Ray's eliminates plastic bags

On Monday, January 14, Ray's Food Place began implementing a new policy in which they will no longer offer customers the choice of plastic bags at checkout. Ray's parent company C&K Market made the change in response to the company's renewed commitment to be a leader when it comes to responsible, sustainable practices regarding plastic bag waste.

"By making this change, we hope to make a positive impact on each local and regional community we serve," explained Greg Sandino, President and CEO of C&K Market, Inc. "We hope other retailers in our area will join us in this initiative."

Customers shopping at Ray's will have the option to either use paper bags or reusable bags at checkout. Ray's will offer reusable bags for purchase for 99 cents each and are 100-percent reusable and recyclable. In addition, any customer bringing in any reusable bag, paper or otherwise, will receive a five-cent refund.

"We knew about the change around the first of the year, and last week is when we started implementing the new policy, and stopped giving out plastic bags," said Assistant Store Manager Gabriel Gillan. "We still have plastic bags in the produce and meat departments for items that are juicy and leaking, and until a viable solution comes up that is ecological and still sanitary we'll still provide those bags."

In an effort to create awareness in the community, Ray's will be participating in a gift-card drawing for customers using their reusable bags (which includes reusing paper bags). Ray's customers can win a $25 Ray's gift card by simply bringing in a reusable bag each time they shop. Cashiers will distribute qualifying customers an equal number of raffle tickets for the number of reusable bags used during each transaction. At the end of each week through Valentine's Day, each Ray's store will draw one $25 gift-card winner.

The impact of customers switching to paper bags is immense. By customers using reusable bags or even paper bags twice a week for two years, customers will replace more than 400 plastic bags. As a country, we now throw away over 100 billion plastic bags annually. Each non-recyclable plastic bag takes more than 1,000 years to break down in a landfill.

C&K decided to make the move after the company tested the program in three of it's California stores. With success in the California stores and positive feedback from customers, C&K gave a green light to the program.

With a phasing-in of the program nearly two weeks ago at the local Ray's, feedback has been positive here as well. "Since we made the move, very few people have asked about the plastic bags," Gillan said. "And the response to moving to paper only has been extremely positive."