Bag Designed in Vegas Won't Stay Only in Vegas: Tonya Jacobsen Wins Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Design-A-Bag Contest

Contest winner Tanya Jacobsen [Photo credit: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.]

The 'Art' of (and in) Food and Grocery Retailing
News/Analysis/Commentary

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market today announced that Tonya Jacobsen of Las Vegas is the first place winner of the 176-store fresh food and grocery chain's 2011 reusable shopping bag design contest.

In addition to taking home first place honors, the Las Vegas resident will also have all or most of her food and grocery purchases at Fresh & Easy for the rest of the year paid for because she received $5,000 worth of store gift cards from the grocer for her winning bag design.

Fresh fruit theme, vibrant colors

Jacobsen's fresh fruit-themed design was chosen as first place in Fresh & Easy's recently-ended Design-a-Bag contest by members of the grocery chain's "friends of fresh & easy" e-mail-based marketing and quasi-loyalty program, who voted on ten finalist designs out of 800 submissions, from June 27-to-July 10. The contest was launched on April 5 of this year.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market says 30,000 members of "friends of fresh & easy" voted in the contest. The e-mail-based program has about 350,000 members, according to the grocer.

Jacobsen, who says she's originally from Idaho and moved to Vegas three years ago, and who paints as an avocation - which is evident in the vibrant use of colors featured in her painted design - said about hearing she won first place in the contest, "I wanted my design to be bright and fun so it could capture the feeling I get when I visit my local store. It’s been a really great experience, and I thank everyone who supported my design."

She also expressed surprise in winning first place, saying about the win, "I was so surprised. I didn’t even tell anybody that I initially submitted it. I was stunned when I got the call that I was a finalist. Then to find out that I won was a huge shock. My boyfriend's family was going nuts. All of my family in Idaho was really excited for me too."

Bag designed in Vegas won't stay only in Vegas

Along with the personal pride of winning first place and the $5,000 prize, Jacobsen's design will be turned into a reusable shopping bag and sold in Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's stores in California (127 units), metropolitan Las Vegas, Nevada (21 units) and metro Phoenix, Arizona (28 units) beginning later this year.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy has been selling a reusable bag featuring last year's winning design by Josephine Close in its stores all year. The bag sells for 99-cents.

We like the Vegas resident's design, particularly because of its use of fresh fruits and vibrant colors. In fact, it was one of our three favorites in the contest.

Artwork in the stores

We think Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, which has borrowed numerous operations and merchandising concepts from competitiors Trader Joe's and Whole Foods Market, should borrow another one from the two grocers and offer Tonya Jacobsen a full or part time job creating artwork for the Fresh & Easy stores, starting with the produce departments, which could use some brightening up, say starting with a few fresh fruit and vegetable-themed murals, which the fresh food and grocery chain can hang on the walls or display on easels - or both. Notice, for example, how her artwork brightens up the store in the photo at top.

Whole Foods Market, for example, employs full time artists in all its stores in New York City, while Trader Joe's has full time chalkboard artists in all its grocery markets in the U.S, who create the colorful chalkboard art and signage that's become an iconic part of the TJ's shopping experience. [See - June 21, 2011: The 'Art' in Food Retailing On the First Day of Summer at Whole Foods Market in New York City's Chelsea District.]

Having in-store artwork painted by a customer and the winner of the Design-A-Bag contest would also be a great story for the grocer to be able to tell: "Customer/painter/bag design contest winner creates fresh produce-inspired paintings for Fresh & Easy stores."

And Jacobsen doesn't have to be limited to the fresh produce theme either. Creativity and inspiration are two key elements of art. And there's more to the stores than produce.

For example, there could be prepared foods'-themed art, along with numerous other in-store and neighborhood-oriented themes, all based on what inspires the artist and store employees, all of which Fresh & Easy could use in the stores and rotate in-and-out periodically.

The artwork could be localized as well - Vegas themes in Las Vegas; urban themes in Los Angeles and San Francisco; agricultural themes in Fresno and Bakersfield in California's Central Valley; and so on.

As an example, we would turn the already completed design pictured at the top here, which is from one of the ten contest finalists, Janeil Lim of Los Angeles, into a mural and use it in Fresh & Easy stores in neighborhoods which have a high degree of ethnic diversity, such as south Los Angeles and others.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market could start this art-in-the-stores process by simply turning Jacobsen's colorful fresh fruit-themed bag design painting (pictured above) into a large wall mural.

We would start by putting a mural on the wall in the produce section, or on an easel there, in each of the 21 Las Vegas metropolitan area Fresh & Easy grocery markets, say about a week before her bag debut for sale in all 176 stores. In-store artwork by a Las Vegas resident, a nice local angle.

Food and grocery retailing-merchandising is an art.

And a great way to enhance that art is with some real artwork in-store. Therefore since, as we were the first publication to report, Tesco is in the process of making numerous changes inside its Fresh & Easy stores, the timing is perfect for some in-store art, the cost of which would be significanty less than most of the major changes we've reported the grocer is making to the stores. (See the linked stories at the bottom of this piece.)

After all, sometimes it's much smarter for a grocer to pick the low hanging fruit first. And often it's starring you right in the eyes.

Related Stories

June 27, 2011: Voting Starts in Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's 2011 'Design-A-Bag' Contest

April 4, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Launch Reusable Bag Design Contest Tomorrow

January 19, 2011: Customer-Designed Reusable Shopping Bag Now On Sale At Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores

July 27, 2010: The Winner of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Reusable Bag Design Contest Is...

June 17, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Picks Eight Finalists in its Reusable Bag Design Contest; Website Voting Through June 30

April 19, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Joins Kroger Co. in Holding Earth Month-Earth Day Reusable Bag Design Contest

Also: Click here for a complete selection of stories fom Fresh & Easy Buzz on the reusable shopping bag topic and issue.

Changes at Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market

June 30, 2011Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Developing Loyalty Card Program it's Planning to Launch This Year

May 18, 2011: Major Changes Coming to Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores

May 3, 2011: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Launching 'Clip-Strip' Cross-Merchandising Program in Stores

April 12, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Shrink Health & Body Care Sections in Stores; Add Candy and Snack Items

Voting Starts in Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's 2011 'Design-A-Bag' Contest

One of the 10 finalists in Fresh & Easy's reusable bag design contest is the design (above) by Janeil Lim, of Los Angeles, California. 

Lim says this about the inspiration behind the bag's design: "I wanted to represent the diversity and colors that abound in modern day America. I wanted to also highlight through my own creative style the fun and excitement that me and my partner feel whenever we come to fresh&easy and the joy it has brought to our neighborhood. I wanted to create something striking and engaging that makes everyone smile."

We think Janeil Lim achieved all she set out to, based on the inspiration she describes above. And if the design doesn't win first place in the contest, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market would be smart to create a reusable shopping bag using it, which it can sell in its stores.

Why? Because the multi-culture theme of the design, along with the excellent use of color, depicts the ethnic melting pot that is Southern California, where Tesco's Fresh & Easy is headquartered and where 101 of its 176 stores are located. That's a communications and marketing message the grocer would be wise to associate with its stores, via Janeil Lim's multi-ethnic-themed and colorful reusable bag design.

