Saturday, April 26, 2008

The Purpose of the Reusable Shopping Bags

I understand the purpose of the reusable shopping bags. That's why I now have 6 of them, and hope to get more. With my large family and as much shopping as I do, we go though an enormous amount of plastic bags. Most stores are selling the reusable bags for .99 cents or giving them away free so why not stock up on them so that I can reduce the amount of plastic bags I am using.

The key words here are: reusable bags, reduce, plastic bag intake

Okay, so I go to CVS this morning to get my Zone Perfect Bars and Soft Soap. I walked in the store with one of the reusable shopping bags I got from Kroger. Instead of getting a shopping basket, I just placed everything into my reusable shopping bag and walked up to the counter. I take everything out of my shopping bag and set the shopping bag up on the counter. The cashier rings everything up and somewhere between getting in my purse to get my coupons/wallet I look up to realize she has placed my entire purchase in two plastic bags. When I hand her my coupons she pushes the plastic bags towards me and I say something like: I have my reusable bag here. Then you wouldn't believe what she did. After saying something like: Oh... She picked up both of the plastic bags that had my stuff in them and placed them inside the reusable bag!

I thought for a moment - what was wrong with this picture? Was I the insane one? Was I the one confused? Was I the one missing the purpose here? I think not.

So after scanning my bank card I reached in the reusable bag and carefully dumped out the Zone Bars and Soft Soap in the bag and handed her the empty plastic bags saying something like: you can use these on the next customer, this is a reusable shopping bag.

Okay so maybe it was just that one cashier. Yeah, but I went to another store that same morning and the same thing happened. So, what is it that the cashiers don't understand about the reusable shopping bags? I mean they are selling these things and they don't understand the purpose or what they are for?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am not surprised. Most of these people have spent their whole lives carrying plastic shopping bags. I think it will take a while for them to change their mentality on this issue. Good for you for not just taking the plastic bags and walking out!

One Mom, Five Kids said...

Yup - that's understandable - old habits are hard to break.

Anonymous said...

I'm just glad I'm not the only one. I'm convinced some cashiers do it on purpose just to spite me because they think I'm some weirdo hippie. Don't they realize it saves their company money when I am not using their resources?

I think it will get better in the future. Until then I do most of my shopping at a locally owned market where they appreciate (and take of 10 cents per bag!)the fact that I bring in my own bags. (And Costco, where they would laugh if I handed them a bag!)

Boswell said...

I said "No thanks," on a bag one time, because it was something small. So she took my item out of the bag and then threw the bag away. Geesh!!!

 
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