Don’t hate me because I’m using cloth grocery bags
A blog friend and colleague of mine recently shared her annoyance for the grocery baggers who shoot out the dirtiest of looks when you pull out your own cloth grocery bags. As she said in her original twitter comment:
Dear grocery store baggers: Please stop looking so sullen when I pull out my reusable bags. They save your store money.
And of course, I had to chuckle and completely agree because almost every time (save when I bring my Olive Smart bags for some reason) I pull out my own tote bags one of the following happens:
a) Huge sigh from the bagger
b) Knowing looks between the cashier and the bagger
c) The slowest bag packing ever known to woman or man, not to be matched by me having to tell them that they can fit a solid 10 more items in that bag before they try to put it back in my cart.
Seriously, what makes them so miserable?
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I realize that they’re unable to just stuff a box of cereal and a gallon of milk in their bag before they whip it into your cart, but in the long scheme of things, I’ve yet to understand what great difficulty it causes them that they would have such a negative reaction.
Of course, I used to roll my eyes at my mom when she would whip out her own grocery bag back when I was a kid, but that was just because she was my mom and it was terribly uncool to bring your own bag. Sort of like bringing your own lunch to school, I guess.
But now? C’mon. There’s no excuse to hate.
Oh good, I thought I was the only one getting the fuzzy eye. It’s bad enough trying to tell them I don’t need a bag for one item, but wooohoooo if I bust out my own basket or bag. Look out.
This is so true! We shop at Food4Less where you have to bag your own stuff anyhow, so it has never been a big deal. But I do frequent Target often and they are always putting the tiniest of things into a HUGE plastic Target bag. I am always pretty quick with my random assortment of canvas bags I have collected over time, and once I get them to take the things out of the plastic bag they have already put some of my items into, they look at me in a confused way, like they don’t know what to do with my canvas bags. So I end up happily bagging my own things as I normally do, not really noticing or caring about what the other shoppers are thinking. I just love being eco-aware!
So true! Glad I’m not the only one to notice most places will put 1 item in a bag. Sometimes I’m busy paying and I don’t notice them putting it in a bag so I remove the item from the bag saying I don’t need it and it’s better for the environment. They seem to agree then throw the bag under the counter after which I think it may be thrown out. Even at natural food stores I feel I’m in the minority with my own bag. I hope this changes.
Wow!
I feel blessed to live in a community where I can say I have never once had this experience. I cant imagine a possible reason for such a reaction, but I guess everyone needs more reasons to be miserable! Cheers to all in their pursuits of varying levels of happiness.
aw. that’s never happened to me! in fact, i’ve had checkers ask me if i have my own bags. i live in the midwest, which is never leading trends, but it’s very common here. even the little old lady in front of me yesterday had her own bags.
Not an issue here in Colorado, and they don’t have to be told that they can get my whole order into 2 bags.
Also, as for “Seriously, what makes them so miserable?”, probably working minimum wage bagging groceries, it would make me miserable.
I live in San Francisco where you might think everyone walks/bikes/drives a hybrid around in a green bubble. That’s not the case, but while there are many people who use reusable bags, I do notice that if you hand your reusable bag to the checker or bagger it’s a disruption in the flow of the normal transaction. It’s like they have to in some way be a part of your life now by touching your stuff, mingling with your cooties and fiddling with your unwieldy bag. Cashier’s jobs are pretty monotonous and to settle into that monotony it’s not helpful to have to switch gears and refocus on artfully packing different bags each time. It’s not efficient for them or the customers behind us emitting the “wrong line choice” sigh while giving the checkers glares of death. Granted some checkers are pretty chatty and/or lethargic, but adding to their job description seems like asking for trouble. I try to put myself in someone’s shoes before thinking they are rude or out of line. Being green involves many steps, there are more people in our green life than just ourselves, it’s good to keep looking at a bigger and bigger picture — it’s great to pack your own bags too!
I had a cashier at the hardware store actually argue with me about using my ecobags string bag the other night… he told me his plastic bags made great trash bags in the car. I replied that they still ended up in the landfill that way. (What’s so wrong with taking your trash out of the car EVERY time you get home? Granted my kids think getting in the car = blowing noses, but they can still carry their tissues back out of the car!)
To offset it, I did have a cashier say “Thank you for bringing your own bags”. Either she is a bag believer or trained properly.
What I hate is when they’ve got your purchase whipped into a bag so fast you can’t even blink let alone ask them not to bag it. Our little town market does this… even if you are just buying one item! They bag my Sunday paper if I don’t catch them!!!!! Then when I ask to leave the bag they trash it instead of saving it for someone else!
I don’t have this problem. Something I thought of my bags have a little loop at the top of one long side that hooks on their bagging platform (were the plastic bags are kept. This holds the bags up and open - making bagging easier for them. They aren’t having to hold the bag up with one hand and use the other hand to place the items.
[...] I don’t get it. Why is it so terrible to use my reusable bags? I put them up front so they are there right from the start, I don’t nitpick the way they are packed, I don’t have assured colored bags for positive items. Apparently, I’m not alone in that either. [...]