'Green' Food & Grocery Retailing

El Segundo, California-based Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Design-A-Bag reusable shopping bag design contest has ended, and the grocer is asking members of its "friends of fresh & easy" e-mail marketing- loyalty program to vote for their favorite bag, out of 10 finalists it's chosen from the 800 designs submitted in the contest, which began April 5. [See our April 4, 2011 story: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Launch Reusable Bag Design Contest Tomorrow.]

Non-members of "friends of fresh & easy" can vote for their favorite bag designs by signing up for the program, something the grocer hopes people will do so it can add new members to its data base.

This is the second year United Kingdom-based Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has conducted the reusable shopping bag design contest, which it kicks off in April, to tie into Earth Month and Earth Day.

Interestingly, 500-fewer (800) bag designers entered this year's contest, compared to last year, when, according to Fresh & Easy, there were 1,300 submissions.This is despite the fact this year the grocery chain opened the contest to teenagers 13-17. Last year, contestants had to be 18-years-old and above to enter.

Being a legal resident of the U.S. is also required in order to enter.

One theme that resonates among nearly all of this year's 10 designer-finalists is ... using color as an inspiration.

As you can below and see here, many of the finalists' reusable bag designs make ample use of color as part of their respective design elements. Also see Janeil Lim's bag design pictured at top for a good example of using color as part of her multi-cultural-themed bag.

There are some excellent bag designs among the 10 finalists, which should make the choice by the "friends of fresh & easy" members a tough one.

Voting for the contest ends July 10. Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market says it will announce the winner and finalists July 26.

The first place winner - last year it was Josephine Close of Southern California - receives $5,000 in multiple Fresh  Easy gift cards, which the grocer says represents one-year's worth of groceries. The nine semi- finalists each receive a $100 gift card.

The winner's design will also be turned into a reusable shopping bag by Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, which it will offer for sale in its stores in California, Nevada and Arizona, beginning later this year, a spokesperson for the grocery chain says.

Josephine Close's winning bag from last year is currently on sale at the 176 Fresh & Easy stores for 79-cents. [See our January 19, 2011 story - January 19, 2011: Customer-Designed Reusable Shopping Bag Now On Sale At Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores. The bag is pictured in the story as well.

Which bag design from these 10 finalists is your favorite? Predictions on which designer will win are welcomed in the comments section.

Related Stories

April 4, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Launch Reusable Bag Design Contest Tomorrow

January 19, 2011: Customer-Designed Reusable Shopping Bag Now On Sale At Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores

July 27, 2010: The Winner of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Reusable Bag Design Contest Is...

June 17, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Picks Eight Finalists in its Reusable Bag Design Contest; Website Voting Through June 30

April 19, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Joins Kroger Co. in Holding Earth Month-Earth Day Reusable Bag Design Contest

Also: Click here for a complete selection of stories fom Fresh & Easy Buzz on the reusable shopping bag topic and issue

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Launch Reusable Bag Design Contest Tomorrow

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market will launch its second-annual reusable shopping bag design contest tomorrow, themed to Earth Month (April) and Earth Day 2011, which is on April 22.

This year's Design-A-Bag contest runs From April 5 -to- May 15, 2011.

Fresh & Easy has broadened the contestant universe this year, allowing people 13-years of age or older to enter, compared to last year when contestants had to be age 18 or older. Adults beware: The kids just might show you up this year.

Like with last year's Design-A-Bag contest, this year's designers, inclding those creative 13-17-year old first-timers, can enter the contest by submitting their respective designs online to Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market here.

Also like last year's reusable bag design contest, which generated 1,300 submissions from customers of Tesco's Fresh & Easy and others, according to the grocer, this year's submissions will be reviewed by a panel of judges chosen by the retailer. The judging panel will choose up to 10 finalists, who's bag designs will be voted on by members of "friends of fresh&easy," which is the grocery chain's e-mail-based communications program that it uses to communicate promotions and other information to consumers who sign up for the service.

Last year, 24,000 members of the "friends of fresh&easy" group voted for the first-place winning bag and the runner-up designs, according to Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.

Members of "friends of fresh&easy" will vote on the winners of this year's Design-A-Bag contest beginning on June 21st and through July 10th, 2011.

The grand prize winner in the contest receives $5,000 worth of Fresh & Easy store gift cards. The runners-up each receive a $100 store gift card.

The first-place winner of last year's reusable bag design contest was Los Angeles, California resident Josephine Close, who took home $5,000 in Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market gift cards, as you can see in the photograph pictured in the story here.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy has been selling her award-winning reusable shopping bag (pictured at top) in its 171 fresh food and grocery stores in California, Nevada and Arizona since the first of the year. Ms. Close's reusable work of art sells for 79-cents per-bag in the stores.

This year's winning design will also be sold in the stores, according to Roberto Munoz, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's director of neighborhood affairs.

Beginning tomorrow through April 22, Fresh & Easy will also be offering shoppers one of its Fresh & Easy canvas shopping bags (at left) for free with purchases of $20 or more in the stores. The bags sell regularly for 99-cents each. Coupons for the bags are available on the grocer's website and Facebook page. Like the Design-A-Bag contest, the reusable bag promotion is part of the grocery chain's Earth Month and Earth Day promotional activities.

Fresh & Easy, which is owned by United Kingdom-based Tesco, offers single-use plastic carrier bags for free in its stores but no paper grocery sacks. It also offers a variety of reusable bag options at different price points, ranging from its "bag for life," a synthetic plastic-like carrier bag which it sells for 20-cents each, to the 99-cent canvas bag, along with a higher-end canvas bag made out of 100% organic material.

Related Stories

January 19, 2010: Customer-Designed Reusable Shopping Bag Now On Sale At Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores

July 27, 2010: The Winner of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Reusable Bag Design Contest Is...

June 17, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Picks Eight Finalists in its Reusable Bag Design Contest; Website Voting Through June 30

April 19, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Joins Kroger Co. in Holding Earth Month-Earth Day Reusable Bag Design Contest

Customer-Designed Reusable Shopping Bag Now On Sale At Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores

In July of 2010, Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market announced the winner of its reusable shopping bag design contest - Los Angeles resident Josephine Close - as we wrote about in this story: July 27, 2010 - The Winner of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Reusable Bag Design Contest Is...

Ms. Close, who won a $5,000 Fresh & Easy gift card for her efforts, was chosen as the contest's grand prize winner from among a group of finalists, all of whom created interesting reusable bag designs. [See - June 17, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Picks Eight Finalists in its Reusable Bag Design Contest; Website Voting Through June 30.]

In our July 27, 2010 story we noted that the winning bag design was being turned into a reusable shopping bag, which would be offered for sale in Tesco's Fresh & Easy stores in California, Nevada and Arizona.

That's now happened: The paisley-design reusable shopping bags (pictured at top), which evoke a bit of a 1960's retro-look, are being offered for sale in all 156 of Tesco's Fresh & Easy markets beginning this week, for a mere 79 cents each.

