18 July 2008

america!

i am back in the homeland, and being struck by the very american-ish ways of this place.

for example: double bagging. why do we do this? the average bag of groceries is put immediately into a cart, wheeled into the parking lot, lifted into the suv then carried from the garage to the kitchen. why does this relatively smooth trip require such sturdiness of plastic?

yesterday as i spent $44 purchasing a couple of items the cashier was shocked, astounded when i refused the double bag. "i'm just going across the street," i tried to explain. this was apparently unprecedented.

when did this start? i have a feeling it happened within my lifetime, maybe in the mid-90s. perhaps it was a coup by the plastic industry, similar to the one pulled by alka-seltzer when they convinced the public to take two instead of one, thus doubling their sales.

the single bag is durable and sufficient, people. let's stop the madness.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

why use a new bag at all? reuse old bags or better still get a fabric bag or a string bag which is small enough to fold or collapse into the glove compartment of your car. You need never use another plastic carrier again. It's all the rage in the UK (except for those Jeremy Clarkson types who eat badgers and choose their cars by how fuel inefficient they are)

Anonymous said...

Agreed! Bring your own bag. Or, you can do what my mother-in-law did when visiting Boston in 2000... use a rolling suitcase! She was very much ahead of her time!

jacki said...

of course i bring my own bag! yet sometimes even the most eco-friendly shopper will forget her reusable bag, no?

in spain, where i live most of the year, they charge 2c for plastic bags. a double-bag would be unthinkable.

thanks for the comments!