Boston to bag the plastic bags starting tomorrow

Stores that cater to a population they distrust do this. I can't believe you have never encountered this! Goodwill used to do it, but quit years ago. America's Food Basket is an expensive grocery store that caters to poor people. Will they force customers to buy bags? If so, will the city intervene?

I've lived in Chelsea and have spent lots of time working or going to school in Dorchester, Lynn, Cambridge, Salem and Saugus and would say... that I am not shocked you failed to encounter this in Cambridge, Newton or Brookline as those residents would never stand for such a thing.

As for Chelsea, Dorchester, Lynn, Salem and Saugus... I am well versed in the old check your bags system. When paper was a thing there was the staple your bag system. This was much more prevalent back in the old mini mall days before they started tearing them down. The Mystic Mall in Chelsea was very much like this, if I recall the Assembly Square was after they lost their anchors and Building 19 became the top of the heap.

You are/were most likely to find that in discount stores , dollar stores , BD's, Family Dollar type spots (although I do not think Family Dollar itself does this.)

There seems to have been a drop off in this practice in many areas but I think that is due in part to better technology camera wise and also in gentrification. Newer residents are much more likely to put up a stink if you try to force them to check their bags (I assume someone like you would freak out since it seems so foreign to you) where as those of us who had been shopping there for years would just hand over the bags because it was normal.

Wallets and purses are not generally included in "check your bag" policies.

It's really rare these days, but when I was a teen and 20-something back in the 80's and early 90's it was fairly common in shops that had a big shoplifting problem, and no security cameras.

If I was carrying a big purse...say as big as a shopping bag...the clerk in charge of holding people's bags would tell me to take my wallet/coin purse/checkbook with me. If I was carrying a smaller purse I could keep it with me, but backpacks and shopping bags were checked.

Now that almost every store has some sort of video surveilance it's really rare for a place to make you check your bags.

Urban Renewals in Allston seems to be the only one left in that area that still does it, but enforcement is haphazard at best. I've been asked to check backpacks, but not my messenger bag on the days I use that instead. I've also not been asked to check my laptop bag, but my reusable shopping bag with the grocery store name on it, I've been asked to check.