Beginning January 1, 2020, All five Kennie’s Markets (in Biglerville. Gettysburg, Littlestown, Spring Grove, and Taneytown, MD) will stop providing single-use non-recyclable plastic bags to customers as they check out.
Shoppers are requested to bring their own recyclable shopping bags for their groceries.
The policy was shared, beginning in November, on signs displayed at the cash registers. The announcement was signed by Kennie’s board chairman PK Hoover and President/CEO Craig Easter.
“You don’t have to buy a $2 canvas bag. The ten cent bags are good for 125 uses and can be recycled in the store when they wear out. We tested them and got good feedback on how well they’ve held up,” said Gettysburg Store Manager, Nathaniel Brusby.
Non-recyclable plastic bags will still be available at the checkout for customers who wish to wrap their vegetables or meats. “We’re looking for other solutions for these bags,” said Brusby.
Brusby said the alternative of providing single-use paper rather than plastic bags was not workable. “They would cost a lot more and paper bags are also not good for the environment,” he said.
“Kennie’s is constantly looking at what we can do to better our stores for our community. The initial reaction is that it won’t be inconvenient. We’ll keep it as customer-friendly as the single-use was,” said Brusby.
Kennie’s long-time policy of providing a refund of five cents for each recyclable bag used by customers will be discontinued.
Brusby said the decision was brought on by the environmental damage caused by the 5.5 million plastic bags the stores have been distributing every year.
“We made the change for environmental reasons. We’ve been conscious of this for a while. We feel very strongly about it. It’s a countrywide problem,” said Brusby.
“There have been months of planning with a lot of discussion. We worked with people from various walks in the business, including upper management. The more we looked at it the more we thought it was the right thing to do for our communities,” said Brusby.
Brusby said initial responses have been very positive. “We’ve received a ton of positive feedback from the community. Our cashier support is insanely good. We definitely got some negatives but we feel we’ve eased the transition,” said Brusby.
Since opening its first store in 1959, Kennie’s has focused on serving local communities. “We are community focused. We want 100 percent to take care of our communities,” said Brusby.
“This is not something that most companies are doing. We wanted to be sure we didn’t alienate our customers with it,” said Brusby.
The new policy was perhaps unexpected, as a Kennie’s spokesman spoke forcefully against a proposed ban on plastic bags at a Gettysburg Borough Council meeting in June, saying a ban would force customers to other stores outside of the borough.
“A ban was not the right way to get the message to the community. A ban would be difficult for low-income and fixed-income families,” said Brusby.
“We have a varied group of customers and we’re looking to take care of everybody. We don’t want to burden customers on a tight budget,” he said.
Charles (Chuck) Stangor is Gettysburg Connection's Owner, Publisher, and Editor in Chief. I would like to hear from you. Please contact me at cstangor@gettysburgconnection.org.