So now we aspire to be like Kenya???:1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

I was up north in December and not one store had a plastic bag. I walked out of Kohl's carrying my goods in my hands, I was actually laughing because we all looked so funny, no bag even offered. In the Shop Rite I brought the groceries to the car just like at Sam's. No big deal, just keep your cloth bags in your car or cart. People up north are all used to it. We will get that way too.

As a single, spur of the moment, grocer shopper, this doesn't work for me, not to mention ongoing attack on trees. I will focus on Winn-Dixie and Fresh Market going forward.

How's this for a protest idea:

Load up you cart, let them ring it up, and then ask what they are going to put the groceries into. If they say nothing, just walk away. If enough people do this, they'll change their tune, since it will be more expensive to them than using plastic bags.

Oh, BTW, In case my previous posts give you the wrong idea about my attitude, I'm all for recycling, saving the environment, etc. I just object to someone else mandating it and shoving it down my throat. George Orwell is mumbling in his grave "I told you so"

I don't have a dog, but when I walked my "granddogs" I would use the plastic bags that our newspapers were delivered in. Perfect size.

Well they could just cancel the buy online pickup in store program, which is new, and make you go shopping like you probably had to as recently as a year ago.

Personally I find the concept of ordering food online to be creepy anyway. I won't ever do it. I imagine I'd get home and discover the tomatoes and pears aren't ripe enough and have to bring them back. The ice cream is halfway melted, the meat has way too much fat, they got the wrong type of paper towels (I wanted the choose-your-size not the full size!), and they're missing the pound of butter. Even if just ONE thing isn't perfect, I'd have to make a whole separate trip back to the store to correct it.

So much easier to just go to the store and do it myself. And bring my bags with me.

Easy fix; keep a bag in your car.

If this Publix policy is even true, they're not mandating it for you. You are absolutely welcome to buy virgin-plastic heavy-duty garbage bags that have come straight from the oil wells, using coal or deisel fuel to fire up the machines that make it, in a town where the air pollution is so bad you can see the huge gash in the ozone layer without a telescope, and then toss them in your triple-layered extra-heavy garbage bag in your garage the second you get the groceries out of them.

However, you have to bring the bags yourself. That is all. No one is saying you can't use plastic bags. They're saying you may, but Publix is not going to pay for them. That is all.

You can always use paper bags.

Reusable bags need to be washed after each use from the contaminants that store items carry.

Only the ones with foods that can contaminate things with. Plastic bag-covered breads, canned goods, paper goods - do not have to be washed after each use.

If you're buying meat, chicken, fish, produce - you can put those in the produce bags that they will continue to provide at the produce section, to keep them from contaminating the bag.

If you use cloth bags, you would want to wash them regularly anyway.

Again - this is not a "thing" in any part of the world where plastic bags are considered a premium product and not offered free at stores.

Yes, and you are welcome to use your dirty cloth bags that you keep in the trunk of your car, that you drive to the store after filling up with gas that comes from the same oil wells, then drive it bag to your garage with the automatic door opener and light that runs on electricity from the same source. And remember all the time you are doing this, China and India are dumping millions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere and laughing at us

So Publix thinks plastic bags are destroying the planet -- but they will sell them to you at 99 cents

After unloading your groceries put your reusable bags on the passenger seat in the car, easier to remember to bring them in with you :)