Publix is giving away free reusable bags in its Miami Beach stores. Is this the future?
Notice the eye-catching reusable bags Publix is handing out for free at its Miami Beach stores?
The environmentally friendly bags look almost like a regular brown paper grocery bag with the green Publix logo, but the design is a bit different. The special bags are not quite as deep and are a bit more rectangular than the chain’s regular green reusable, non-woven polypropylene bags that sell for 99 cents.
These promotional freebies also add green “Miami Beach” lettering in an Art Deco font similar to the old “Miami Vice” logo.
The only vice Publix hopes to eliminate is a reliance on single-use plastic bags.
The giveaway is at the Miami Beach Publix stores only, including the Dade Boulevard, West Avenue, 68th Street, and the Fifth and Alton locations. The freebies are limited to one per customer and available while supplies last.
Customer opinions
Customers seem to be noticing.
Miami Beach Police spokesman Ernesto Rodriguez tweeted out his appreciation on Monday.
“I LOVE that they’re doing this and that they’re custom to Miami Beach,” he tweeted. The @NFL shop had large reusable bags for their purchases also. I’m a bag hoarder, I have like 4.”
Twitter user Ramsey Simon responded, “Wow, @Publix. You’ve outdone yourselves. This is gorgeous.”
“It is a marketing initiative we are trying in the Miami Beach market and we are happy it took off,” said Publix spokeswoman Nicole Krauss.
If you shop once or twice a week you won’t be able to get all of your groceries into the one Miami Beach bag, but they complement the regular reusable ones and are similarly washable.
The move comes as municipalities across the nation are trying to find ways to eliminate single-use plastic altogether.
Miami Beach banned single-use plastic beverage straws, stirrers and single-use plastic bags on the city’s beaches, streets, and prohibiting plastic bags from being distributed by sidewalk cafes, marinas and other public places — but not from grocery stores like Publix.
In September, the City Commission unanimously passed an ordinance that prohibits single-use plastic beverage straws and stirrers citywide.
Coral Gables’ plastics ban battle
Publix hasn’t banned the plastic bag entirely, except you won’t find them in the Coral Gables stores anymore.
In 2016, Coral Gables’ Commission voted to ban the use of single-use plastic bags and Styrofoam.
Last August, Coral Gables unanimously voted to appeal to the Florida Supreme Court a lower court’s decision preventing the city from banning single-use plastics and Styrofoam. The lower court had sided with Florida Retail Federation, which had sued the city over its bans. The case is pending.
But whatever decision comes, that doesn’t mean Publix has to offer plastic bags in the City Beautiful.
“We haven’t put the plastic back in the [Gables] stores,” Krauss said. “We know customers care about this thing in that area. At this point in time we don’t know, in the future, if that would change. But we don’t have plastic in the stores as of now.”
You’d also be hard-pressed to find single-use plastic straws for sale in the Pinecrest Publix, too. But, so far, plastic bags and traditional paper are still available at the checkout counters.
‘A hot topic’
At this point, Publix doesn’t plan to yank the plastic or make city-specific bags — for free or for sale — across the state or at its stores outside of Florida. And a decision hasn’t been made as to whether these currently free “Miami Beach” bags will be sold once the promotion ends.
“We’re always looking at what communities are requesting,” Krauss said. “This is something unique to Miami Beach. Our customers in that area were interested and cared about it.
As for the difficulty of doing business amid ever-changing local laws, Krauss said it hasn’t been difficult for Publix.
“We try to be as compliant as we can,” she said. “It’s such a hot topic and these things are changing all the time.”
This story was originally published February 5, 2020 at 3:39 PM.