At that reasonable price we suspect bag designer Close will see her finished product in the hands of numerous shoppers over the next few months, not only in Fresh & Easy stores, but at other grocery markets, farmers' markets and, if she uses public transportation in Los Angeles, in the hands of more than one bus and metro rail line car rider.

Here's what Roberto Munoz, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's director of neighborhood affairs says about the design-a-bag contest, which lead to the winning bag by Los Angeles resident Josephine Close: "We set out to design a desirable and affordable bag people actually want to use and re-use, and we turned to our customers for inspiration," said Roberto Munoz, Fresh & Easy Director of Neighborhood Affairs. "Based on sales of the bag already, we know customers like the design and the price point. We hope this new bag will continue to encourage customers to use fewer single-use bags in exchange for reusable options."

We have one burning question though for reusable shopping bag designer Josephine Close, in case she happens to read this piece: "How many of your attractive, retro-looking reusable shopping bags were you able to fill with groceries, using your $5,000 Fresh & Easy gift card?

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Gives Away 200,000 Reusable Bags in September; Now it's Up to Shoppers to BYOB

Reusable Bags: News & Views

Thousands of shoppers in California, Nevada and Arizona have one less of an excuse than they did a month ago not to bring their own bag to the grocery store, which Tesco hopes is one of its 168 Fresh & Easy markets.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's neighborhood affairs director Roberto Munoz said today the fresh food and grocery chain handed out over 200,000 free reusable canvas carrier bags to customers last month, between September 15th and September 30th.

The reusable bag Fresh & Easy gave away to shoppers in September is its 99-cent reusable canvas bag (pictured top, left), which as we reported in this piece - December 7, 2008: Fresh & Easy Offers New Definition of 'Double Bagging;' Says Sales of Reusable Bags Has Doubled Since Introducing its 99-Cent Bag in October - the grocery chain introduced in October 2008.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market distributed coupons for the September 2010 free canvas bag promotion, which required a minimum purchase of $10 to get a free bag, via its direct mail advertising flyers, as well as on its website, Facebook page, Twitter feed, and through its 'Friends of Fresh & Easy' e-mail promotional mailer. The reusable bags were also handed out to customers at the fresh food and grocery chain's September 2010 new store grand opening celebrations in California.

800,000 free reusable bags so far

September's wasn't the first reusable bag giveaway Tesco's Fresh & Easy has held. It's offered free bag promotions, usually giving the bag away with a minimum $10 purchase, fairly regularly since introducing its 99-cent canvas bag in October 2008.

And, according to Munoz, the grocery chain has given away about 800,000 reusable shopping bags to shoppers since opening its first stores in November 2007.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market offers a variety of reusable bags in its 168 stores in Southern California and the Central Valley; metro Las Vegas, Nevada; and metro Phoenix, Arizona. In addition to the 99-cent canvas bag, there's also a reusable bag made out of organic canvas, which sells for $2.99, and a reusable canvas bottle bag, which retails for $1.99.

The grocer also offers an inexpensive reusable bag which it calls "bags for life." The bags are made out of a synthetic plastic-type material and sell for 20-cents each. Fresh & Easy offers to replace the bags free of charge when they wear out, hence the name. The 'bags for life" are popular in the United Kingdom, where Fresh & Easy's parent company Tesco is based.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy offers free single-use plastic carrier bags in its stores but doesn't offer free paper grocery sacks as an option, unlike virtually all of its competitors in California, Nevada and Arizona do.

Incentives: Paper, plastic or reusable

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is attempting to get as many customers as it can to BYOB - bring their own bags to the store - through offering a variety of reusable bag options at various price points, it's bag giveaways and promotions, and by other means.

For example, Munoz says Fresh & Easy is also encouraging the use of reusable bags in its stores by adding in-store reminder signage, merchandising reusable bags closer to the checkout stands and giving away magnets featuring messages that remind customers not to forget their reusable bags at home.

Reusable bag use remains low in the U.S.

Despite free bag giveaways like those conducted by Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market and numerous other U.S. grocers, which also offer reusable bags for 99-cents or a dollar, few consumers bring their own bags to the grocery store. Various studies estimate that a mere 5%-10% of Americans regularly bring their own bags with them when they go shopping.

In California, where Tesco has 107 of its 168 (soon to be 155. See:13 Closing Fresh & Easy Stores List) Fresh & Easy stores, promoters of legislation to ban single-use plastic carrier bags were dealt a blow this summer when a bill, AB 1998, designed to do just that, was defeated in the California State Senate. [See - August 31, 2010: Breaking Buzz: California's Single-Use Plastic Carrier Bag Ban Bill Fails.]

Since the defeat of the statewide bill, which was supported by the California Grocers Association, the trade group for grocers doing business in the state, numerous California cities has dusted off plastic bag ban bills which they're now considering proposing. Various sources say four -to- five dozen California municipalities are currently considering single-use plastic carrier bag bans or laws that would charge a fee for the bags. [See - September 3, 2010: How the California Grocers Association and its Members Can Snatch Victory From the Jaws of the Defeat of California's Plastic Bag Ban.]

A few California cities, including San Francisco and Malibu, have had single-use plastic carrier bag ban laws in place for some time. Others, such as Oakland and Manhattan Beach, passed such laws but had them struck down in the courts, in lawsuits filed by the plastic bag industry.

In 2009, the first federal bill that would have placed a fee on single-use plastic carrier bags was killed in committee in the U.S. House of representatives before being able to get a vote on the House floor. [See- April 23, 2009: Virginia Congressman Jim Moran Introduces First-Ever Federal Single-Use Bag Fee Legislation Into U.S. House of Representatives on Earth Day 2009.

Putting the 'PR' in reusable bag use

Reusable bag promotional programs like Fresh & Easy's and those regularly conducted by other food and grocery retailers, along with public relations programs by non-profit groups and others to encourage greater use of reusable bags, are a good and positive thing - the more incentives the better - but until shoppers decide to take personal responsibility (PR) and bring their own bags to the store in greater numbers, not only will we not see much of a trend towards increased reusable bag use, we'll also continue to see state and local governments attempt to influence retailer and consumer behavior by proposing and passing various laws designed to eliminate single-use plastic bags, and in some cases paper bags, and to promote the use of reusable bags via legislation.

Reasonable people can differ on whether or not it's the place of government to tell consumers what kind of carrier bag they can get at the grocery store and to restrict the types of bags retailers can offer to shoppers.

But in the final analysis one thing is clear, as is the case with most forms of behavior change, increasing the use of reusable bags at the grocery store is in the hands of consumers. For example, you can be given a dozen free reusable carrier bags from our favorite grocer but you we don't bring them to the grocery store and use them, which is the case with many consumers, then the incentive is a moot point.

Regular incentives, which we encourage and congratulate grocers and others for promoting, will no doubt increase the use of reusable bags by shoppers, at least incrementally. But until consumers decide to change their collective behavior and BYOB, the percentage will remain low.

