SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - While Extra Foods on Old Airport Road has countless reusable grocery bags, the downtown store has none.

The downtown Extra Foods hasn't had the black reusable grocery bags for sale at the end of checkout lines for three weeks now, according to Laura Holland, interim store manager.

Adam Sams said he doesn't think it's unreasonable to be charged for using plastic bags, but figures grocery stores charging for plastic bags should have reusable bags available at all times. The downtown Extra Foods has been without reusable bags for almost three weeks now, forcing customers to use plastic if they don't already own reusables. - Andrew Livingstone/NNSL photo

"We've been waiting on them for some time now," Holland said. "It's likely due to the high demand. I don't think it was expected people would be buying them as much as they have been."

In April, Loblaws-owned grocery stores across the country – including the two Extra Foods in Yellowknife – began charging five cents for every plastic grocery bag, a move that received mix reviews from residents. The five-cent charge will help Loblaw meet its goal of diverting one billion plastic shopping bags from landfills by the end of 2009, the company said in a press release in April.

However, with no alternative available for the last three weeks, people have been forced to buy the plastic bags.

"They should have reusable bags available all the time," said Carol Wasylkiw.

Adam Sams said he hadn't really thought about it much, but thinks the option of buying reusable bags should be available at all times.

"It's such a small fee that you don't really think about it," said Sams. "But maybe it's unreasonable."

Both Sams and Wasylkiw have reusable bags at home, but they say they always forget to bring them.

"I already have like 10 of them," Sams said.

Holland said the store is expecting a shipment of the reusable bags to come in sometime this week, but isn't completely sure when or if they will arrive this week at all. She also said she wasn't sure how many reusable bags have been sold since they started charging the five cents for plastic bags but figured it to be a lot. Jeff Tonge, manager of the Extra Foods on Old Airport Road said they sell a lot of the reusable bags as well.

"We'd been selling a lot of them even before the bag charge came into effect," said Tonge.

Partial proceeds of the five-cent fee is being donated to World Wildlife Fund Canada, totalling $3 million over three years. The funds will be used to promote environmental practises among Canadians.

The rest of the money will be invested in the company's shopping bag reduction program and to keep prices low, the company said.