16 January 2009

Societies need of bags

So twice in the last 24 hours I've ran into issues concerning plastic bags at supermarkets. Both happened at Walmart, and yes I'm almost ashamed to say I did shop at Walmart. I'll continue to claim that in our little town it is sometimes the only option without driving 30 mins to the nearest big city. Or at least the only option my budget can afford. I do try to avoid shopping there. Anyway, last night I took my own bags with me. I get up to the cashier, pull out my bags and say that she doesn't need to bother with a plastic bag because I brought my own. The cashier takes my bag and begins fumbling with it. I thought she was trying to open it to be ready for my items. But she was looking for a tag!! Here is the thing. These bags are made out of a t-shirt. Furthermore they do not look like something you would find at Walmart! When she finally looks at me and states, "They don't have a tag?" I annoyingly respond, "Their my bags. I brought them. This is my stuff for checkout." I wanted to say "If I was buying bags from you they would have Walmart on them." So I go home thinking that was the end of it. Well the sock I bought had a hole, so I needed to return them. Today I took them in for exchange. As the woman at customer service started to pull out a bag for the new pair I tell politely tell her I don't need a bag. Her response was "Well I have to bag it, the employees at the door look for bags. If you don't have one you have to show them a receipt." I was furious. I took the bag and quickly deposited it in the recycling bin for plastic bags and walked out. I didn't even get stopped to check for a receipt. What made me mad was that she gave me a receipt. I don't care if I have to show it on the way out. I don't want the bag. One item I can carry in my hand. Even with two kids in tow. I keep thinking with the popularity of cloth bags employees will be more receptive to people opting out of plastic bags. But so far all I get is annoyance on their part. I feel that I'm actually doing the company a favor. The more people use cloth the less the company has to pay for plastic bags. It's good for everyone. Society need to kick this habit of plastic bags. While most of us who use cloth bags will continue to use cloth even if it's inconvenient and met with resistance, other will never us cloth because of societies resistance to the change. Personally, I feel that companies should start charging a small fee for bags. Dillons (know as Kroger in other states) give you 5 cents for every bag you bring. What if they just start charging 5 cents for every bag you use of theirs. Maybe then we could stop using and thus stop producing so many darn plastic (and paper for that matter) bags. My own two cents. :)

1 comment:

  1. wow, that is so strange because in San Fran it is illegal for stores to use plastic bags, if a customer wants one, the customer has to pay for it.

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