Reader Resources

[Fresh & Easy Buzz has written extensively about reusable grocery bags and the single-use bag topic and issue. For a selection of those stories click here, here and here. Use the "Older Posts, "Newer Posts" links at the bottom of the linked pages for additional pages and stories.]

What Happens in Vegas Ends Up in Fresh & Easy Buzz: Las Vegas Shopper Wins Kroger's 2010 Reusable Bag Design Contest

Food and grocery retail company Kroger Co. has named a grand prize winner, four finalists and five runner-up category winners in its 2010 reusable shopping bag design contest.

The grand prize winner in this years bag design contest is Jamie H., from Las Vegas, Nevada. The award winning design (pictured at the end of the story) is very minimalist in design, using black (on a white bag background) text only, with the exception of a small blue and green globe at the end of the text. You can view the grand prize bag here, along with all of the finalist and runner-up bags.

As the grand prize winner, Jamie H, who shops at Kroger's Smith's Food & Drug chain in Las Vegas, gets a $1,000 Kroger gift card. Additionally, the four finalists each receive a $250 Kroger gift card, and the five runners-up each get a $100 gift card.

Who says 'What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas?' It's certainly not the case when it comes to Jamie H, or else Fresh & Easy Buzz wouldn't be telling the tale in our widely-read blog. And forget Vegas secrets: The grand prize-winning reusable bag is set to be sold in select Kroger Co.-owned chains and stores, including at the Smith's Food & Drug stores in Metropolitan Las Vegas, Nevada, according to the company.

Kroger Co. holds the chain-wide reusable bag design contest annually, and has been doing so for a number of years. The contest is part of the retailer's overall sustainability strategy and project. [See: www.kroger.com/green.]

This year, Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, which has 27 of its 159 small-format fresh food and grocery stores in Metro Las Vegas, Nevada (98 in California; 34 in Metro Phoenix, Arizona) followed Kroger's lead and held a reusable shopping bag design contest of its own. [Read our story on the winner: July 27, 2010: The Winner of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Reusable Bag Design Contest Is... Also see: June 17, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Picks Eight Finalists in its Reusable Bag Design Contest; Website Voting Through June 30 and April 19, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Joins Kroger Co. in Holding Earth Month-Earth Day Reusable Bag Design Contest.]

Kroger Co., which is the leading supermarket chain and the second-largest retailer of food and groceries in the U.S., after Walmart Stores, Inc., is examining its offering of single-use plastic carrier bags closely. For example, Kroger's Fred Meyer chain, which is headquartered in Oregon and has stores throughout the Pacific Northwest, the Inter-Mountain region and in Alaska, on August 1 eliminated single-use plastic carrier bags at 10 of its stores in Portland, Oregon as a test.

On July 28 of this year, the Portland City Council passed a single-use plastic carrier bag ban. The new city ordinance bans the use of plastic or non-recycled paper carrier bags at grocery stores and pharmacies and requires stores to charge a minimum 5 cent fee for each recycled paper or compostable plastic bag it gives out. Stores are also required to provide free reusable bags to seniors and low-income residents.

The city has put the law on hold pending the vote by the Oregon State Legislature on a similar statewide ban. Portland Mayor Sam Adams said when announcing the hold on the new law that if the statewide plastic bag ban bill doesn't pass, the city will enact its ban, which would become law in 2012.

Ironically, legislation almost identical to the passed City of Portland bag ban law, and Oregon statewide bill yet to be voted on, failed in California on August 31, as we reported - August 31, 2010: Breaking Buzz: California's Single-Use Plastic Carrier Bag Ban Bill Fails. Also see: September 3, 2010: How the California Grocers Association and its Members Can Snatch Victory From the Jaws of the Defeat of California's Plastic Bag Ban.

Meanwhile, reusable bag design contests like those held by Kroger and Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, serve to elevate the concept of using reuseable bags, along with injecting an element of excitement and shopper participation into the process.

Despite considerable education and publicity about reusable bags, and regular giveaways by grocers and others of free bags, the use of the bags remains very low in the U.S. Some studies say only 5% of grocery shoppers overall bring their own bags to the store.

Bottom line: Personal responsibility and initiative by consumers is key to solving the disposable bag issue and increasing the use of reusable bags.

Above: The grand prize winning bag design

Reader Resources:

[Fresh & Easy Buzz has been reporting on, writing about, and offering analysis and opinion on the reusable shopping bag, single-use plastic carrier bag and related topics and issues since early 2008. Click here, here, here and here to read a selection of those posts.]

California's Battle to Ban the Plastic Bag Heats Up in Sacramento: Author of Legislation Says the Reports of its Death Are Greatly Exaggerated

Bagging Single-Use Plastic Bags in the 'Nation State' of California: News/Analysis/Commentary

AB 1998, the California legislative bill that would ban single-use plastic carrier bags in the Golden State's grocery stores, retail stores over 10,000 square-feet with pharmacies and convenience stores (in 2013), is alive and well in the California State Senate Rules Committee - and opponents of the bill led by the American Chemistry Council shouldn't pop their champagne corks in celebration just yet, says Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, D-Santa Monica, the author of the legislation.

Read our August 20, 2010 story: Single-Use Plastic Carrier Bag Ban Bill AB 1998 Could Be in Difficulty of Passing in the California State Senate.

Making the rounds in her Southern California district over the weekend, which included a stop on Saturday at a University of California, Los Angeles film festival where "Plastic Bag," a short film by director Ramin Bahrani was shown, Assemblywoman Brownley said that although the Senate Appropriations Committee didn't vote out the bill by its required August 13 deadline, and as a result sent the legislation over to the Senate Rules Committee, it did so for a specific reason. California legislative rules require that if the Appropriations Committee fails to pass a bill by its deadline, August 13 in the case of AB 1999, such bills can't be amended over the following 10 days, which is when the legislative session ends for the year, on August 31.

However, by giving control of the bill to the Senate Rules Committee, which is exempt from the no amendments rule, AB 1998 is not subject to the restriction and can be debated and amended between now and August 31. As such, AB 1998 has sort of a protected status, according to Brownley.

This is important because Brownley and other supports of the single-use plastic carrier bag ban legislation believe that with some minor amendments the bill can pass in the full State Senate. It must be voted on before the end of business on August 31, when the legislative session ends, however.

In other words, the bill's author says it's still alive, despite arguments to the contrary by those against the bag ban legislation.

Brownley says she had numerous meetings last week with Senate leaders to discuss amendments to AB 1998 that deal with the issues opponents are most concerned with, such as whether grocers will be able to keep the money they charge for paper bags, or whether any amount they charge above their costs will be directed to state recycling programs rather than being kept by the retailers as profits.

AB 1998 allows grocers to sell paper grocery bags to customers for a minimum of five cents each. Large paper carrier bags generally cost grocers slightly more than five cents each.

The American Chemistry Council, which among other activities is a trade group for single-use plastic carrier bag manufacturers, and a coalition of opponents of the bag ban bill, which are going by the name Stop the Bag Police, argue that "the fees collected from paper bags would be pocketed by grocers and would not fund the infrastructure required by the bill. The passage of AB 1998 would result in the elimination of hundreds of California-based plastic bag manufacturing jobs and would dismantle a young but growing plastic bag recycling infrastructure," the coalition said in a statement recently.

