Aug. 04--Chicago's plastic bag ban may have been heavily anticipated for months, but it still proved a surprise for some supermarket shoppers at the checkout over the weekend.
While retailers said the city's new law banning lightweight plastic bags was generally welcomed by the public, some customers reported teething problems as the law came into effect on Saturday.
"I completely forgot about it," said Andrew Leth, 36, an IT worker who lugged a watermelon, a couple of cases of beer and wine coolers to his car without a bag rather than pay for reusable bags at the Jewel-Osco at 4660 W. Irving Park Road.
Leth, who was shopping for a block party, wasn't put out. He regularly shops at Aldi, which has long charged customers for bags, he said. But an older customer in line in front of him, who Leth guessed was in his 80s, was "obviously confused" by the change, he said.
"He had a cart full of groceries, and he had a look of complete confusion on his face," Leth said.
Like its competitors, Jewel-Osco posted signs explaining the new law at checkouts. But another wrinkle irked shoppers at the Jewel-Osco store at 3630 N. Southport Ave., where customers using the self-checkout line complained that they were permitted to take only one free bag at a time -- even if they had a cart stuffed with several bags full of goods.
Jewel-Osco spokeswoman Mary Frances Bragiel said staff were simply trying to "help and educate" customers about the new law, which aims to cut down on landfill. She said customers who want more than one bag at a time will be given "as many bags as they need to carry their groceries."
Ashley Flavin, store manager of the Target at 1940 W. 33rd St., said that while some customers were confused by the new law, most were happy to be given free cloth reusable bags worth $1 to $2, which her store handed out as a promotion to educate and encourage shoppers to reuse their bags.
"With any change, it takes a while for people to get used to it," she said. "Overall customers were pleased. Most of them seemed to support the law."
Kelsey Peyton, service operations manager at Mariano's Fresh Market at 1800 W. Lawrence Ave. in Ravenswood, said it would take a week or two to fully judge customer response. But she said many of her customers use Metra and "actually prefer paper bags, because they can carry more than double the groceries that a plastic bag can."
kjanssen@tribpub.com
