Customer Survey Results
A survey was administered on two separate days on a Sunday early afternoon and a Thursday 5 pm in October 2023 in front of Valle Produce in Evanston, IL. Evanston has instituted a plastic bag ban and a 10 cents bag tax. Below are the results of the customer survey.
| Item | Number /Percent |
|---|---|
| Total participants | 81 |
| Percent who brought reusable bags | 49% |
| Percent who didn’t bring reusable bags into the store because they left the bags in the car | 6% |
| Maximum number of bags used for shopping | 2-4 |
| Percent who can donate cotton bags | 33% |
| Total number of cotton bags that can be donated: (2 people who said hundreds, were excluded) | 127 |
| The average number of cotton bags people can donate of those who can | 5 |
| Percent who will use free donated bags | 67% |
| Percent who will reuse the donated bags they took | 62% |
Comments from participants:
- a few expressed disbelief that a bag tax would be charged for single use paper bags. The words used were ‘crazy’ and ‘stupid’. Ended up wasting so much paper from double bagging.
- a couple of them mentioned need for public announcement
- wish more stores would do it
- Valli’s old ‘reusable’ plastic bags were not appreciated. The word ‘ridiculous’ was used.
- a number of them like plastic bags, used it for garbage liner
- would take donated bags if they can be returned
- hate paper bags, the handle may fall off, not for heavy items
- like paper bags, can be composted
- don’t mind the 10 cents, hate paying Evanston more taxes
- I’m so cheap I would never pay for bags
- going to reusable heavy plastic is lame
- easy to not bring enough bags because I end up with more than I planned to buy
- never remember to bring them, so I have to buy bags
- for 1 or 2 items, I don’t need bags
- do they still collect plastic bags for recycling? I bring plastic wraps for recycling
- should charge for plastic bags to phase them out
- should offer reusable bags at farmers market too
- should offer incentives or rebates for bringing reusable bags
- should incentivize bag donations
- have always gotten paper bags here, won’t change anything
- should use paper produce bags
- should raise the price of paper bags
- a number of people like the idea of free reusable bags
- cheap reusable bags should be available for sale
- a couple of people said they started using reusable bags after the ban
- need different sized bags
- wish they can return paper bags
- Not happy with the extra cost of bags