Bag Lady

On most visits to the grocery store, I try to bring my own reusable tote bag to bring home my food stuffs in. However, I do sometimes forget. On those days I usually run into a bagger who thinks it is his or her job to make sure each customer leaves with a more-than-needed amount of plastic bags. Even when I bring my own tote bags, I have arrived home to find that the bagger helpfully has bagged all the food in plastic and then put it in the tote.

Most of the time when I forget my own bag, I ask for paper bags. When I run into these situations, I am used to getting a dirty look for asking for paper. I've had baggers tell me they don't like using the paper bags because they are harder to fill and separate. I don't really care. While I know some people debate the merits of paper versus plastic, I like that you can fit more things in the paper bags. I also like the old-schoolness of paper bags. When I was little, paper was the only choice. I now sometimes wonder what school children cover their text books in.

Today, though, I was only getting a few items. So I asked for plastic, but to please fit all the items in one bag (I bought an onion, a small amount of green beans, two filets of fish, a box of Kleenex and a bunch of flowers). I'm sure the woman who was bagging the order thought she was being helpful, but in spite of fitting all the items in one bag, she double-bagged the whole order. Ah!

I kind of wish Columbus was one of those cities where plastic bags were outlawed.