Two Brandon grocery stores will be ending the use of plastic checkout bags later this week.
Beginning on Friday, in place of plastic bags at checkouts both local Sobeys locations will move to encouraging customers to bring or purchase re-usable grocery bags while also offering paper bags at a cost of ten cents each. Plastic wet bags will remain available for meat and produce.
Sobeys first announced the upcoming change for all 255 of its Canadian stores in July 2019. At the time it was said that the change was expected to remove 225 million plastic bags from circulation in the country annually.
Sobeys maintains two stores in the city; one at Shoppers Mall and one as part of WestVic Common on Victoria Avenue West. Other brands operated by the company, including Safeway, are said to be moving towards a similar ban at a future date.
Sobeys is the first national grocer to make the change. Folks locally can expect more of the same in the city in the months ahead with Brandon Council having voted in December to ban single-use plastic bags in the city beginning January 1, 2021 should the Province not implement a ban sooner. Council began discussing the prospect of such a ban in 2019 in the wake of a local petition calling for a ban that saw in excess of 1,100 signatures.