Loading nearly a dozen plastic shopping bags full to bursting with groceries into her car Saturday in the parking lot of Pete’s Fresh Market in Oak Park, Tina Miller was frustrated.
But she was angry not with Oak Park officials — who imposed a 10-cent-per-bag tax starting Jan. 1 in an effort to keep the plastic and paper sacks out of landfills and from being strewn on village streets. She also wasn’t upset with Pete’s, where a clerk charged her more than $1 total for the bags that were free just last week.
“I’m annoyed at myself,” Miller said with a sigh. “I got my reusable bags out last night, laid them out, so I wouldn’t forget to bring them. And I left them.”
Miller, a Chicago resident, was one of about a dozen shoppers interviewed this week at Pete’s, where store officials said the new charge had drawn only a few complaints from shoppers caught unaware after an education campaign by village officials and environmental groups.
Many shoppers said the fee wasn’t too painful after paying 7 cents for plastic or paper bags at grocery and big-box stores in Chicago since February.
“I’m used to it because I shop a lot in Chicago, although I started to come to Oak Park to avoid paying for bags,” Miller said. “Now, I have to remember my bags. Maybe I should shop more in Chicago because if I forget, at least the bags will be cheaper.”
Ray Turcotte, of Oak Park, found himself in a similar spot at Pete’s.
“I remembered that the bag tax went into effect after I got into my car today,” Turcotte said. “So I went back into the house to get our reusable bags, but I couldn’t find any, even though we must have at least 20. They must have all been in my wife’s car.”
Turcotte said he did not mind having to pay 40 cents for bags in the end.
“I support the bag-free economy,” Turcotte said. “My frustration was at home, not here.”
Kim Demitro and Caleb Arthur, both of Oak Park, were prepared for the fee and brought enough reusable bags to cart home a week’s worth of food.
“I think the village imposed the fee for the right reason,” Demitro said. “I want to do my part to help the environment.”
But even for some who managed to remember to bring reusable bags on their shopping trip, it proved tricky to make it out the door without paying the fee.
Michael Kulhanek remembered to bring a couple of totes — but items he picked up on impulse meant he did not have enough bags to get all his purchases home.
“I’ll have to rethink either the number of bags I have or what I buy,” Kulhanek said, laughing.
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Instead of ponying up 10 cents for a paper or plastic bag, Kulhanek carried his overflowing purchases home by hand, after stuffing his green reusable tote as full as possible.
But even for those like Eva Pearson, a resident of Oak Park for 10 years who managed to bring enough reusable bags to avoid paying the fee, the new charge stung.
“It is another pinch,” Pearson said, adding she was frustrated by tax and fee increases in Oak Park. “I’ll try to be more aware of bringing bags, that’s for sure.”
Heather Cherone is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.