The Board of Supervisors will be taking a vote today about a long-discussed proposal to charge customers a fee for every bag they take from a grocery store or retail outlet. Ross Mirkarimi is the sponsor of the ordinance, which takes a further step from the 2007 law banning plastic bags in S.F. (which clearly the pink-plastic-bag distributors of greater Chinatown never got the memo about), and requires everyone to use compostable paper bags or reusable bags manufactured for 125 uses.

The initial fee, which would take effect next July, would be 10 cents per bag, going up to 25 cents in 2014. Exempted in all this would be dry cleaners, who can still use plastic, and restaurant doggy bags.

Our big question, which we're betting no one has considered, is when exactly will the Safeway clerk charge us our fee: Will they say "It looks like you'll need five bags, sir, unless you want us to double-bag it..." and then we'll have to negotiate all this before sliding our debit card? That sounds like a pain in the ass, no?

[Examiner]