I don't know if the stores used to hide the price of the plastic bags into the prices of merchandise. I do know that I am paying the same price for eggs, milk, cereal, soy sauce, etc. that I was paying in the past. Only now I get to pay an extra fee for bags if I forget to bring my own.
When I was doing the loss prevention detective job, the team did catch someone coming into the store with reusable bags and loading them up and trying to walk out without paying. While I was training for the job, my supervisor told me to always watch the ones that bring their own bags, because once in a while they use the bags for stealing. Now a lot more people will be coming in with their own bags, glad I quit the LP job.
I know some people have been using their own reusable shopping bags long before the law came to be, and that's great, but I was not one of those people because I couldn't be bothered to make a simple run into a market more work/responsibility than it needed to be. That's just my personality. Usually when it comes to change I do just fine, but this change I don't like. But what can I do...nothing. I voted against it. I guess I will get used to it as time goes on, just like anything, but why should I have to, ugh.
I feel for the parents that already have their hands full and attention focused on their kids when going to the market. Now having to add additional stuff to carry around and remember, all the while getting the kids out of the car in a busy shopping center parking lot. Big families need to carry a lot of bags.
I like the comment about what can we expect next: metered parking spaces, pay for using a shopping cart...? And then tell consumers that those fees used to be hidden in the retail prices. But now we have to pay them up front.