For those who have a fundamental understanding of California grocery retailing, the notion that grocers are going to use sales of the paper grocery bags as a profit center is hard to fathom. Most likely, grocers will sell the bags for cost or a few cents over their cost. We predict it will be no more than 10 -to- fifteen cents a bag. Many grocers might even start out selling the bags for the five cents each, the minimum charge required in AB 1998.

Additionally, we suspect nearly all grocery chains and independents will sell the paper bags for the same price, or close to it, once it's established in the market. Safeway, Kroger and Walmart will essentially set the price as the biggest retailers and market share leaders in California.

We also suspect paper bag manufactures will raise the cost of the bags to California grocers if the legislation is passed because they will see a guaranteed market in California. Grocers will likely pass any cost increases on to shoppers. However, the last thing California grocers want to do is be accused of profiting from the sale of paper bags. The public relations damage from it would far exceed any minimal profit they might make.

The purpose of the minimum five cent charge for the paper bags is to encourage shoppers to use reusable bags. In fact, many supporters argue that five cents isn't enough. Rather, they say that a fifteen cent or more per-bag charge is probably required in order to economically motivate shoppers to bring their own bags to the store.

California grocers are already required by law to sell reusable grocery bags in their stores. AB 1998 maintains that requirement.

Grocers will still be allowed to use the types of plastic bags they currently use in-store for meat, produce, bulk foods and other items under a food safety provision in the bill.

So here's the scoop, according to Brownley: This week the Senate Rules Committee should propose some minor amendments to AB 1998 dealing with the key issues noted above. She hopes those changes will gain the support of those holdouts in the Senate. Those amendments can be changed and fine tuned until August 31, when the bill must be voted on. If supporters don't think they have enough votes, they can pull the bill from a full Senate vote and bring it back next year, although if they do that it will have to go before all of the State Assembly and Senate committees all over again. AB 1998 passed the full California State Assembly in June.

Meanwhile, both supporters and opponents are lobbying Senators hard and fast. Both groups are also using free and paid media and social networking sites to get their respective messages out to California voters, who they then hope will call and e-mail their State Senators telling the legislators how they want them to vote on the single-use plastic bag ban bill.

Last week the American Chemistry Council went big in lobbying the State Senate against AB 1998. The group also launched a video of its own, titled "Trouble."

The video is in part a response to a short film, "The Majestic Bag," narrated by actor Jeremy Irons, and put out by Heal the Bay, a Santa Monica, California-based environmental group which is one of the major supporters of AB 1998, as we reported in this piece last week - August 16, 2010 Supporters of California's First-in-the-Nation Single-Use Plastic Bag Ban Going Humorous to Win on the Eve of State Senate Vote.

The California Grocers Association (CGA) supports AB 1998, as we've previously reported. The CGA, which was founded in 1898, is a non-profit, statewide trade association representing approximately 500 retail members operating over 6,000 food and grocery stores in California and Nevada, and approximately 300 grocery supplier companies. Retail membership includes chain and independent supermarkets, convenience stores and mass merchandisers. Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is a CGA member, as is Safeway Stores, Inc. and most of the state's major chains and independents.

If passed, AB 1998 would prevent California cities and counties, accept San Francisco which already bans single-use plastic carrier bags, from enacting local laws regarding the plastic shopping bags. This provision is the main reason the CGA and its member-grocers is supporting the legislation. It wants a single-statewide law on plastic carrier bag use rather than the patchwork of local laws that currently exists.

It's estimated that about 19 million single-use plastic carrier bags are distributed in California retail stores each year. Just 5% of those bags are recycled, according to the state. If AB 1998 passes in the Senate, the Governor says he will sign it. If that happens, California will be the first state in the nation to ban single-use plastic carrier bags at grocery and related retail stores.

Numerous environmental groups and coalitions also support AB 1998. These include Heal the Bay, the Plastic Pollution Coalition, Californians Against Waste, Surf Santa Monica, and numerous others.

The California Legislature is going on being 60 days late without having passed a state budget. But starting today, along with more budget talks, the battle of the plastic bag will be front and center at the State Capital in Sacramento. Will the plastic bag ban pass? Or will its opponents succeed in bagging the bag ban? Stay tuned.

Related Stories:

August 20, 2010: Single-Use Plastic Carrier Bag Ban Bill AB 1998 Could Be in Difficulty of Passing in the California State Senate

August 16, 2010: Supporters of California's First-in-the-Nation Single-Use Plastic Bag Ban Going Humorous to Win on the Eve of State Senate Vote

July 20, 2010: California's First-in-the-Nation Plastic Carrier Bag Ban Legislation Looks to Be On its Way to Victory.

June 19, 2010: 'Paper or Plastic' Likely to Be Replaced By 'Reusable or Paper' (For a Fee) in California Grocery Stores

[Readers: Fresh & Easy Buzz has been reporting on, writing about, and offering analysis and opinion on the single-use plastic carrier bag, reusable bag, and related topics and issues since early 2008. Click here, here, here and here to read a selection of those posts.]

Single-Use Plastic Carrier Bag Ban Bill AB 1998 Could Be in Difficulty of Passing in the California State Senate

Breaking Buzz

California's AB 1998, the legislative bill that would ban single-use plastic carrier bags in the Golden State's grocery markets, retail stores over 10,000 square-feet with pharmacies and (in 2013) convenience stores, could be in trouble in the State Senate.

AB 1998 allows grocers and the other retailers to offer shoppers paper grocery bags at a cost of at least five cents each. Grocers in California are already required to offer reusable shopping bags for sale in their stores. AB 1998 maintains that requirement.

In this story on August 16, we reported that the Senate Appropriations Committee had voted on AB 1998. That's incorrect. The committee failed to reach a vote on the bill by its reporting deadline of August 13, so the chairman referred AB 1998 to the Senate Rules Committee. As of today, the bill is pending in the Rules Committee.

The full California State Senate must vote on AB 1998 by August 31, when the legislative body adjourns. And because the bill wasn't approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee, it now must receive a yes vote by two-thirds of the State Senators in order to pass. Previously all that was needed for the legislation to pass was a simple majority.

As we've reported previously, the bill to ban the single-use plastic carrier bags has the support of a majority of the members of the California State Senate. However, now that the vote will require a two-thirds majority rather than a simple majority, what previously was considered an easy victory for AB 1998 is now in question.

California Governor Schwarzenegger has said he will sign the bill if it is passed by the California State Senate. AB 1998 has already been passed by the California State Assembly.

Opponents of the bag ban, who've been relatively inactive of late compared to the bill's supporters, today seized on the change in the legislative process in the Senate, which now requires the two-thirds majority vote in order for the plastic bag ban legislation to pass and go to the Governor for his signature.

