Call it an unintended side effect of the state's plastic bag ban.
New Jersey supermarkets say shoppers are walking off with baskets and are loading up the store baskets and taking those home, instead.
"It's foolish, why would you steal the basket, they need them," Christine Young, who was loading up her car with groceries, said Friday. "I think it's foolish people are lazy."
Statewide, supermarkets and grocery stores are reporting that handheld baskets have gone missing by the thousands.
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Forgetful shoppers who might be trying to avoid paying for a reusable bag might be sticking some stores with a tough payday -- some baskets run as much as $8.
The Trenton-based New Jersey Food Council, which represents supermarkets and grocery stores, said it's an industry-wide issue, and the price of those baskets has started to increase.
A spokesperson for Stop and Shop said they’ve been hit too by this unintended consequence of the ban on plastic bags, but she didn’t say how they’re going to deal with the problem.
