OK, I know some will be quick to come in and tell me how they use their own cart or re-usable bags… I’ve got about a dozen of these bags but never have them with me when I decide to stop by the grocery while out. This isn’t about you hippies.
It used to be Paper or Plastic? to which I could answer politely… Paper please.
Then it went to Is Plastic ok? to which I could answer politely… no thank you, paper please.
Now they don’t even ask, you get plastic unless you are quick enough to catch them first, which I usually do, but today I was occupied. I pay, turn around, and there are 4 plastic bags of stuff laying on their sides in my cart. This would have fit neatly in one paper bag. By the time I got home the groceries were all over my trunk… a paper bag would have been neatly standing in the corner where I put it.
Sure, I understand that plastic is cheaper… charge me an extra quarter or so and I won’t care a bit. Sure people will say they recycle the plastic… so do I. We use them when we walk the dogs. Even so I have about 200 still to use. I also recycle paper bags. When I cook, especially when chopping veggies etc. where I’m going to have peels etc. it is wonderful to stand a paper bag close to me so I can just toss the scraps in and take them to the trash when finished. And since most of the dog waste we have to deal with is in the fenced back yard rather than on walks (the old ladies don’t go very far any more) we use a paper bag to hold itself open to drop the droppings into.
I know I will feel like a jerk, but the next time someone sneaks plastic on me when I’m not looking I will insist they re-bag it into paper.
Wait, you still have plastic bags? They’ve been banned for quite a while in San Francisco, and even the paper ones cost 10 cents each. I was at the big Nordstrom anniversary sale this weekend, and it was fun to watch the incredulous out-of-towners react when they were told that they had to pay 10 cents for a bag for their $500 jacket.
I use the plastic bags to clean up dog crap; clean the kitty litter (check for holes in the bag first!), and they make great small garbage can bags. I also have one in the car, usually draped over the shifter, for keeping the car decluttered.
But even then I have extras. Fortunately our grocery store has a bin for recycling these bags as you walk into the store.
Dogs I already covered and they do 99% of their “business” in the back yard where it is easier to clean up in bulk with a paper bag.
No kitties in this house.
Most of my garbage cans use the Tall Kitchen size bags, and the two bathrooms that don’t are mostly for guest use and grocery bags look tacky in there.
My car rules are that if you take it into my car you take it out when leaving… no exceptions.
Sure, we have a recycle bin, but I’m even less likely to have a bunch of used plastic bags with me than having the re-usable ones.
Don’t try to change me, my hatred is deep seated. I just can’t figure out if I"m a bagist or a materialist (I like bags in general, only not those of a specific material).
I hate them because you can only put the lightest items in a plastic bag without breaking through. So then I have to double bag things even if the checker already bagged them, and then I hate them because I can’t get the stupid things open.
It’s even worse if I’m already pissed off because someone parked in my spot at the store, but that’s another story.
I’m usually pretty neutral on the paper/plastic question (I can find re-uses for both quite easily).
Reusable do have practical advantages (I’m not sold on the “save the planet by buying this manufactured item”), such as being more comfortable to carry (with any weight in a plastic bag, the “handles” tend to dig into my fingers), but I’m too absent-minded to remember to get them from apartment to car to store. Most of mine have made it to the car, I just forget to take them into the store. A couple do live in the kitchen for on-foot grocery runs.
Assuming I remember to grab one on my way out the door.
Oh, don’t even go there. I’m supposed to do the job of the checker and the bagger for free? No discount? And how often do you get groceries without some alcohol (ok, maybe that is just me) and someone has to eventually mosey over and push a button for you before you can even scan the next item. And at least once when I put the paper bag on the scale end of things it told me I had to remove my items and scan them first (only item was their own bag).
So I guess I also have a strong bias on the method of check-out. I guess I’m also a Methodist.
Don’t even get me started on if I prefer the Indy 500 or NASCAR or I hate to think what I’ll be branded.
I don’t do alcohol, but self-checkouts don’t seem to much like me anyway, and I find the volume annoying (do people three checkouts away really need to hear this thing yelling at me?).
I keep a cardboard box in my trunk. It helps to keep things form sliding all over.
We have a garbage can under our kitchen sink that’s designed for plastic grocery bags to fit. They seem a little small, though, and we suspect they used to be bigger 14 years ago when we bought it. I ask for paper sometimes, but my wife always asks for plastic. I guess so that when they ban plastic bags, we’ll still have a year of so supply.
Paper bags disintigrate if you even whisper the word, “water” nearby. The handles rip at the slightest hint of heft inside, and fall over on purpose when you’re not looking.
Plastic bags have their own issues, but paper bags aren’t worth the ten cents I’m charged if I wanted one.
I prefer to bag my own groceries anyway, baggers do a poor job slowly.
Frankly, I can check out as fast as most checkers can check me out too. And I chat with myself less.
Alcohol comes from a different store.
Some items are tricky to self-check. You learn pretty quickly what those are and what to do.
Bird seed will have a variable weight, which calls the attendant- just skip bagging and put it in the cart right away.
But don’t skip more than three items in one transaction or it calls the attendant.
Yeah, but you realize that it took you some time to figure these things out… and the person checking me out probably had a half day of training and a power point presentation to tell them these tips… an got paid $8.75 for their time while doing so.
You just continue to scan, bag, waive to try to get the attention of someone when something goes wrong, and deal with the inflexibility of the scale at the end, and I’ll be in the next line over chatting pleasantly with the lovely young woman at my check out while luxuriating in the knowledge that I’m paying the exact same price as you an getting first class service instead of coach.
This also leaves me the energy to cuss out the stupid SOB who tries to put my things in plastic.