The main opposition group, which calls itself Stop the Bag Police [http://www.stopthebagpolice.com/] today said: "Opposition to AB 1998, the so-called 'bag ban bill,' is growing rapidly across the state. Hundreds of businesses, many of them small grocers and retailers, have joined forces with manufacturing associations, chambers of commerce and plastic bag makers statewide to send a clear message to Sacramento: start focusing on the real problems facing Californians."

The coalition's main argument against the single-use plastic bag ban is summed up in this statement from the group's spokesperson: "In its current iteration, AB 1998 would prohibit large grocers, drug stores, food marts and convenience stores from providing their customers free plastic bags and require a minimum five-cent fee on paper bags. The Senate Appropriations Committee determined that AB 1998 would require $2 million in new state costs to fund a new 'bag police' bureaucracy. The fees collected from paper bags would be pocketed by grocers and would not fund the infrastructure required by the bill. The passage of AB 1998 would result in the elimination of hundreds of California-based plastic bag manufacturing jobs and would dismantle a young but growing plastic bag recycling infrastructure."

Stop the Bag Police says it currently has nearly 500 businesses and organizations that oppose AB 1998.

Among those opposed to the legislation include independent grocers like Northern California-based Fiesta Foods and Food Fair Market, the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Long Beach, California Black Chamber of Commerce, the American Chemistry Council and others. You can view a full list of the businesses and organizations opposed to AB 1998 at [http://www.stopthebagpolice.com/.]

The American Chemistry Council which among other activities represents the manufacturers of single-use plastic carrier bags, is heading up the opposition to the bill.

Key to the single-use plastic carrier bag ban legislation's passing is meeting the August 31 deadline for a (now two-thirds) vote by the full California State Senate. If the bill isn't voted on by August 31, it goes away for this legislative session, which ends on August 31, and must be reintroduced all over again in next year's session.

Both meeting that deadline and obtaining the two-thirds majority vote now required to pass AB 1998 is no longer that "sure thing" for supporters of the single-use plastic carrier bag ban legislation, which includes the California Grocers Association, (CGA) the trade organization for California's chain and independent grocers.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, which is a member of the CGA, is in favor of AB 1998 by virtue of its membership in the trade group, even though the grocer offers only free single-use plastic carrier bags and no paper bag offerings in its 159 fresh food and grocery stores, 98 units of which are located in California. Fresh & Easy offers a variety of reusable bags in its stores, ranging from an inexpensive clear synthetic bag it calls a 'bag for life,' which sells for 20 cents each, to various varieties of cloth and canvas bags, with a starting price of one dollar.

The California State Senate's legislative clock is ticking for both the supporters and opponents of the single-use plastic bag ban bill.

Related Stories:

August 16, 2010: Supporters of California's First-in-the-Nation Single-Use Plastic Bag Ban Going Humorous to Win on the Eve of State Senate Vote

July 20, 2010: California's First-in-the-Nation Plastic Carrier Bag Ban Legislation Looks to Be On its Way to Victory.

June 19, 2010: 'Paper or Plastic' Likeley to Be Replaced By 'Reusable or Paper' (For a Fee) in California Grocery Stores

[Readers: Fresh & Easy Buzz has been reporting on, writing about, and offering analysis and opinion on the single-use plastic carrier bag, reusable bag, and related topics and issues since early 2008. Click here, here, here and here to read a selection of those posts.]

Supporters of California's First-in-the-Nation Single-Use Plastic Bag Ban Going Humorous to Win on the Eve of State Senate Vote

Bagging Single-Use Plastic Bags in the 'Nation State' of California: News/Analysis/Commentary

We last reported on and wrote about AB 1998, the California legislation that if passed would ban single-use plastic carrier bags from being used in the Golden State's grocery stores, retail stores over 10,000 square-feet that have pharmacies, and eventually convenience stores (in 2013), in this July 20, 2010 piece: California's First-in-the-Nation Plastic Carrier Bag Ban Legislation Looks to Be On its Way to Victory.

In addition to banning single-use plastic carrier bags, the legislation requires grocers and the other retailers to sell paper grocery sacks for a minimum of five cents each, which is designed to encourage reusable bag use by shoppers. California law already requires grocers to offer reusable shopping bags for sale in-store. AB 1098 maintains that requirement.

Since our July 20 story, the bill, which passed the California State Assembly and was then sent to the State Senate, has passed in the final key Senate Committee - Appropriations - and is awaiting a floor vote by the full California State Senate. That vote will take place before the end of August, according to our sources.

Passage in the California State Senate is the last leg of the legislative journey for AB 1098. And California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he will sign the bill if it's passed by the Senate.

At present, political odds-makers in Sacramento tell us the bill currently has majority support for passage in the State Senate.

However, supporters of the single-use plastic carrier bag ban in California, which would be the first state in the nation to enact such a law, aren't letting that majority support for the bill stop them from launching an all out campaign to win on the eve of the floor vote by the Golden State's majority Democratic State Senate.

In fact, some of the last minute pro-AB 1098 campaigning is down right humorous - but by design.

For example, one of the single-use plastic carrier bag ban legislation's supporters, the environmental watchdog organization Heal the Bay, today released a short film it calls a "mockumentary," designed to promote passage of AB 1998. The short film, which is narrated by Academy-Award winning actor Jeremy Irons, charts the "lifecycle" of a plastic bag to promote awareness of plastic pollution in California and beyond, according to the environmental group.

The "mockumentary," titled "The Majestic Plastic Bag," is filmed in the style of a Nature Channel documentary program and tracks the "migration" of a plastic bag from a grocery store parking lot to the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" in the Pacific Ocean.

Though lighthearted in tone, the short film hammers home the stark reality of California's plastic bag pollution situation: 19 billion bags are used every year, creating over 123,000 tons of unnecessary waste, costing taxpayers $25 million in cleanup costs a year, says Heal the Bay President Mark Gold. "Less than five percent of all single-use plastic bags are recycled, with many ending up as litter and in the ocean as plastic pollution," Gold says. Gold, explaining the philosophy behind using humor to make a serious environmental point in support of the single-use plastic bag ban.

"Rather than lecturing the audience, we wanted to create a film that would capture people's attention with humor," Gold says. "At the same time, we saw this as subversive way to make viewers realize the serious, far-reaching problem of single-use plastic bag pollution."

The "mockumentary," which was shot on location throughout Los Angeles, was developed by director Jeremy Konner of Southern California's Partizan Pictures, along with the the advertising agency DDB LA. The film had "little to no budget" and was created solely with donated time, Heal the Bay's Gold says.

Heal the Bay won't be getting any protests about the short film from California's grocers, since the industry supports the plastic bag ban bill through its trade organization, the California Grocers Association.

The 'Bag Monster'

Heal the Bay's short film comes on the heals of another humorous campaign in favor of AB 1098, which was held on August 12 at Ghiradelli Square in San Francisco.

The star of that pro-single-use plastic carrier bag ban legislation event was the "Bag Monster," otherwise known as Andy Keller, the inventor of the popular Chico Bag reusable shopping bag. Actually the "Bag Monster" is a costume made out of 500 single-use plastic carrier bags which Keller created to wear as a way to demonstrate the impact the plastic bags have on the environment. It's estimated each shopper in the U.S. on average uses 500 plastic carrier bags each year.

