With yesterday's Stop and Shop announcement that the store will no longer be charging Rhode Islanders 10 cents per paper bag at their Ocean State locations, we discussed whether it has affected business for the grocery store giant.

When the new policy was put into place at Stop and Shop last spring, I was not happy.  I was a regular shopper at the Fairhaven store.  I vowed to not buy any bags.  I'd walk out of the store looking like a fool as I juggled my items out to the parking lot and all the way to my car.

I'm not going to say that I don't shop at Stop and Shop anymore, but truth be told, I have definitely shopped there less over the past year.  I feel like a grumpy old man to admit this, but I'm bitter when the self check out asks me how many bags I used.  I've softened my stance, I do buy the bags, but I don't like it.  As I said last year when they rolled out the policy, just figure it out and bake the cost of the bags into the cost of groceries.

I believe that Stop and Shop must have seen a downturn in their number over the past year.  With the cost of inflation, 2024 was the wrong year to make customers feel like they were getting nickel and dimed to death.  I don't think they would have backed off in Rhode Island had their numbers stayed steady.

We asked our Facebook audience, "Did you spend less at Stop and Shop when they started charging for bags."  The response was overwhelmingly strong with a vast majority of respondents saying they absolutely are shopping less at Stop and Shop over the past year.  I predict we will see Stop and Shop change up their bag policy in the relatively near future.

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