Free Reusable Grocery Bag Roundup

I brought my own environmentally-friendly bags to shop at the Safeway (CityVista / 5th & K St NW) on Friday (Jan 1) but had a large load of groceries and ended up one bag short. The cashier graciously provided me one of Safeway’s $1.50 resusable bags for free.

Kudos to DC for taking this pro environmental initiative!

So there is a contributor at PQLiving that prefers to still shop at the O Street Giant for their regular grocery needs? Or did they go there this week simply because of the bag giveaway?

Paul: I don’t regularly shop at the O St Giant. I just went there to complete this post.

I went to the 5th st Safeway on Sunday. I was in a long line and the cashier did not ask anyone if they wanted resuable bags (for free or for a charge). I had mine with me though, so no idea if they were in fact charging 5 cents for each bad.

CVS has changed their self-checkout so you now key in the number of bags you are using prior to completing the transaction. didn’t see any of the sturdy recycled plastic reusable bags around…didn’t look though.

I think they need to offer more of an incentive for bringing your own bag or at least charge more than 5 cents if you use a plastic bag. I know 5 cents can add up is constantly do not bring your own reusable bag but in order to really get people to change they need to charge more. Phase in a higher cost slowly so people can prepare.

Hmpf I just assume shop in Virginia

Just went to the CVS on Mass Avenue and they didnt offer any bags to purchase or for free. Good thing I bought my own bags. I keep one in my desk at work and one in purse. For groceries, I just go to MD or VA. If I do go in DC, I just dump the stuff from my cart to my trunk. No bags needed for that!

I dont want to be a walking advertisement for Giant/Safeway/Trader Joes, etc. Even though the Marshalls in Potomac Mills gave out great tall bags with your December purchases!

Oh for cryin’ out loud. A Redskins bag isn’t embarrassing. It’s the Redskins’ season that was embarrassing. Give it a rest.

I was in GW Hospital’s cafeteria lunch time today, and I was charged for the plastic take-out bag. just at Are we expected to walk around with reusable bags? Do I need to stash a plastic bag in my purse?
What experience have y’all had with take-out.

Nice roundup! Now if I can just remember to bring my bags with me at all times. And I agree with the above post–they should have charged more than 5 cents a bag.

The law applies to takeout food places as well — at least so the sticker on the cash register at my lunch place indicated

Here’s the listing of CVS bag give-aways. Appears to have been a one-time thing, nothing in our neighborhood and very little friendly to people who work during the day:

Thursday, December 03, 2009 10:30 a .m. – 1:30 p.m. 845 Bladensburg Rd. NE
Friday, December 04, 2009 10:30 a .m. – 1:30 p.m. 4851 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Monday, December 07, 2009 10:30 a .m. – 1:30 p.m. 1900 7th St. NW
Tuesday, December 08, 2009 10:30 a .m. – 1:30 p.m. 5550 Connecticut Ave. NW
Wednesday, December 09, 2009 10:30 a .m. – 1:30 p.m. 5013 Connecticut Ave. NW
Thursday, December 10, 2009 10:30 a .m. – 1:30 p.m. 6514 Georgia Ave. NW
Friday, December 11, 2009 10:30 a .m. – 1:30 p.m. 110 Carroll Ave. NW
Monday, December 14, 2009 10:30 a .m. – 1:30 p.m. 1403 Wisconsin Ave. NW
Tuesday, December 15, 2009 10:30 a .m. – 1:30 p.m. 4859 MacArthur Blvd. NW
Wednesday, December 16, 2009 10:30 a .m. – 1:30 p.m. 1201 Maryland Ave. SW
Thursday, December 17, 2009 10:30 a .m. – 1:30 p.m. 1100 New Jersey Ave. SE
Friday, December 18, 2009 10:30 a .m. – 1:30 p.m. 401 M St. SW
Monday, December 21, 2009 10:30 a .m. – 1:30 p.m. 2646 Naylor Rd. SE
Tuesday, December 22, 2009 10:30 a .m. – 1:30 p.m. 3230 Pennsylvania Ave. SE

I went to 5th St. Safeway yesterday and self check-out was a nightmare. First the sensor didn’t recognize an object in the bagging area — that would be my reusable bag. So it made me wait for assistance for 2 minutes. Assistance never came and after much prodding and fruitless scanning I was able to start checking out. But as I put objects in the bag it constantly reverted to the unrecognized object … and would freeze for a minute or two. I then started doing “skip bagging” and putting the products in my reusable bag on the floor, but apparently there is a limit to how many times you can do that. Exacerbating the problem was the Safeway employee assigned to the self check-in who refused to acknowledge me. After about 10 rounds of “please wait for assistance” I stood there with my hand raised in the air like a schoolkid until she would come over and help me. She told me there was no way to resolve the problem and that it was doing it “for security”. I told her that her management better find a way to resolve it because I don’t wait in Safeway’s long cashier-manned lines and I’m not going to spend 20 minutes in self-check-out — Virginia is only a few minutes drive away, as a previous poster pointed out. I encourage others to make some noise about fixing the self-check-out process or I’m sure nothing will ever be fixed.

I’ve been using my own bags at City Vista Safeway the entire last year at the self-checkout. I just deal with the freeze up every few minutes due to the ridiculous “security” measure of not recognizing environmentally friendly bags. I deal with it and though it is inconvenient, it is not impossible and it is better than the manned lines. No need to stomp over to VA or MD. Most of the employees in that area are alert to the issue. If you get a non-cooperative employee, report them to management so that they will place the helpful folks in the area instead.

Self checkout is a disaster for reusable bags. I have been bringing my own bags for a long time, and I gave up on self checkout long ago. The sensors can’t deal with my bags and the stores don’t put enough employees on the SE lines to make it a time saver. I have no problem with bagging my groceries, though, so if CV Safeway wants to move a few of their designated baggers into cashier positions, that would go a long way to solving the problem of long lines. I agree with Anon @ 9:51–if CV Safeway doesn’t fix the line problem, they are absolutely going to lose business. (They’ve already lost some of mine to another chain for exactly this reason.) On the bright side, I think the lines at Trader Joe’s in the West End are a model of efficiency that all supermarkets should aspire to!

At least at big box places like Costco, they give you a box.
I buy a lot of take-out and prepared food. Items can leak so I don’t want to use a re-usable bag.
Either I’ll buy a box of small bags at Safeway or just pay for bags when I check out. It’s all in the bag.
I wonder if those driving out to MD or VA will after awhile jjust say, oh heck and shop nearby.

The Harris Teeter bag is really unfortunate. In December I got a couple free reusable bags that were green with a Harris Teeter logo – no gaudy Redskins crap. They also had wine bags for 6 bottles of wine that are really sturdy to carry when you are loading up.

Want a great bag? http://www.envirosax.com/ – you can buy them all over the net and a few local retailers. They fold into nothing, and are machine washable for leaky loads. I carry 3 in my messenger bag at all times — they hold a lot and are easy to carry. Well worth the investment.

I second the Envirosax suggestion. They have self-tabs so you don’t need to worry about losing the bag for your reusable bag (how silly is that?) and the handles are easy to sling over your shoulders. I have some Baggu bags I never use b/c they have separate bag holders and the handle design makes it almost impossible to comfortably carry them on your shoulders.

As of last night, Harris Teeter was giving away regular green bags sans any Redskins logo or colors!