A city ordinance now allows fast-food restaurants to charge customers 10 cents for bags. Jonathan Gonzalez reports for the NBC4 News at 6 p.m. on Thursday, July 25, 2024.
If you stop by any McDonald’s location in the city of Los Angeles, after being asked, “Do you want fries with that,” you may also be asked, “Do you also want a bag for that?”
Fast-food chains, such as McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A, are now charging for bags at some of their Los Angeles-based stores.
This is frustrating some customers who say it’s unclear why they’re suddenly being charged 10 cents for bags.
“I'm going to drive-thru, and I see the sign: There's a mandatory charge of 10 cents per bag,” said Dr. KT Shakur, who reached out to NBC4 because he didn’t know why the McDonald’s he visited recently on the outskirts of downtown LA was suddenly charging for bags.
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“I was like, 'Wow,'” he explained. “What if someone came to the drive-thru and just could not afford any extra fees? A mom with a couple of kids just getting by?”
In a statement, the LA City Attorney’s Office said the initial bag ban ordinance from 2013 was amended to include restaurants and took effect in July 2023.
“The requirement is that all facilities subject to the ordinance provide reusable bags to customers, either for sale or at no charge, for the purpose of carrying away goods or other materials from the point of sale,” the statement said. “If recyclable paper bags are provided, the customer is to be charged $0.10 for each bag. This ordinance expanded the applicability of the 2013 single use plastic bag ordinance beyond just grocery stores.”
We reached out to McDonald’s, whose app gives customers an option to purchase up to 10 bags, to determine why LA-based franchises are now charging for bags, but did not hear back.
“If I didn't want to pay for the bag, would you just hand me my food items directly out of the window,” Shakur asked.
It turns out, no.
In several take-out and drive-thru experiences at McDonald’s locations, NBC4 learned the stores still provide bags even when no bags are chosen as an option on the app.
Meanwhile, officials with Chick-fil-A, which operates five stores in Los Angeles, told NBC4 it’s up to each LA franchisee to determine whether or not to charge for bags, in accordance with the ordinance.
Some Chick-fil-A locations have been charging for bags for months, and some have even posted warnings to customers, advising them they may be charged a bag fee.
Consumers like Shakur said they feel nickel-and-dimed enough.
“Just eat the cost,” he said. “McDonald's is one of the oldest established standing fast-food franchises in all of the entire world because they're a global brand. Right? You're not going to lose anything by eating this cost of 10 cents.”
