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* <br /> <br />5/13/13 – email to Stephanie Scafa <br />What is the purpose of the bag fee? <br /> a. If it is to re-emburse the store for cost of paper bags, then it is an over charge. All traders <br />then stores from time imemorial have always added to the price of the goods they sell the cost of doing <br />business. Supplying paper bags is a cost of doing business. The fact is stores never lowered their prices <br />when they shifted to plastic unless paper requested, so they have actually been collecting money to pay <br />for paper bags they never sold for decades. Now the public is faced with being charged another nickel <br />on top of what they have already been paying for bags. <br /> If you know different then I'd like to see both pricing models for before and after the advent of plastic <br />bags as I never noticed the decrease in price for the cheaper bags. You need a different motivator. I <br />suggest having no bags to offer the public at all. Advertise it widely then and no one gets ripped off and <br />resentful over paying extra for something they already paid for. That is how you drive innovation and <br />change not by stealing money for a corporation that is not going to incerase its tax payments to the city <br />voluntarily for the favor of incrteasing its profits. <br /> <br /> b. If the nickel were sent on to the city, still not a great idea, the city should buy reusable bags with <br />it and give them away free. <br /> <br />* <br /> <br />5/7/13 <br />Mayor Piercy, <br /> <br />I had a bad couple of experiences as a result of the bag ban. <br /> <br />I went to Albertsons on Royal and Danebo and I go to the self checkout and I see no paper bags out. I am <br />informed that I have to personally find someone on duty and request the number of bags I think I will <br />need, they will come over personally and escort the bags to the self-check out area and ensure they got <br />added to my bill before I could access them. If I am short one (because I don't want to get more than I <br />need), I have to repeat. <br /> <br />On the same day, a few minutes earlier, I had to go to the front part of the store where they sell <br />cigarettes so I could buy a lighter and pay for the candles I was buying for my wife's birthday cake. I had <br />to have a bag, I realized, because I forgot I still had to go the back of the store to get the cake, and <br />without a bag it would look like I didn't pay for it, but I had to pay before leaving that counter and so <br />there I was, stuck. So after I was rung up, I gave a $1 and they rang up a separate 5 cents and gave me <br />95 cents change, and then handed me a full size grocery bag for two objects I could have cupped in my <br />two hands so you couldn't see them. <br /> <br />I feel exactly the same as when I go to a gas station and have to ask for a key to the restroom and then <br />return it. I feel exactly the same as if the carts were removed from grocery stores and I had to rent one <br />and someone had to accompany me at all times to make sure these particular leased carts did not leave <br />the property. I feel like raising my hand in class to say I have to go potty or something. <br /> <br />I suggested they stock the bags by the self-serve with just bar codes and pricing so I could scan a bag, <br />load it, if I need more, scan another and load it and then ring up my final total. They said they couldn't <br />