Environment

Walmart Charges for Bags in California

by Jordan Yerman | January 12, 2010 at 07:59 am

3103 views | 71 Recommendations | 10 comments

Walmart charges for bags now at a few stores in California. Three Walmart stores in Folsom and Citrus Heights now require shoppers to either bring their own bags, or pay fifteen cents for a reusable bag at checkout. Actually, fifteen cents for a reusable bag is an excellent deal: in most of Europe and some of Canada, it'smore than that for a regular plastic bag. If you want a huge walmart bag, then you can pay fifty whole cents for the plus-size model. Walmart is charging for bags at those three stores to start with, but is introducing the reusable bags throughout Northern California by the end of the week.

Folsom and Citrus Heights will serve as testing environments to see whether Walmart charging for bags is going to fly throughout the state. If it were up to me, I'd choose a more urban area as one of my test environments.

Walmart hopes to reduce its waste by 33% by 2013, and hopes that charging for bags is a step in the right direction.

First, the stores posted signs encouraging customers to provide their own bags and also began selling reusable bags. The 15-cent model is royal blue and lightweight polypropylene fabric.

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Uwe Paschen

at 08:14 on January 12th, 2010

33% reduction in waste is good, but by far not enough.

Jessica Tucker

at 08:40 on January 12th, 2010

I agree with Paschen, "good, but by far not enough"!

This is one small step in the right direction though, if they lead the rest might follow...

Spydermonkey

at 08:53 on January 12th, 2010

It's a start at least, if they meet the 33% target, they can always start working on another 33% reduction :)

Better a goal you can meet, than one that is unrealistic.

YankeeJim

at 11:17 on January 12th, 2010

Oh stop it. I'll order from home.

Spydermonkey

at 11:28 on January 12th, 2010

LoLoL

Amy Judd

at 13:24 on January 12th, 2010

I got charged five cents for a bag at Rogers the other day, everyone is doing this now.

Pat Garcia

at 15:03 on January 12th, 2010

Something similar is happening in Mexico.

aurealeus

at 15:21 on January 12th, 2010

Polypropylene? Seems like WalMart cares more about their own company waste than they do the envioronment. I agree with sara star, cloth would be most feasable. While it might be a (small) step in the right direction, bags made from cloth and/or recycled paper would be a better choice since both cloth and paper are biodegradable whereas oil based plastic products such as polypropylene are not and only add to polution, lasting hundreds of years.

coryengle

at 15:14 on January 12th, 2010

a step in the right direction!

john q associate (not verified)

at 21:18 on February 27th, 2010

amazing that they are trying to "reduce" their waste by charging the customers. As an associate, I know firsthand how much paper they waste everyday on useless reports that generate that no one looks. In the last 6 months its mind-boggling how many "new" forms the Zone managers/AM's have to fill out daily just to "prove" their doing their job. Hmmmm where are the priorities, really?