ShopRite ends payments for bringing reusable bags to store

You can still recycle shopping bags, food wrapping, plastic wrap, dry cleaner bags and other plastic at ShopRite stores, such as the one in Paramus, above.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I got the bad news on Thursday when I stopped at the ShopRite in Paramus to pick up fruit and sweet potatoes.

When the woman at the checkout didn't deduct 5 cents for my reusable bag, I asked her what was up.

It turned out that five days earlier, ShopRite stopped giving customers 2 cents back for plastic shopping bags and 5 cents back for reusable bags, according to a notice hanging nearby.

The notice said the supermarket chain had met its "goal of educating customers and encouraging bag reuse."

That leaves Whole Foods Market as the only supermarket chain I patronize in North Jersey that gives cash back for reusable bags (10 cents per bag).

H Mart, a small chain of Korean supermarkets, discontinued its cash-back program, and Trader Joe's and New York-based Fairway Market never had one.

Costco Wholesale, where I spend most of my food dollars, never bagged customer purchases.

ShopRite claims that "over the past seven years, our customers have reused more than 321 million bags."  

How ShopRite saves money

According to nyc.gov, ShopRite's "Save-A-Bag" program began in 1990, and has saved the supermarket chain $1.5 million by reducing bag purchases.

The savings to consumers is put at $1.2 million.

ShopRite Supermarkets (Wakefern Food Corp.) is the largest retailer owned food cooperative in the United States, with more than 190 stores in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Delaware and Pennsylvania, according to the Web site.

See: Promoting bag reuse at ShopRite