The injustice of trying to live green

The last time I was out of town and shopped at Whole Foods, I picked up a couple of their canvas bags. I was sick of the never-ending crinkling mass of plastic bags that rolled around my kitchen like tumbleweeds. And I had that guilty pull at my soul, you know the one where you realize that it's up to YOU to do something to help the environment? Yep, that was a biggie.

I've been shopping with them for a while now. I haven't used a plastic bag since, and I love it. I feel good about it, and I was relishing the 10 cent discount I got every time I bought groceries at Fred Meyer. I noticed a few weeks ago that they started selling their own small canvas bags for a dollar. What a great idea, and I was thrilled that they were selling so quickly. Oddly, I've never seen a shopper actually using the bags, but I'm sure they must.

So as I started the checkout at the U-Scan on Tuesday, my routine was the same. I entered the code for the bag refund, and started scanning and bagging my items one by... WTF?? My 10-cent credit was reversed! I finished my scanning and then asked the young man who was manning the U-Scan station. He told me that they don't do the refund any more. I asked, "Oh really? When did that start?"

"Ever since they started selling the Fred Meyer canvas bags, a few months ago," he said.

"But I shop here or at the other store almost every day, and I've always gotten the refund... even as recently as yesterday!"

"Hmmm... that's bad."

"So let me get this right. I can't get the refund any more because my bag doesn't say Fred Meyer on it?"

"Uh huh. The only way to get the discount is to use the Fred Meyer canvas bag, or to reuse the Fred Meyer paper or plastic bags."

"That's lame. So totally lame."

"Yeah."

I was so aggravated and disappointed at that point, I was ready to get out of the store. One of my fellow U-Scanners came up to me and told me I should talk to the store manager about it. I kind of laughed at her, saying that I knew it wouldn't do any good. She said, "It might."

I left the store, did a couple of other errands, and I still couldn't stop thinking about this. So I went back to the store. I asked to speak to the store manager, and was told that he was out of the store till Thursday. I am going to go in and talk to the manager this afternoon. Not that I actually expect anything to change, but I don't want to let this go without a fight.

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UPDATE:
I was told that the store manager hadn't shown up for work today. Awesome. At least the customer service clerk offered to summon over the assistant manager to talk with me. I explained everything to him, and he wasn't even clear on what the store policy is. After conferring with the operations manager, he said that on a corporate level the refund is being discontinued. But on the local level, the stores will continue to offer the refund. He apologized very sincerely, and assured me that the checkout staff would be given correct information. I left the store feeling good. I'm glad I voiced my concerns, and I'm proud of myself for doing something instead of just grumbling to myself.