OPPOSITION TO TEN CENT BAG FEE
The New York City Council has introduced a new bill that will charge shoppers ten cents per plastic shopping bag used to carry home their goods. The fee would apply to grocery stores, bodegas and street vendors that sell food as well as other merchandise.
Brad Gerstman, lawyer and spokesperson of the New York Association of Grocery Stores (NYAGS) is adamantly opposed to the bill. “It’s a tax on small businesses and their customers,” Gerstman states, “and it’s insane at this juncture to further incentivize customers to go shopping in a different city or state.”
The fee imposes an unreasonable burden on small businesses, grocers and bodegas, and will drive away customers. New Yorkers walk to and from their grocery stores and need bags to carry home their items. The cost of living is expensive and inflated in the city as it is. Customers cannot afford to pay more for their groceries, and grocers cannot afford to lose business.
Gerstman calls this fee “outrageous” adding that not only is it unenforceable, but it is an unfair administrative burden imposed on the smallest of bodegas. The fact that these small businesses would be subject to a fine if they failed to collect the fee is unnecessarily extreme and unfair.
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The New York Association of Grocery Stores (NYAGS) is a coalition of local New York City grocers fighting to stay alive as special interests and big chains continue to encroach on the businesses our families have maintained for decades. NYAGS works towards stopping the assault against grocery stores as well as the food service industry all over New York by the Mayor and other government officials. NYAGS will play a substantial role in being the lead advocacy group in redefining how the city treats our retail establishments throughout NYC. NYAGS will promote unity and financial stability to small business throughout NYC.
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