If you've been to a Safeway in San Francisco lately, you may have noticed something missing from your checkout experience — besides, you know, adequate staffing. Paper bags with handles have become an endangered species, and shoppers across the city are not happy about it.

Let's rewind. San Francisco banned plastic bags back in 2007, making it one of the first cities in the country to do so. The idea was simple: force everyone onto paper bags, save the planet, pat ourselves on the back. Fast forward nearly two decades, and we can't even keep those in stock.

Now, Safeway customers are juggling armfuls of groceries like circus performers because the stores can't seem to procure bags with handles — or sometimes any bags at all. It's the kind of slow-motion supply chain failure that would be funny if it weren't so perfectly symbolic of how things work in this city.

Here's what's actually going on: paper bag manufacturing has consolidated significantly over the past few years, and supply chain disruptions have made specialty items — yes, a bag with handles apparently qualifies as "specialty" now — harder to source. Grocery chains operating on razor-thin margins aren't exactly rushing to pay premium prices for upgraded bags when a flat-bottom sack technically does the job.

But here's the thing that grinds our gears: San Francisco created this dependency by eliminating consumer choice. When you ban one option and mandate another, you'd better make sure the mandated option actually exists in reliable supply. Instead, we got a policy built on vibes and zero contingency planning.

We're not saying bring back plastic bags (though the libertarian in us would love to let consumers decide). We're saying that when government removes options from the marketplace, it assumes responsibility for the consequences. And right now, the consequence is San Franciscans death-gripping a dozen loose items on the walk to their car.

It's a paper bag. It shouldn't be this hard. And yet, here we are.