Town wants to talk to IGA over bag sales

At Tuesday’s work session, the Town Board returned to the issue discussed last week of the IGA ordering town garbage bags but taking months to pay the town back.

The other handful of retail outlets that sell the bags pay upfront when they’re ordered through the Highway Department, but the arrangement with the IGA is it doesn’t pay the town until money is collected from sales.

Often, according to Town Clerk Dorothy Ogar, the store goes two or three months without paying. It can be a considerable expense, according to Highway Superintendent Jay Card Jr., with his department often delivering $24,000 worth of bags to the IGA during the summer.

All stores keep 10 percent of the their sales.

Councilman Paul Shepherd said he had spoken to an Island merchant who used to carry the bags but stopped because of the upfront costs.

Since it was revealed in the Reporter that the IGA has a different method of payment, Mr. Colligan said, other merchants now might say,“If the IGA gets away with it … why can’t I?”

“People never knew it was an option,” Mr. Shepherd said.

Ms. Dudley noted that one consideration for the unique status of the IGA’s payment is that other retail outfits don’t have the supermarket’s volume of sales.

A letter has been drafted and will be sent to the IGA management on the issue to create “a good dialogue with the store,” Councilwoman Chris Lewis said.