New Jersey supermarkets are having their shopping baskets stolen after a strict plastic bag ban was imposed in the state

• Supermarkets in New Jersey said their shopping baskets have been going missing.
• This started happening after a strict plastic bag ban was implemented this spring.

Supermarkets in New Jersey said their shopping baskets have started going missing after a strict shopping bag ban was implemented in the state.

Northjersey.com, a local media outlet, spoke to the representatives of several grocery store outlets, who said they had noticed more baskets being taken by shoppers.

"They are just disappearing," said Louis Scaduto Jr., CEO of the Food Circus Super Markets. "I may actually have to just do away with them soon, can't afford to keep replacing them."

Meanwhile, a representative for Stop & Shop in Long Branch told the outlet that its shopping baskets were also going missing. The company has also put up a sign in its Middletown store stating that its hand baskets must remain in the store at all times.

"Like other retailers across the state, we have experienced theft of our handheld shopping baskets — an unintended consequence of the ban on plastic and paper bags," the Stop & Shop representative told Northjersey.com.

Speaking to NBC New York, New Jersey grocery shopper Christine Young berated people for stealing shopping baskets.

"It's foolish, why would you steal the basket, they need them," Young said. "I think it's foolish people are lazy."

According to NBC, the stores' baskets could cost as much as $8 each.

The New Jersey shopping bag ban, one of the strictest in the US, was implemented on May 4, and bars the use of single-use bags, including paper bags, at large grocery stores.

This is not the first time shopping baskets have been stolen following a plastic bag ban. In August, Delaware's plastic bag ban also resulted in shopping baskets being stolen, with one Acme store reporting that it had been cleaned out of all its baskets.