Posted on 02/28/2013 1:50:46 PM PST by Lonely Bull
When the Seattle City Council unanimously passed a ban on plastic bags and required businesses to charge a nickel for paper bags, city leaders believed it would be better all around.
"I think we've gotten to a place where it's really going to work for the environment, businesses and the community in general," Councilman Mike O'Brien said at the time.
But the bag ban is contributing to thousands of dollars in losses for at least one Seattle grocery store, and questions have been raised about the risk of food-borne illness from reusable bags that shoppers don't often wash.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattlepi.com ...
From what I’ve heard, the merchants ain’t to happy about these bans, even though they now get to charge a nickel, and in my region even more than that per bag (and the government sets the minimum price, ain’t that grand?) We can all calculate the arithmetic, thank you very much, Captain Obvious, and maybe the stores do make a penny on a bag sold. But they don’t like it, and not only because the shoplifting angle, but because the packing of the customers’ filthy canvas bags significantly slows down the checkstand lines! Extra cashiers, extra costs, D’uh!
“Lousy logic.”
How so? Medium to large size stores are making a killing. The government is not profiting from this.
“I am sure that the retailers would prefer not to deal with this B.S.
Focus your anger on the perpetrators, not the victims. “
If the retailers preferred not to deal with it, they would have been lobbying against it, organizing against it, etc. They were silent.
The only advantage to banning plastic bags is that there will no longer be a need to ask “paper or plastic?”.
There was a columnist that quipped “In Seattle you can still buy an assault rifle, but it is illegal to bag it in a plastic bag.”
Not sure if that was an anti-gun statement, as later on he said “The NRA wants to have an armed guard at schools. Just one?”
Maybe not. I'd have a hard time passing up such a humorous statement.
My wife uses the reusables. She washes them every time despite the added "tax" of using them vs. store-supplied plastic or paper. She tells of some folks who have bags that had meat juice leak on them and they smell like rotten meat - seems like they should be sent packing as a health hazard....
Reusable bags slow the checkout process considerably.
The clerks hate them as well.
There should be a separate line(s) for those with reusable bags.
The retailers were busy selling stuff and keeping their shelves stocked.
Why would they either have or make time for this crap?
“The retailers were busy selling stuff and keeping their shelves stocked.
Why would they either have or make time for this crap? “
The small retailers, I can understand your argument. But we have lots of chains. Walgreens, Luckys, Safeway, 7-11, Macys, JCPenney, Target. . . they have armies of attorneys, where were they? No opposition at all.
They don't care, because they can just pass the cost along to their stupido customers who are buying their crap with other people's money anyway..
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