Whole Foods discontinues 10-cent bag credit for customers who bring in reusable bags
CHICAGO (WGN) — Whole Foods, an American supermarket chain with locations in 45 states, Canada and the United Kingdom, has discontinued its program that offered customers a 10-cent grocery bag credit for those who brought in reusable bags.
The 10-cent bag credit program, often referred to as the BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag) refund, was implemented in 2008 as a means to encourage customers to adopt using reusable bags.
According to a company spokesperson, with reusable bags now standard practice around the United States, Whole Foods sunset the program, though the company said they continue to encourage customers to maintain the environmentally friendly habit.
'World's Best' speakeasy in the Loop quietly closes
As the years went by, Whole Foods' BYOB refund program proved to be ahead of its time. In 2017 under then-Mayor Rahm Emmanuel, the City of Chicago implemented a 7-cent tax on checkout bags aimed at reducing the circulation of one-use plastic bags.
According to a study conducted by the University of Chicago's Urban Labs, they discovered Chicago's bag tax reduced disposable bag use from 82% of consumers to just 54%, while doubling reusable bag use from 13% to 29%—a change that occurred within the first month of the tax in 2017. The study also found this trend persisted as time went on.
As a part of Chicago's budget that passed for fiscal year 2025, the city voted to increase the checkout bag tax from seven cents to ten cents, with nine cents from every bag going to the city, and one cent from every bag going to retailers.
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