The perk of a fast-food drive-thru is convenience. But it's NOT convenient to be handed your food loose, without a bag.
People in Pittsburgh have been complaining about a 10-cent bag fee that has started showing up on receipts, even when ordering at a McDonald's drive-thru. And it's apparently happening at all fast-food places in the city.
Pittsburgh has a new ordinance banning plastic bags. A lot of cities have done this: There are no single-use plastic bags at stores, so you can either bring your own bags, or pay a fee . . . usually 10 cents . . . for a paper one.
But people in Pittsburgh say they can't understand why it's happening at McDonald's, because they always had paper bags, not plastic . . . and some think that they're TAKING ADVANTAGE of the rule by adding a fee.
Especially since you really NEED the food bagged for most drive-thru orders.
McDonald's says they had no choice. The new Pittsburgh ordinance is REQUIRING them to charge customers 10 cents for each paper bag . . . and they DON'T have that fee outside the city.
It seems like the problem in Pittsburgh may be how the ordinance is written.
There are supposedly exceptions for any order that includes OPEN FOOD, like fries or a muffin . . . anything that isn't completely wrapped. So that could mean that a cashier has to determine whether or not the customer gets a bag fee.
Plus, there should be a reasonable way to AVOID the fee . . . since the whole point of it is trying to get people to use fewer bags.
In grocery stores, you can usually bring your own reusable bags. But it's very unlikely a restaurant would take people's potentially dirty reusable bags inside to pack their order.
Or . . . if a customer doesn't want a bag . . . drive-thru lines will take longer as cashiers individually give out each item, while waiting for drivers to find a place in their car to set it down. It sounds like a mess, literally.
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