I totally agree with taking responsibility for our planet and think that recycling and re-using shopping bags is a great way to conserve resources and prevent animal cruelty. I do re-use shopping bags and I am a practitioner of recycling and promote it at work and in the community.
Now, here are some observations from the past year which I have just realised this week following a recent trip to the supermarket:
If you do not have a re-usable shopping bag with you when you get to the checkout, BEWARE!
The questions the checkout people have been trained to ask will make you feel anything from slightly embarrassed to feeling guilty of a major crime (if you have any caring bone in your body).
"Have you GOT a bag?" they will ask in an assumptive way - emphasising the fact that you should have....and they can see you haven't got one....
"Erm, no, sorry, I left it at home, I usually bring one but I forgot" (apologetically, I make my excuse, feeling rather ashamed!)
They have a nack of making you feel about 2 inches tall. I am not a snob, but as a manager, and a paying customer, I am totally disarmed and reprimanded by a teenager with spots who is on probation for shoplifting or drug dealing or something - how is that right?!!!!!
12 months ago, if they had said that to me I wouldn't have even flinched, I'd have said "No, can I have some please?" without a care in the world.
So their plan is working - I have been educated in the new subject of shopping bag etiquette without realising it! Months of TV adverts and new signs being placed in the shops and new training methods with the checkout people, etc have accumulatively built up my knowledge to the point where I now know it is wrong - very, very wrong of me to use a fresh plastic bag!
They have also hidden the bags so that if you don't have one, they have to get them out from under the counter and in an unfeasibly large gesture, usually accompanied by a groan or exhalation of air, they ensure that the whole supermarket is made aware of the fact that you are an irresponsible, animal hurting, wasteful, arrogant person who nobody should acknowledge except for with a raised eyebrow or a tut! They will also check and count your shopping items on the conveyor belt first and give you what they deem to be an appropriate amount of bags - God forbid you can't pack as efficiently as they suggest because you will be forced to ask for more!
So, as they get you to confirm the absence your own bag, the checkout person has now gone from sporting a welcoming smile and a "How are you today?" to a sideways glance out of the corner of their eye every so often. They do this with full backing of their managers and the collective social conscience of the other shoppers around you.
Instead of placing the food near to your hand to make packing easier, they toss it half way down the slope, or worse, they mix up frozens with tinned food to confuse you and make extra work!
Some shops charge you for the privilege of taking one of their portable adverts out into the street, others reward you with 'points' for using your own!
I asked last week - "Do we get taxed if we haven't got any?" she laughed - "No, but you get points for every bag you bring and use"
"AHA! - Gotcha!" I think....
....my plan for the next trip is to bring in 20 bags and buy 20 items and put 1 item in each bag and tell her I used 20 bags, therefore earning 20 reward points! Is there a limit to how many bags I can claim, do I have to place a certain number of items in each bag to qualify? Huh? Where's your rules on that one Sainsbury's?!
Anyway, as I was trying to catch the food as it was thrown at me I thought I'd take a sneaky peek at the other people at the end of the other queues - what were they doing?
The bloke next to me had a huge re-usable Morrisons bag and was neatly packing about 20kg of items in it like a sensible, considerate tree-hugger. The problem was - we were in Sainsburys! It made me think - what is the supermarket policy on supermarket adultery? That bloke was blatantly 'cheating' on someone....was it Morrisons or Sainsburys?
Another thing I noticed was the variety of bags, styles, sizes and materials. Some people quite clearly see it as a fashion thing, bringing their Gucci holdall along to show that they don't NEED to buy the 'Sainsburys Basics' range, but choose to do so! Others have a ropey old hessian sack that looks like it's about to rip, because they have re-used it since before the war (don't ask which one, there's been that many now...).
In any case, whilst I totally agree with the sentiment and practicality of re-using shopping bags, I STRONGLY object to the way in which it has been done to me!
I am a grown man with my own mind, but I have been subliminally forced into this. Give me a choice, and remind me from time to time and I will gladly change my habits, in my own time, because I am stubborn!
So, Tescos, Asda, Sainsburys, Morrisons, et al - I have noticed, and my car now carries about 12 re-usable shopping bags, and more often that not I remember to take them into the supermarket with me.
When I succeed, I can smugly raise my eyebrows at the bloke before me who forgot or chose not to bring one.
When I forget, I try to find the quietest queue, in the remotest part of the supermarket and slink out without getting 'caught'!
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