A quiet shift has taken over San Francisco Safeway stores, and is causing a jarring problem at the checkout counter.
Safeway recently switched to paper bags without handles, according to KGO-TV, and the shift appears to be widespread across San Francisco’s Safeway stores. On Thursday, employees at five different Safeway locations in the city confirmed to SFGATE that their stores offered only paper bags without handles.
Safeway customer Mark Thomas called the new bags “completely useless” and said that he struggled carrying two grocery bags without handles from the Castro District location on Tuesday. Thomas told SFGATE that he normally takes his reusable bags during grocery hauls, but that day he didn’t and regretted the four-block trek back home.
“My arms were squishing all of my groceries,” Thomas said. “It just seems like a really cheap move by Safeway to save a hundredth of a penny on some glue and some handles.”
Thomas said Safeway offered him a $5 credit after he called to complain, although he didn’t feel like the store took his complaint seriously enough. He said he will avoid shopping at Safeway until the grocery store giant brings back bags with handles.
“There are bigger problems in the world, but it just seems part of a much larger trend of these large corporations trying to fleece Americans out of everything they can,” Thomas said.
A Safeway spokesperson, who declined to share their name on record, confirmed that the chain had switched to paper bags without handles, citing a “global supplier shortage” that has limited the availability of handled bags. The spokesperson did not answer SFGATE’s questions regarding which locations are affected and how long the handleless bags will be used.
It’s not the first time we’ve seen a paper bag shortage. During the early pandemic years, restaurants struggled to replenish paper bags amid a shortage driven by an increase in takeout orders. Grocery chains also felt the pressure, with some markets reverting to plastic bags to ease the impact.
Grocery stores are no longer able to legally offer plastic bags in California, after the state banned all plastic grocery bags starting on Jan. 1 of this year. The executive director of nonprofit Californians Against Waste, Mark Murray, previously told SFGATE that the move would help eliminate the up to 3 billion plastic grocery bags “that continue to be distributed in the state annually.”
There have been reports of other chains on the West Coast switching to paper bags without handles. Earlier this month, Seattle alt-weekly the Stranger reported that a Fred Meyer store was also using bags without handles. Kroger, which owns Fred Meyer, reportedly did not respond to the newspaper’s questions regarding the change.