The Giant grocery store at 7142 Arlington Road at Bethesda Row is ahead of the game, stocking self-checkout stations with paper bags days ahead of the Montgomery County Council plastic bag ban, which takes effect on January 1, 2026. You will also have to pay a 10-cent tax on each paper bag, half of which is paid to the business, and the other half goes into the County Water Quality Protection Fund. The bags at Giant are the retro kind, missing the convenient handles found on paper bags at Trader Joe's and Harris Teeter. You can thank the obscenely overpaid County Council, while struggling with your obscenely overpriced groceries. Heckuva job, Brownie!
42 comments:
Those crummy plastic bags the Council mandated we all embrace weren't an improvement on the fusty old low-tech paper bags they supplanted? Whodathunkit?
I bought 1000 plastic grocery bags on Amazon for about $23 and stuck the box of them in my trunk. I will bring them in with me to the stores and lay them on the belt. Hopefully the clerks will stock them the same way they stock paper bags and not forget how to pack plastic bags!
"fusty"? Thanks grandpa.
I never pay for bags. Total and compete peaceful protest. Sorry. And I'm not alone in doing so. It's totally and completely punitive and as it is classified as a tax, it'll never be taken away. Whatever that revenue is earmarked for, it never actually makes it there. Scam tax. Thanks O'Malley! I look forward to my free paper bags at least at the Giant. All other places will be a pain in the butt.
Another peeve of mine is the county would not take my recycle paper put out in a paper bag like this. But if I put the bag in the heavy hard to roll plastic pin -that they will pick up!
So why not bring your own reusable bags instead of blatantly stealing Giant paper bags? You think these bags grow on trees? No, wait, they do, but somebody has to pay to manufacture, shop and stock these. Grow up JAC, and act like a responsible citizen.
Aren't they going to charge 10cents per paper bag?
I used to work in the paper making biz, making paper, particularly thicker and heavier kraft paper is achemical, energy using, odoriferous and nasty business. I've read that a very small amount of corn starch in the plastic bags allows them to breakdown. I hope we're not jumping back out of the fire into the original pan.
10:07 - Reusable bags are $2 each. Fools and their money are soon parted.
make that "plastic bin"....
12:08 - Best to keep to the topic and leave off any unpleasant jabs, it makes your position look weak. Increasing this absurd tax to .10 per bag is really beyond the pale. What they should have done long before they rammed thru this bag tax is simply switched to paper which has already been recycled at least once. We had paper bags when we were kids. What's wrong with a bag? Nothing years ago, when discussed before the tax and clearly not now. The citizenry would have adjusted to the paper but leave us alone on the fee. Larry Hogan was right, the Dems in MD never met a tax they didn't like.
I am old enough to remember when Giant Food began encouraging use of plastic bags in the late 80s because they could collect them for recycling.
Now we all know Montgomery County wasn’t going to allow itself to be UPSTAGED by PG County, Baltimore City, and 3 Counties surrounding Baltimore City. They couldn’t handle other jurisdictions beating them to their Environmental Wonderland !
So those County Council geniuses
Came up with the brilliant solution
To replace plastic with paper bags
And cut down trees to end pollution.
JAC, stealing paper bags is not a "peaceful protest." It's simply ("total and complete") stealing.
Don't keep being what Bugs Bunny called "a maroon."
As Sammy Davis, Jr. (he did! look it up!) *almost* sang, in the theme song of "Baretta," "If you've got the dime, Don't do the crime!"
@1:03PM I visited a friend in Jacksonville FLA 1989, and concur about the distinct pulp plant smell around town.
Best to keep on topic after someone brags about stealing as some absurd form of protest. Like I said, buy a stack of reusable grocery bags from Trader Joe’s, and you don’t have to complain about being taxed or charged for paper or plastic bags. Those TJ bags last for decades, and are easily rinsed out with a bit of dish soap to keep them and the planet clean.
Like BITD with no handles before Freshfields took over the area, when you had to schlep bags arms around pulled close to your waist before loading up the Vista Cruiser or station wagon! As Archie & Edith sang: "Those were the days!!"
2:54 - First of all, that's not theft. Secondly, many do it even though they don't admit it. I'm more of a decent citizen than most. You're welcome.
Speaking of the Giant, Robert (& others), who is sick and tired of walking over all the filthy nasty EGG YOKES smeared all over the sidewalks between leaving the library bricks to to slate/flagstone shortcut to the parking lot of said Giant?!
1:40 - How interesting. Your post reminded me that I haven't seen the plastic bag recycle bins outside grocery stores anymore. Hmm.
Make that Neverland!
First of all, taking something that you know you're supposed to pay for, but not paying for it, is theft. Second, not being alone in this practice doesn't change that it's wrong; and, you don't get any points for being honest (bragging?) about your dishonesty. Third, anyone who feels the need to claim, "I'm more of a decent citizen than most," clearly knows he's doing something wrong. You're welcome!
5:13 - Once again, not paying the stupid bag fee, as thousands do every day as well, isn't stealing. They aren't an item for sale in the store thus can't be stolen. Secondly, buying reusable bags, as you say, is an ok solution as well. I think they harbor a lot of bacteria, as was discussed during covid because few wash them out, but ok.
The 1000 bag box from Costco lasts a long time, even when leaving a small stack at the Giant self-checkout for the next customer.
5:52 - I'm trying hard to get to heaven some day and I don't think not paying for a punitive bag tax, which they've increased to .10 for paper, which isn't harmful to the environment in the first place, is going to keep me from getting there. I even paid for the ridiculous DC speed camera ticket I just got so there.
You certainly have a distorted view of what is right and wrong. Of course Giant has to pay to purchase those bags that you so gleefully steal. You must know that tipping your server is not legally required? Perhaps another revenue stream to fund your agenda of dissident behavior?
@10:28 how callow of you.
So now you're part of a cast of "thousands"? Buy a few Trader Joe's bags, and pipe down already.
There's a valid reason for that.
@5:28 - Open your eyes Mr. Magoo.
Admit to your thievery and that you are lazy and unsanitary.
I was caught off guard the other day in seeing the plastic bags gone. They cut us off early!! Luckily, I had one reusable bag with me. Paper bags (and grrrr, no handles!!) are still 5 cents each through 12/31, then jump to 10 cents each in 2026.
5:16 - I would love to see the store's reaction from someone leaving a huge stack of good old plastic bags for customers to use free of charge. It's a scam and a fleece. Never met a ban they didn't like.
6:56 - Telling another commenter on here what they should do or say rather than saying anything substantive yourself.
Are we allowed to use gas-powered snow blowers in the MoCo, or plug-in electric/battery pack only?
MoCo shares CA values. Just who we need to emulate. Not.
https://fox5sandiego.com/news/california-news/plastic-bag-ban-at-checkout/
Cut you off or just the supply is gone? Be real.
A hell of a lot better than emulating a felon.
@5:16AM, do you also pay it forward for connectors, bridges or tunnels?
12:44. Love that 'felon' dig! 33 trumped up (!) charges from repeated misdemeanor entries. If that's it, let me vote for him the third winning time!
12:44 is what's wrong in this county. TDS is so strong that it blinds common sense. Bush is Hitler, Romney is Hitler blah blah blah. Even with the future collapse of NYC as an example, they'll still pull the D lever because it's what they've been programmed to do.
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