Your Retail "WTF" for Today

[jmowreader]

You've seen the "shopping bags" they sell now...the cloth bags that are the size of a T-shirt bag and that are supposed to keep the landfills free from excess plastic bags. (However, the plastic bags are great for cleaning the cat box, so there's room for both types.) Anyway, me being a good liberal I have been buying some every time I go to the store. Today I got three.

I took them to the register...the cashier rang them up then put them in a plastic bag.

[Warpy]

1. I bought mine online

They arrived in....wait for it......plastic bags!

[rucky]

2. Some stores sell a bigger cloth bag...

to carry your bags of bags.

Reduce Reuse Recycle

[Rosemary2205]

3. Try asking for no bag for 1 item purchase - LOL

Walgreens cashier today refused to take $20.07 to pay $4.07 total she really did think was trying to rip her off by giving her the 7 cents.

I bought a single item. Did not want a bag - then the thing with the money. She became very agitated and called the manager. She honestly did not know what to do if I would not take a plastic bag.

[yy4me]

10. If your cashier was like some of the kids who work where I work,

the refusal probably stems from the fact that she does not know how to make change. One of the young people where I work, age 24, said her skills in that department are non-existent. How can you get to be 24 and not be able to count?
If the machine does not do the math for them, many are stymied.

[prole_for_peace]

20. We have had cashiers throw away the plastic bags that they were

trying to put our stuff in. We say "We don't need a bag" and they just give us a stange look and ball the bad up and throw it away most of the time. Very annoying.

[AlCzervik]

4. i bought a bunch of bags from trader Joe's, they put them in to one of the bags i bought

crazy right? I also bought 2 of the insulated bags for the frozen stuff, love them. After i go shopping and i put everything away i put the empty bags back in to the trunk of my car.

[Veruca Salt]

21. The insulated bags are awesome

I wonder how I could have even used plastic before.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

5. the cashier

must be a Republican.

[StarryNite]

6. Fry's aka Krogers

takes 5 cents off your purchase for each cloth bag you bring in to use. I think that's a nice extra incentive.

[jmowreader]

8. Hannaford did that when they were in North Carolina

Of course, they pulled out of North Carolina ten years before there was a big groundswell toward cloth-bag use, and the bags they sold were seven dollars each. Now the bags are a dollar and more people are aware.

[Tesha]

19. Hannaford (up here in New England) is still doing that. (NT)

[Mist]

7. Sounds like the cashier was on auto-pilot. The cashiers at Whole Foods and

Trader Joe's (where I stocked up on reusaable bags) are "greener" I think.

[bean fidhleir]

13. Autopilot, exactly. Their jobs pay the rent, but are dehumanizing.

I'm sure I'd zone out too.

Most of the customers seem just as dehumanized, going through the line like zombies. I hate being part of that, so I always try to chat a bit instead.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

9. I've had cloth shopping bags for 20 years

Whole Foods sold them back in the '80s. And I've made many for friends and family. Use them to "wrap" Christmas gifts--then they have the bags to use for shopping and other things. Only bad thing about it is that they never "wrap" a gift for me in one of them--they want to keep the ones I make! They are made from scraps of material, usually in some patchwork design.

If you tell a clerk not to put something in a plastic bag, they will usually comply. But maybe that's only in mom/pop stores like I frequent.

[bean fidhleir]

14. Likewise. Mine are from my old co-op, patched and patched again.

I wish there were a co-op here.

[poebango]

11. There are times when you just need a bag...

I'm usually very good about re-using bags, but a couple times I've had the opposite problem. Like last month I had to pop into a store to buy tampons -- that's it. The kid rings me up, I pay him, thank him, and then... nothing. "Oh, do you need a bag?" he asks (I usually bag them myself, but the bags were behind the counter. And I'm like, "Gee, no thanks. I prefer just walking down the street holding a giant box of tampons. YES, I would like a bag, if you don't mind, you little dumbass." (Okay, I was nicer than that... but I was THINKING that).

[Rosemary2205]

12. A giant box of tampons?

do those things come in super jumbo packs these days?

It's been a good 15 years since I've required the use of such things, but if I recall the biggest box they sold was about 4" x 6" x 2".

I'm picturing you walking down the street with something the size of an 8 count paper towels. :)

[poebango]

17. LOL! YES they DO!

It was a box like the size of a small toaster. Big enough to feel like a big dork walkin' down the street just swinging your six-pack.... of tampons!:crazy:

[Jane Austin]

15. We have some frosted shopping bags for big items

at our store - for big stuffed toys, needlepoint pillows, dog statues, etc.

They are so very strong. I keep a few in the back of my car and use them at Costco (I'm not going to get stuck with one of their cardboard boxes!), Whole Foods and just for schlepping stuff around.

[JackintheGreen]

16. Bio-degradable dog-poop bags made from corn-starch

handed to me in a petroleum-based plastic bag. When I pointed out the irony to the cashier she said, "I know, I hate it too, but I have to do it." Sheesh!

[Delphinus]

18. Ooh,

never heard of something like that! I've got to check them out.