SOUTH SHORE — Something was different Saturday at the Jewel-Osco on 75th Street and Stony Island Avenue.
In front of the row of checkout registers, a clerk splayed a sampling of shopping bags across a table. Some were made from paper, some were reusable cloth, and in the middle was a kind of plastic bag none of the shoppers had seen before.
As of Aug. 1, Jewel is paying heed to a new citywide ordinance that bans all large-scale retailers from using thin plastic bags. Citing environmental concerns, the law requires all chain retailers with more than 10,000 square feet of space per location to replace "plastic carryout bags" with "reusable bags," which must have a "minimum lifetime of 125 uses."
As a result, Jewel introduced a new plastic bag that's slightly smaller, but made of thicker material, than its previous model. At first glance, it looks almost the same as Jewel's old bags. But Jewel employees say each bag can hold up to 22 pounds, which is the minumum weight requirement under the new law.
At least two aldermen have blasted Jewel for the move, saying the supermarket chain is exploiting a loophole and "flouting the spirit of the law" by switching to barely-thicker plastic instead of looking for alternatives.
For regular Jewel shopper Joyce Joiner, though, the thickness of the new bags does make a real difference.
"They can hold a lot more weight, for sure. Before you would've had to double or triple-bag all this, but now you just need the one," said Joiner, opening her bag to show a trove of cans and laundry detergent. "I am happy about the change. I wish they did it a long time ago."
But Tammy Williams, another store regular, scoffed at the idea that the new bags could be reused more than 100 times.
"These [bags] are so little, they can't expect us to reuse them ... to be honest I'll probably end up throwing them away," Williams said. "These won't even fit in my waste baskets. I won't know what to do with 'em."
Meanwhile other grocery chains, like Mariano's Fresh Market, are taking advantage of the new law to expand their reusable bag sales.
Up in Ravenswood, service operations manager Kelsey Peyton rifled through a rack holding more than a dozen kinds of bags, ranging in price from $1 to $8. Her Mariano's branch, at 1800 W. Lawrence Ave., just quadrupled its stock to 20 bag styles, varying by size, thickness and material.
"We'd already had a lot clientele who swear by reusable bags, but [the new law] has given us a reason to expand them immensely," Peyton said. "We're doing the most we can to keep customers comfortable, and the bag sales provide the opportunity for a little extra revenue, too."
Peyton said customers' responses to the changes have been overwhelmingly positive, and multiple shoppers said they approved of the new law. Part of that, Peyton said, has to do with her store's urban location. In more sprawled areas, she said, people tend to spring for the weaker plastic, because "when you have a car, it doesn't matter how many bags you're carrying."
But even shoppers at the Target in Montclare, a more car-centric neighborhood in the Far Northwest Side, said the changes would only make their lives easier.
Target Saturday rolled out its own model of thicker plastic bags, but unlike those at Jewel, the bags are much larger than the old standard. Plus, the bags hang on ribbon-style straps, making them capable of carrying "about 10 heavy grocery items," according to one Target employee.
"It's such a big difference, I noticed right away when I walked in," said Agnis Spiewak, a regular shopper at the Target at 6525 W. Diversey Ave. "These are so much stronger, they're easier to carry." Spiewak said she plans to reuse the bags as many times as she can.
But shopper Jessica Prokopiuk, echoing some environmentalists, said Target's efforts — and the new law — don't go far enough.
"Until they start charging a little bit for all bags, I don't think anyone's really going to consider reusing them," Prokopiuk said. "We're still gonna get these [plastic bags] flying all over the streets and clogging landfills. Convenience is one thing, but people have to remember that the environment is the real issue here."
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