NJ’s stupid bag ban still causing chaos and hardship

It’s been almost a year and a half since New Jersey has a ban on bags, both paper and plastic at supermarkets convenience stores and yes, even farm markets. What some farm markets will do is give you a clear plastic bag, which is just as thin as the white or green plastic bags that they used to give out. Now many of them have stopped, even allowing those to be given out, by order of the state.

Dennis Malloy / Townsquare Media

Supermarkets sell their reusable bags by the checkout lines in mass quantities. Some people refuse to buy them because they already have six of them in their car and a couple dozen of them in their house. They forgot to bring in with them and you can still see people walking out of the supermarket, or farm market this time of year, with their arms full of products.

But the main chaos is now caused by a lack of handheld shopping baskets. For many of us who just buy a few items a few times a week, those hand baskets sure come in handy. Now we have to grab a cart even if we have eight or 10 items.

Dennis Malloy / Townsquare Media

This makes it cumbersome and chaotic in the supermarket because now everyone has a shopping cart! The stores stopped replenishing their supply of hand baskets when they keep losing them to people walking out the door with them. It’s an unintended consequence of a really stupid law.

Some people claim they see less of those flimsy plastic bags flying around the street or hanging from trees. I notice no difference there. But I do notice a difference of unhappy shoppers being forced to comply with this pointless, virtue-signaling law. That makes absolutely no sense and benefits no one. Not even the sea turtles.

Preparing for NJ's plastic bag ban

Gallery Credit: Dennis Malloy

LOOK: Here are the pets banned in each state

Because the regulation of exotic animals is left to states, some organizations, including The Humane Society of the United States, advocate for federal, standardized legislation that would ban owning large cats, bears, primates, and large poisonous snakes as pets.

Read on to see which pets are banned in your home state, as well as across the nation.

Gallery Credit: Elena Kadvany

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy only.

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