Keller now has numerous volunteers who wear the the "Bag Monster" costumes at special events, like the one on August 12 at Ghiradelli Square, which was a rally in support of AB 1098.

Keller and a bunch of other "Bag Monsters" staged what they called a "100 Bag Monster March" through the popular San Francisco shopping venue on August 12 in support of California's single-use plastic carrier bag ban.



In addition to the March, the event featured a press conference by Keller and supporters, as the video below details.



Press Conference: Part 2



It's not over until it's over though

In contrast to these and other activities from the various pro-single-use plastic carrier bag ban groups on the eve of the California State Senate's vote, those against the ban, including the plastic carrier bag industry trade association, are doing very little overt campaigning against the legislation.

Instead, opponents have been focusing most of their efforts on lobbying legislators. However, with such widespread support for the legislation, including from the California Grocers Association, the single-use plastic carrier bag industry appears, based on its low-level of campaign activity and even direct lobbying, to be seeing the writing on the wall that the bill will pass, and as he has said he will do, signed by the Governor.

But we doubt that will be the end of the story. Instead, it's likely the single-use plastic bag industry is saving its efforts - and cash - to fight the plastic bag ban once it is passed and signed into law by the Governor, something the industry has been successful at doing against bans in California cities such as Oakland and others. Stay tuned.

[Readers: Fresh & Easy Buzz has been reporting on, writing about, and offering analysis and commentary on the single-use plastic carrier bag, reusable bag, and related topics and issues since early 2008. Click here, here, here and here to read.]

The Winner of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Reusable Bag Design Contest Is...

Josephine Close with her $5,000 Fresh & Easy Gift Card and first place-winning reusable bag design. [Photo credit: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.]

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market announced today that Los Angeles resident Josephine Close is the winner of the El Segundo, (Southern) California-based fresh food and grocery chain's reusable grocery bag design contest.

Ms. Close's reusable bag (pictured below), which was one of the three-out-of-eight finalists in the contest we featured in a June 17, 2010 story - Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Picks Eight Finalists in its Reusable Bag Design Contest; Website Voting Through June 30 - was chosen as the grand prize winner by members of Fresh & Easy's 'Friends of Fresh & Easy' e-mail marketing program, according to the grocer's announcement today.

"I was absolutely thrilled when I found out that I won the bag design contest and want to thank Fresh & Easy's customers for voting for my design," Josephine Close says in the announcement. "I wanted to create a piece of art versus another bag with a lot of branding. Instead of drawing fruits and vegetables, I used their naturally-occurring colors to represent them in what I thought was a very abstract and unique way."

You can read Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's announcement about the winner here.

Bag design maven Josephine Close will have plenty of free groceries to cart home in her winning reusable shopping bag, since her prize is a gift card from Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market worth $5,000.

The winning bag design will be featured on a bag that will be offered for sale in all of the Fresh & Easy stores by the end of this year, allowing Josephine Close to see her design offered for sale in over 159 grocery markets in California, Nevada and Arizona, in the form of a Fresh & Easy reusable shopping bag.

A reusable shopping bag design star just might be born. Could there be a reality show in the future: "The Next Reusable Shopping Bag Design Star," perhaps?

Fresh & Easy's Design-A-Bag contest had more than 1,300 submissions, which were made through its website, according to the grocer. As we reported in our June story, eight bag designs - and designers - were then named as finalists in the contest. Fresh & Easy says in its announcement today that nearly 24,000 votes were cast by the 'Friends of Fresh & Easy' members to choose the first place winner - Josephine Close.

With the California State Senate set to likely approve a bill next month - which the Governor has said he will sign into law - banning single-use plastic carrier bags from being used to pack groceries at grocery and drug stores, along with other format stores over 10,000 square-feet that have a pharmacy, followed by convenience stores 18 months later - the timing of Fresh & Easy's bag design contest winning announcement is good.

Further, If Fresh & Easy can get Ms. Close's bag design out into the California stores very soon after the Governor signs the bag ban bill, which could be as early as September, into law, assuming it passes of course, even the better to gain some favorable "green grocer" publicity, if handled well from a media relations standpoint. [Read: July 20, 2010: California's First-in-the-Nation Plastic Carrier Bag Ban Legislation Looks to Be On its Way to Victory]

Fresh & Easy Buzz likes Ms. Close's bag design - it's creative and different than the usual designs chosen by professional designers for reusable shopping bags.

In fact, the paisley design evokes a bit of a 1960's look, in our opinion. And that's a look that surely reflects at least California's history, since the state was the epicenter of the counter-cultural, anti-Vietnam War, mod and related movements collectively known as "the 1960's." Remember how hot paisley was in the 1960's and 1970's old-timers?

The 1960's is also when the "green" or environmental movement took off, with California as it's epicenter. Half a century later it's California that still leads - although the state needs to kick it up a notch as others are gaining on it fast - in the modern day "green" movement, including preparing to pass the first single-use plastic carrier bag ban in the nation.

Therefore, Josephine Close's winning reusable shopping bag design for a grocery chain based in California - El Segundo in the Southland - with its 1960's-evoking paisley motif - is sort of a come full-circle experience, in that it invokes the Golden State's "green" roots while ushering in a new era in which California is posed to lead the nation in the use of reusable bags if and when the current single-use plastic carrier bag ban legislation is passed and becomes law.

Related Stories:

June 17, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Picks Eight Finalists in its Reusable Bag Design Contest; Website Voting Through June 30

April 19, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Joins Kroger Co. in Holding Earth Month-Earth Day Reusable Bag Design Contest

July 20, 2010: California's First-in-the-Nation Plastic Carrier Bag Ban Legislation Looks to Be On its Way to Victory

June 19, 2010: 'Paper or Plastic' Likeley to Be Replaced By 'Reusable or Paper' (For a Fee) in California Grocery Stores

June 18, 2010: Kroger's 2010 Reusable Grocery Bag Contest Has Ended; Winners to be Named in July

[Readers: Click here for a complete selection of posts on the reusable shopping bag topic and issue from Fresh & Easy Buzz.]

California's First-in-the-Nation Plastic Carrier Bag Ban Legislation Looks to Be On its Way to Victory

Bagging Single-Use Plastic Bags in the 'Nation State' of California: News/Analysis/Commentary

California Assembly Bill 1998, which would ban single-use plastic carrier bags from being used in the Golden State's grocery and drug stores, appears on the road to becoming law.

Assembly Bill 1998 (The Single-Use Bag Reduction Act), authored by Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, a Democrat from Santa Monica, passed on June 1 in the California State Assembly, by a 41-27 margin.

[Read - Fresh & Easy Buzz - June 19, 2010: 'Paper or Plastic' Likeley to Be Replaced By 'Reusable or Paper' (For a Fee) in California Grocery Stores]

After passing in the State Assembly, the bill went over to the California State Senate Environmental Quality Committee, which recently approved the legislation in a 5-2 vote.

