I’m Taking $200,000 from Loblaws & Giving it to Walmart

Back when I first moved out of my parents’ home, the first few places I lived happened to have Loblaws stores as the closest place to buy groceries.

As a result of that, I’ve been shopping almost exclusively at Loblaws ever since – about 20 years now.

But a year or two ago, the cashier asked if I wanted my groceries bagged.  Something the store has been doing for all those years for free, but now they were going to charge me 5 cents for every bag…

The surface reason for this charge is to deter people from using plastic bags, and instead haul around some reusable bags of their own.

But my first thought was: if using plastic grocery bags is so unfriendly to the environment, how does it make it any more friendly by me handing over a few bucks to Loblaws every trip?

Most people assume all that money goes toward an environmental charity or research, but according to a Toronto Star article earlier this year, that’s not the case.

Retailers told them that a portion of proceeds were being invested in environmental initiatives, but none would disclose how much profit they have made from the fees, nor exactly how much of that was going to associated charities.

Officials with the Canadian plastics industry say that from estimated profits – around $15 million from plastic-bag fees since June [7 months] – retailers are clearly taking in most of the proceeds.

“At five cents a bag, a lot of money is being collected,” said Cathy Cirko, vice-president of environment for the Canadian Plastics Industry Association. “And at the end of the day, it’s really the retailer who is benefiting.”

The Star’s article singles out Loblaws as one of the chains that implemented the 5 cent charge “long before it was required to do so” (*ka-ching*) and pledged to give World Wildlife Fund Canada $1 million a year for the next three years, from partial proceeds and a corporate donation.

…donations that are likely a tax write off anyway?

But does anyone remember back when the cashiers would ask if you wanted “paper or plastic”?

As a kid I remember plastic bags not being used for groceries at all. everything was carried in from the car in large brown paper bags.

Those bags could be made from recyclable paper, which may have originally come from sustainable forests, and would degrade much faster – possibly within a few months – or could be recycled yet again.

Paper bags worked for decades and we didn’t have to pay for them.

But either way – as a long time customer I saw this as a cash grab on Loblaws part under the veil of being environmentally conscious. Charging me for something I use to get free for 20 years.

Fortunately Kingston has at least one option to grocery shop without this charge: Walmart.

Therefore – as someone who spends about $450 every month (and the equivalent in 2010 dollars over the past two decades), that’s over $5,000 every year.

I figure I’ll be around at least another 40 years, which works out to more than $200,000.

And so, as a long time customer of Loblaws – spending about $100K in today’s dollars over the past 20 years – I’ll be bringing that future $200,000 to Walmart.

…at least as long as they don’t start charging for bags.

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Additional reading: Toronto Star “Where are the plastic bag fees going?“

Tags: Kingston Business

Category: Editorials