Canada’s largest drug store chain has started charging customers a nickel per bag at its B.C. locations as shoppers come to grips with the new harmonized sales tax.
Clerks at Toronto-based Shoppers Drug Mart (TSX:SC) now regularly show startled customers signs at check-outs stating the new fee started July 1. But don’t expect competing B.C.-based pharmacy chains to follow suit.
Richmond-based London Drugs has no immediate plans for its 73 stores to charge for single-use plastic bags. Nor does Langley-based Pharmasave, which is the banner for more than 400 independently owned stores across Canada.
Pharmasave CEO Sue Paish told Business in Vancouver July 7: “We would not charge our customers for services that we think are intrinsic to their retail experience without giving them advance notice and an explanation and an opportunity to understand why we’re doing something.”
She said Pharmasave staff urge customers to buy reusable bags.
“Our bags are recyclable and biodegradeable in B.C. While we think that the reusable bag is the most sustainable practice at the present time we don’t have an intention to charge for our biodegradeable bags.”
The City of Toronto issued a bylaw in June 2009 requiring all stores to charge $0.05 each time they give a customer a single-use plastic bag.