The bill is now in the California State Senate Appropriations Committee, where it's set to be voted on by August 14.

If the bill passes in Appropriations - which more than likely will be the case - the legislation then goes to the full California State Senate for a vote. In order to meet the legislative deadline, the bill must be voted on and passed by August 31, 2010.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he intends to sign AB 1998 if passed and sent to him.

The legislation bans single-use plastic carrier bags at grocery and drug stores in California. The single-use plastic bag ban would be phased in over two years, starting with supermarkets and any other format store over 10,000 square-feet containing pharmacies. Convenience stores would have until July 1, 2013 to comply with the law.

The bill also allows grocery and drug stores to offer paper grocery bags to shoppers, which the retailers would have to sell to customers for a minimum of five cents per bag. California grocers are already required by law to offer reusable shopping bags in their stores.

As we outlined in our June 19 story, the legislation is supported by the California Grocers Association (CGA), the state's trade association, which represents chain and independent grocers with stores in the Golden State.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is a CGA member, and therefore supports the legislation banning single-use plastic bags, as does Safeway Stores, Inc., Save Mart Supermarkets, WinCo Foods, the Rite Aid drug chain and numerous other food and drug retailers, many which are listed below.

Below is a listening of some of the key supporters and opponents of the single-use plastic carrier bag ban legislation.

Supporters:

California Grocers Association
Californians Against Waste
Heal the Bay
1 Bag at a Time Inc
AFSCME
Amerigreenbag.com
Association of Communities United of South Los Angeles
Ballona Creek Renaissance
Bay Area Council
California Association of Environmental Health Administrators
California Coastal Coalition
California Coastkeeper Alliance
California League of Conservation Voters
California State Lands Commission
Chico Bag
City of Burbank
City of Del Mar
City of Long Beach
City of Newport Beach
City of Pasadena
City of San Buenaventura
City of San Clemente
City of Solana Beach
City of Ventura
Clean South Bay
Clean Water Action California
Defenders of Wildlife
Downtown Encinitas MainStreet Association
Duro Bag Manufacturing Company
Earth Resource Foundation
Earthwise Bag Company
East Bay Municipal Utility District
Environment California
Envirosax
ForestEthics
Fresh and Easy Neighborhood Market Inc.
Friends of Five Creeks
Global Green USA
Green Sangha
Humboldt Coastkeepers
Humboldt County Board of Supervisors
Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County Solid Waste Management Committee/ Integrated Waste Management Task Force
Marin County Board of Supervisors
Monterey County Board of Supervisors
Monterey Regional Waste Management District
Natural Resources Defense Council
Neighborhood Market Association
Northcoast Environmental Center
OCEANAOrange County Coastkeeper
Ormond Beach Observers
Planning and Conservation League
Plastic Pollution Coalition
PW Supermarkets Inc. (San Jose)
Rainforest Action Network
Rite Aid
San Diego Coastkeeper
San Francisco Chamber of Commerce
San Luis Obispo County Integrated Waste Management Authority
Santa Barbara Channelkeeper
Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors
Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission
Santa Monica Baykeeper
Save Mart Supermarkets
Seventh Generation Advisors
Sierra Club of California
Solid Waste Solutions Inc
StopWaste.org – Alameda County Waste Management Authority
Steven Bochco Productions
Super A Food Inc. (Commerce)
Surfers’ Environmental Alliance
Surfrider Foundation
State Lands Commission
Urban Semillas
Washington Elementary PTA
Western States Council of the United Food & Commercial Workers
WiLDCOAST
Wild Heritage Planners
WinCo Foods Inc.
Wisdom Academy for Young Scientists
Youth Opportunities for High School and Associations of Communities United of South Los Angeles

Opposition:

American Chemistry Council
American Forest & Paper Association
Biodegradable Products Institute
Bradley Packaging Systems
California Film Extruders & Converters Association
California Forestry Association
Californians for Extended Producer Responsibility
Central California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Command Packaging
Corona Chamber of Commerce
Crown Poly Inc
Great American Packaging
Heritage Bag
Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
Metabolix
Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce
Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce

If the legislation passes - all current indications are that it will and the Governor has said he will sign it into law - California will be the first state in the U.S. to impose a ban on single-use plastic carrier bags at grocery and drug stores.

The law also will preempt all city and county bag ban laws in the state, accept San Francisco's, which has an exemption in the legislation.

But once passed and signed by the Governor, California's single-use plastic bag ban law could find itself spending years in the courts.

The single-use plastic carrier bag industry, through its trade association, has been successful in getting municipal bag ban laws in California cities like Oakland and Manhattan Beach struck down by the courts.

Many observers believe the single-use plastic carrier bag industry will file suit against the California law not long after it's signed by the Governor. One key reason it could do so is because the California law would be the first such statewide ban in the U.S., and likely will serve as a model that other states will follow. This is something the single-use plastic carrier bag industry wants to avoid - the establishment of the first statewide ban.

On the other hand, since California's grocery and drug retailers are in favor of the ban, the single-use plastic carrier bag industry would find itself in a strange position if it does file suit. In doing so, it would essentially be fighting to keep the use of plastic carrier bags legal in California grocery and drug stores, even though the primary users of the bags - the grocers and drug chains which operate those stores - are in favor of banning the bags.

California's grocers are in favor of the legislation because they want one single, uniform statewide law, rather than a patchwork of municipal and county single-use plastic carrier bag laws, whcih require the retailers to do one thing in city A and another in City B. For example, Safeway can't offer single-use plastic carrier bags at its stores in San Francisco. However, it can offer them at its store in South San Francisco (it's own municipality) which is literally next door to San Francisco. The same with other grocery chains and multi-store independents.

Therefore, if the single-use plastic carrier bag industry does file suit against the California law (assuming it passes of course), we suspect the California Grocers Association will join the State of California in arguing to uphold the law, thereby pitting the plastic bag industry against the grocers, sonething it should think twice about doing, since many of the chains like Safeway Stores are major customers for single-use plastic carrier bags for company-owned chains and stores outside of California.

Reader Resources:

>Ronald Fong, president and CEO of the California Grocers Association, authored an opinion piece in Sunday's (July 18) Sacramento Bee, in which he describes why the state's grocers are in favor of the single-use plastic bag ban legislation. You can read his Op Ed here. Look to the write of Fong's Op Ed. There are two other opinion pieces offering different perspectives.

>Also on Sunday, July 18, Kroger Co.'s Fred Meyer food and general merchandise chain, which has 130 stores located in the Pacific Northwest and Intermountain regions in the Western U.S., announced it would stop offering single-use plastic carrier bags in its 10 stores in Portland, Oregon. beginning on August 1, 2010.

Oregon is considering bag ban legislation similar to California's. Fred Meyer has decided to get out in front of the pending legislation by doing a unique test - which you can read about here - at its 10 stores in Portland.

>Fresh & Easy Buzz has been reporting on, writing about, and offering analysis and opinion on the single-use plastic carrier bag, reusable bag, and related topics and issues since early 2008. Click here, here, here and here to read a selection of those posts.