The merchants can make the municipalities notice, by deducting shoplifting losses from their charitable community contributions.
Pardon, but in our area it’s the merchants that failed to stop the City Council from enacting the stupid bag ban, I believe because they didn’t want to offend the greenies and they smelled higher profits.
After buying some clothes at a mall store I was asked if I wanted to buy a bag. I thought about it for a second, politely said “no” and walked out the store and through the mall 3 circuits with an armful of clothes ‘with tags’ and no bag, wondering how much of a nightmare it must be for security folks and prepared for the eventuality that I might be challenged (I was hoping for it, but to no avail).
Merchants did it to themselves by not standing up to the idiots (at least here).