Regional grocery giant Stop & Shop has stopped charging customers in Massachusetts and Rhode Island for paper bags, but continues to do so in Connecticut, according to company officials.

Jennifer Brogan, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts-based chain, said the decision to eliminate the 10-cent per bag paper charge, is being done on "a state-by-state-basis."

"We removed the 10-cent paper bag fee in Rhode Island first, then followed in Massachusetts," Brogan said. "We are continuing to evaluate the bag fee in other states in which we operate."

The vast majority of Connecticut supermarket retailers began charging for paper bags after the state banned single-use plastic bags in 2019.

Stop & Shop began by eliminating the paper bag charge in Rhode Island first, she said, "because there is no local or state-level bag legislation in the state — and because we wanted to make the change in tandem with our price investment across the state of Rhode Island."

Stephanie Cunha, a Stop & Shop spokeswoman, said while the chain hasn't eliminated the charge for providing paper bags for customers, Connecicut consumers have benefited from the chain reducing "the everyday pricing across thousands of items in the majority of our Connecticut stores during the firts half of this year."

"The lower everyday pricing includes national brand and private label products and spans across every department in store, excluding alcohol," Cunha said.

David Cadden, a professor emeritus at Quinnipiac University's School of Business, said he is puzzled by Stop & Shop's decision regarding paper bag charges.

"Economically speaking, it makes more sense to have the same policy across the board," Cadden said. "Or I could see them testing it one state and not doing it in the others. But this doesn't make sense to me."

Burt Flickinger, managing director of the New York City-based retail consulting firm Strategic Resource Group, called Stop & Shop's decision to continue charging for paper bags in its Connecticut stores "a colossally bad institutional move."

"At a time when Stop & Shop can use all of the good will it can get from consumers, they come up with this," Flickinger said. "It's a move that is lacking in common sense."

He said the chain is already reeling in Connecticut from its decision to cut and package expensive cuts of meat at centralized locations rather than doing the work at individual Stop & Shop stores. And Stop & Shop will close five Connecticut stores on Thursday as part of a larger company-wide shutdown of 32 under performing stores across five states.

Flickinger, whose company has done consulting work for Stop & Shop, said a decline in meat sales at the chain's stores in Connecticut and elsewhere has had a significant impact on the company's profits.

"Stop & Shop has seen its meat sales per store fall to about $25,000 per week," he said. "It used to be between $75,000 and $100,000 per store per week."

Costco Wholesale, the Washington State-based membership club, has been a beneficiary of Stop & Shop's declining meat sales, according to Flickinger. He said Costco stores average between $750,000 and $1 million per week in meat sales.