People in Texas Share Strong Feelings Over Being Charged for Bags at Stores

Recently on a local social media group page, Longview, Texas area people were discussing this new trend of being charged for bags after doing their shopping at certain stores in the area.

And people have strong feelings about it--in one way or another.

One of the stores I shop at in Tyler, Texas charges for bags. I confess the first time it happened I was a little surprised. Being charged for bags after spending hundreds of dollars at a store seems unfair to some people. I wasn't mad, but...yeah, surprised, having not seen it in our area before.

I remember being in Iceland and being charged for grocery bags, and just knowing that's how things work there. It happened again in California and, again, I just assumed that's how it was there, too. But I didn't expect to see it here in East Texas.

It would seem it's becoming a somewhat more common thing in East Texas, as well.

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In the local social media group, a Longview area woman shared her experience after shopping at H & M in Longview. She was taken aback at checkout when the employee, perhaps noticing she'd not brought her own bags, asked her if she'd like to pay .12 per bag to carry out her purchases. The woman asked "What do you mean, 'pay for bags?'"

The employee clarified that yes, the bags were for her purchases that she'd JUST made at the store. When she asked what alternative did she have to take her purchases out of the store, he told her she could either put them in her purse or carry them out.

She was unhappy about this. And who can blame her for being a little shocked? It's hard to spend a ton of money at a store when budgets are already a little tight, and THEN be asked to pay for the bags to carry out your stuff when you've never encountered it before or know the 'why' behind it.

The frustrated Longview, Texas lady posed the question to the group: "What the heck is going on? This is absolutely insane!"

There are now about 557 comments in response to this woman's post. Many people were quite unhappy about being charged for bags, as well. Others were a little bit snarky in their response, which is an attitude that seems unnecessary in response to a sincere question.

Others seemed to have just accepted it and said they've been seeing it in bigger cities for quite a while now, and that businesses say they're doing it to be more eco-friendly or to offset inflation costs so they don't have their prices as much. Others suggested that one way or another we're paying for bags--whether at the checkout or it's built into pricing.

Whatever the response, it clearly resonated with many people in East Texas in one way or another. Here's some of what people had to say in response:

Your thoughts? Feel free to share at tara.holley@townsquaremedia.com.