There are many irritating parts to this story, but it does have a satisfactory ending. First, I'd like to point out how annoying it is that if I want a better price on a product, I usually have to buy it online. I've seen this practice at Walmart, Fred Meyer, among many other places. This particular incident (if you couldn't tell by the title) was Target. If I'm choosing to go INSIDE your store, where I'll probably impulse buy something else, you'd think I'd get a better price when I'm actually in the store. But oh well, that's their practice.

The item I wanted to buy was a CD. Before you go and question why I still buy CDs, I've already written my thoughts on that subject here. When I checked Target's website, it was mainly to see if they had it in stock; they did, but only 2 copies, and that "online price," so I decided to go ahead and buy the album.

Owning Physical Vs Digital Media!

When I got to the online checkout, I noticed a "paper bag fee" of $0.80. WTF? I looked all over before hitting the final confirm purchase, and there was no way to remove the bag fee. It's a CD; I don't need to purchase a bag. I wanted the album, it was still a good price, in my opinion, so I just figured that it better be a damn nice paper bag!

tsm/Timmy!

After double-checking the confirmation email to ensure I didn't see things, I went onto my social media to "vent" about the bag fee. One of my friends decided to be a smart aleck and flip me crap about my not wanting to spend money to help the environment.

"Who would have thought that the fix for climate change was paying for grocery bags!?!"

So there are a few thoughts I have on this. First, if the money for the bag would go in ANY WAY to help nature, that'd be one thing. But it doesn't; it goes to the store you're buying the bag from. If those stores are forced to give a cut to help nature, that'd be one thing, but if they are forced, I'm pretty sure it would be paid to the government, and I'm not so sure they'd be using that to help Mother Earth.

Giphy.com

The other thought is the "NO OPTION" to decline the bag. This is really what the $0.08 fee was hoping to do, get people to stop using bags. Cool, I don't want a bag. But you're forcing me to purchase one for this online order, which is cheaper than in-store. But if you're tacking on $0.80, is it really any cheaper? Are they tacking on that fee to make the money back?

Giphy.com

The last thought was… 80 CENTS? Not that I'm a penny pincher in any way, but .80 cents for a PAPER BAG, when I thought plastic was the enemy? If it were the .08 cents, I would still be annoyed that I was not given the option to decline a bag, but I doubt I'd be writing about it.

THE CD PICK-UP AT YAKIMA TARGET!

Those who know me know I try to be friendly, especially to anyone doing their job, especially in the customer service industry. They take enough grief nonstop, and they don't need my griping. So when I went to Target to pick up my CD, I nicely asked why the .80 cents and offered to return the one PLASTIC (not paper) bag. The sales clerk was super nice and professional. He told me how it's just the way the online is set up, it automatically charges for 10 bags, and then, when the items are gathered and prepared for pick-up, a refund is given depending on how many bags are used. He agreed that there should be an option to choose no bags, but that's how it works.

Before I started writing this article, I checked and was refunded for my bag fee. But did Target Charge me $0.80 for a paper bag? Yep. Did they make it right in my mind? Yes, they did. Why did I write this whole thing? To let other people know; that way, they don't get fuming mad like some can, and take it out on a worker, just doing their job.