep the crazies away. I’ve met with a few of those in store parking lots and need all the help I can get, since I’m a small lady and can’t run too fast, making me an easy catch.
Meanwhile, I was reading an article about reusable bags being bacteria ridden, with instructions on how to wash them after each use. There are people who think they’ll die from E. coli if their meat touches their cereal. Some say bag the ban, but it looks like we’re stuck with it. And we’ve created another problem: Grocery delivery services have switched to heavy-duty reusable bags. Their customers complain about having a glut of these bags piled high in their garage, leaving no room for their cars.
An added problem: We now have to go out to buy small plastic bags to replace the ones that we used to get from the grocery store, and which then had a second life as liners for small trash cans. It’s possible to purchase eco-friendly, biodegradable plastic grocery bags from Amazon. But is it okay to use them at the grocery store? They look kind of small and flimsy—more like the size people use when they walk their dog.
It took a while to master the self-service checkout machine, where it helps to be ambidextrous. But since we must now scan, provide our own bags, bag our own food items and deal with processing payment, we ought to receive some compensation. How about a small discount or at least a free reusable bag? And it makes me wonder: Whatever happened to the bag boy? I think he now patrols the self-checkout area.
Today, we have a different ecological problem to ponder. What are we to do with the discarded face masks I see littering the landscape? As Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say, “It’s always something—if it’s not one thing, it’s another.”
Good posts.
I’ve always been good with computers and have been using the self-checkouts since they first came out. I like to use cash whenever possible, but now about half of the machines are card only and some don’t like older hundred-dollar bills.
Thank goodness there aren’t bag restrictions in Wisconsin.
I like doing my own bagging because I’m picky how my items are bagged, all cold items together, etc. I’ve found that by double bagging I can really load them up with no breaking. Because of that I use far fewer plastic bags than the regular checkout. They tend to do a fast job bagging, using many bags with few items per bag. I overhead them say they’re under a items per minute quota they’re trying to meet.
What I would like to see is a comeback of a 5% discount for using cash or a debit card. We used to have cash only lines years ago that did that. There’s a big fee to Stores when a credit card is used.
You sound like an efficient bagger, Tim. I liked the old double bagging system too. They don’t offer a discount for using cash or debit card here but, surprisingly, our local Target store,which also sells food items, still offers a 5 cent credit applied to your bill when you bring your own bag. I also miss the 5% senior discount a lot of the food stores offered but they have disappeared, at least here in our area of New Jersey.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
I usually forget to take my reusable bags in when I go to Wegmans (almost always when I walk there). When I drive, I just put my items back in the cart at the self-checkout and bag them when I get back to my car.
Gary…you are lucky to live within walking distance of Wegmans. The store is so popular here, making the parking lot a mess.
thanks for commenting.
Great idea to leave the reusable bag in the car and then fill it when finished with checking out. At Giant in VA the anti theft device doesn’t like customer provided bags in general.
Thanks for reading, Paul. I usually go to checkout line. The employees at Wegmans are very courteous. They gladly bag the items and some even place them in your cart for you. Appreciate the helping hand as some days I need all the help I can get.
Really great post. I loved the part about self-checkout. I never did this when I lived in the Bay Area (where I happily brought my reusable bags) because I didn’t want to take away jobs from checkers, but in the midwest where I am now there’s a huge shortage of retail workers, so I asked my niece to show me how to use self checkout in a grocery store. It went OK except for the produce which was way complicated.
You are right,Amelia Rose. Have to weigh, put in code, etc. the area you work in is small, so packing it can also be cumbersome. Maybe instead of current machines the markets could get some robotic set up which would eliminate our labors.
thanks for your comments.
Here in NC I’ve heard no talk of a ban. My local Harris Teeter (Kroger) and Whole Foods bag in paper, which I reuse. I can also return paper(and plastic) bags to Harris Teeter for recycling when they wear out. Sadly, Fresh Market still uses plastic if I forget my own bags. I hardly ever do self checkout – I object to putting the tellers out of a job.
When I moved to my current apartment I was told to put my recycling in blue plastic recycling bags. I hadn’t realized this was a thing, but Amazon sells them. (Whether the new owners of the complex actually recycle anything is another matter…) I now own my own lightweight collapsible shopping cart to get the groceries from my car to my apartment, and that reminds me to take bags down with me.
Here in New Jersey we have large recyclable bins on wheels that get collected every other week. Those collapsible carts do come in Hanoi
Raleigh, NC collects recyclables but there is no requirement to recycle.
I remember when I lived in Brooklyn that NYC had trash inspectors who would check trash that was set out on the curb and issue tickets if they found a recyclable in a non-recyclable bag or container.
