By Aaron Kunkler
Small businesses in Kirkland may no longer have to charge a five-cent per bag fee following a 6-1 vote by the City Council on April 5, which paves the way for a full vote on an ordinance next week.
Following pressure from local businesses and the Kirkland Downtown Association, council members reversed a portion of their plastic bag ban after only one month, voting to draft an ordinance for a moratorium on the five-cent fee for most small businesses which will be voted on at an April 19 council meeting.
Grocery, convenience and drug stores, along with gas stations and super-centers are still required to charge per bag.
The ban took affect in March and was met with widespread resistance by local businesses. Along with banning small, single-use plastic bags, the ordinance also required businesses to charge the fee on paper bags in an attempt to encourage reusable bags.
This fee had to be paid by the customer, not the business, and each violation could result in a $100 fine for the business, said Kirkland Downtown Association Director Barbie Young.
Young said she talked with many of her member businesses and found the charge was unpopular with local businesses.
“In general, the whole reason why we were fighting it was not because the ban of the plastic bags, we totally agree with that,” Young said. “The problem was with the five-cent fee, which the merchants were forced to put through to their clientele.”
During the council meeting, councilmember Penny Sweet, herself a small business owner, said the ban had negatively impacted businesses.
Concerns echoed by other council members included anecdotal reports that customers were unsure of which businesses would charge and surprise they were being charged at all.
“People are leaving our stores with bad impressions,” Sweet said. “I think this is an opportunity for us to score a win with this business community.”
Councilmember Shelly Kloba, the lone ‘no’ vote from the decision, said one month was too short a time to accurately assess if small businesses were being harmed by the fee.
But Young said the ban was hurting smaller merchants, whose customers often buy on impulse, instead of on a plan, like a trip to the grocery store, where the fee would be expected.
Small businesses also rely on custom bags for advertising, and if more customers opted to use generic reusable bags, Young said it could dampen their effectiveness.
Some members of the council felt the moratorium should be permanent, a position with which the Association agrees.
The one year moratorium was justified as a way to let the council gather more facts and anecdotes from area businesses and must be either extended or revoked by another vote in the future.