And I’ll bet those inspections found plenty of unsuspecting culprits.
thanks for commenting
Oops meant handy. Thanks, kathy
When I was still living in a house I had those too, but they didn’t take plastic bags, aside from transparent ones holding shredded paper.
They charge 25 cents for a bag in the San Francisco Bay Area and almost all of them are plastic. The only place I can find paper bags is Trader Joes. That doesn’t seem so environmentally sound.
Actually there is an overall greater negative impact on the environment making paper bags than plastic.
Source?
As I’m sure you know the environmental impact of a product includes more than the impact of making a product.
I doubted it too, but my granddaughter had to do a research paper on it for a high school AP course and it turned out that when you take into account the entire process of making paper bags – from growing and harvesting trees, to making paper using great amounts of water, the overall negative environmental impact is greater for paper bags.
If it was just a matter of end use and disposal, I guess paper bags would win.
You want a dirty little secret? Cloth bags are far worse for the environment than those disposable plastic bags. The impact of making a single reusable cloth bag would require you to use it thousands of times before it yielded an improvement over using the disposable t-shirt plastic bags. Does anyone use the same cloth bag for 10 years?
Are Plastic Bag Bans Garbage? : Planet Money : NPR
I don’t know whether that is true, but you can reuse the paper bags, and they also hold more. I do reuse plastic freezer bags.
You nailed this one Marjorie, and boy can I relate. I am writing this seated in my car and the back seat is full of those darn bags, including an insulated one. In some places in NJ and here on the Cape when you self checkout the machine asks how many bags you used and then they charge you ten cents for each. On those rare occasions when I need a bag, I lie. I’m not paying them for a beg they used to give us free. Even smaller stores not covered by the law have eliminated bags. I think that’s called a windfall profit.
I rather like self-service though. In fact, I shop using my iPhone and add each item to the online cart as I walk the aisles. Paying is easy at the end, except it seems I am prone to being audited which is a pain in the neck as they go through each of my backs to be sure I scanned it all. I know I look old, but I may look poor as well or just like a felon.
Up here it doesn’t stop with plastic bags. Many towns on the Cape have banned individual size plastic bottles of water – just water, nothing else. You can’t buy them in the markets. But if you go to the next town which already reversed their decision with a new vote, you can stock up.
I went to the local BJs and bought three cases. Now I am worried my house will be raided for the contraband. I was thinking of writing “Sprite” on the bottles just in case.
I’m all for saving the environment, but can’t we do more conveniently? As a kid my income was based on returning two and five cent glass bottles.
What’s wrong with tap water, filtered if you think it necessary? I only ever buy bottled water in countries where the tap water isn’t safe. Otherwise one refillable bottle is all you need away from home. Safe tap water in homes is a triumph of engineering and social policy. (And I would bet that bottled water you’re buying is actually tap water.)
Too funny Dick. No 10 cent bargains here…50 cents and up is cheapest for reusable bag. When I forget mine I just wheel cart with food in it out to car and bag it there. Only use self check out when getting few items.
Thanks for your comments.
Even 18 months after our statewide bag ban, I occasionally forget the bags on the backseat of the car. And while there are still free plastic bags for produce, more than one apple in a bag makes them tear. So, when I get apples or bananas, I just load them into the heavy duty plastic bag I carry into the store. Try to imagine how hard it is to bag pointed produce like corn-on-the-cob.
I have read that Kroger is experimenting somewhere with several stores set up without regular checkout lines and clerks; a 100% self-service grocery experience. I used to think as I entered #4011 to buy my bananas, that if I ever wanted to come out of retirement, that I was learning a new trade. Now, I just think about the cartoon showing a self-checkout station at Walmart with a sign above saying: EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH.
Love the Walmart cartoon sign. So true. Walmart has instituted some sophisticated precautions at their self checkout to circumvent possible fraud.
Thanks for your comments
Here in Georgia I’m sure a bag ban would be regarded as some kind of communist plot.
More like a plot by those selling small plastic trash can liners.
Georgia’s fate is uncertain but the Georgia senate has introduced a proposal beginning January 1st, 2026 to ban plastic bags.
why should we have all the fun in Jersey?
thanks for reading.
Comedians ply their trade by finding humor in the mundane. You qualify!
Edmund…in my younger days I was accused of being an old “sobersides”. But they say breeding will out…Lucille Ball is a distant cousin.
What a great article, with great humor! We have no bag bans where I am, yet. I complain about the bags stacking up in the garage before I take them to be recycled (because I forget reusable ones too). Hard to imagine missing them! Now I am wondering if I should keep a few more stocked .. they are very helpful for small trash bags.
I’m getting better at remembering the bags, but mostly my husband reminds me. Hard to break in new habits after a lifetime of carefree shopping.Thanks for reading.