Tonight, I went to Target, where I purchased a total of four items. Razor blade refill cartridges, body wash, granola bars, and ibuprofen. When I got to the checkout line, the employee at the register was frantically calling for other employees on her walkie-talkie -- apparently having more than two people standing in line for a register at the Gravois Bluffs Target is a DEFCON 1 emergency.
Clearly, this was not your run-of-the-mill employee. She was a company woman, following corporate guidelines to the letter so customers could be moved through the checkout process quickly.
The woman in front of me had probably about 20 items, mostly small. Among these items was a gallon of milk. As the company woman began bagging this customer's purchases, she asked, "do you need a bag for your milk?"
Let me stop right here for just a minute. When you buy a gallon of milk, it comes in a plastic jug. A plastic jug with a built-in handle. The handle is integrated into the container design so a bag is not necessary.
So, what did this customer say when the company woman, doing her job per the company guidelines, asked if she would like a bag for the milk?
I think you already knew that she said yes. If she hadn't asked for her milk to be put in a plastic bag, I wouldn't be bitching about it on my blog. You know how this works.
What a waste. Seriously. And to make matters worse, the lady's 20 items ended up in no fewer than six bags. Six bags for a 75 yard walk to her car, which she would probably drive to her home, probably on a cul-de-sac, where she would then carry those six bags 20 feet to her kitchen. It's just not a situation that requires that many bags.
Soon enough, the customer and her bagged milk were on their way to the parking lot, and it was my turn to be rung up by the company woman. As she was scanning my items, she put the razor blade refills, the body wash, and the ibuprofen in one bag and started to put the granola bars in a bag by themselves.
"Why are you putting those in a different bag?" I asked company woman.
"I can't put chemicals and food in the same bag," she responded, while dropping my granola bars in the second bag.
"I don't want those in a bag," I said of the granola bars. "Just hand them to me, please."
She did, and as she handed me my receipt, I put the granola in the same bag as the "chemicals." I think she winced a little bit.
This rule makes absolutely no sense. I mean, I can understand if there is produce or raw meat involved, and you're not putting them in the same bag as a bottle of ammonia. But come on, granola bars? I've had a couple of these granola bars already, and let me tell you, they barely pass as food. In fact, the flavor might be improved by some sort of household chemical contaminant. But honestly, the bars are individually wrapped in a nearly impermeable silver plastic wrapper, and those are stored in a sealed cardboard box. Nobody is going to die if my body wash, which is also in a ridiculously secure container, happens to spill onto the cardboard.
Why does this make me so angry? Plastic bags don't really go away. They fester in landfills for eons. I mean, sure, some of us are concerned enough about the planet to recycle ours, but the percentage of people who actually do that is very, very small.
And nobody needs a bag for their milk. Nobody. I don't care if you're the freaking pope. You don't need a bag for your milk. It's already got a handle.
Imagine how many bags would be kept out of landfills if big stores like Target started using common sense when bagging. Seriously. It's a lot. Or if they started charging for bags. They already offer reusable bags for a nominal fee, but I've never seen anyone use them.
So, gentle readers (if you exist), the next time you buy a gallon of milk, skip the bag. Please. Do it for the planet.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
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6 comments:
Can't stand when people bag items with handles. Or items that are super large and don't need a bag, like comforters or large children's stuffed animals.
Okay, under certain circumstances, it does make sense to bag a gallon of milk:
When I went for groceries in the US (am living in Germany but was there - the US - for a year recently) I had to walk 500 yards to the bus stop, ride the bus for 20 minutes and then walk 300 yards from the bus stop to the mall.
There I would buy roughly 50 to 60 pounds (yes, I once weighed the bags) of food, carry it through the mall 300 yards to the bus stop and so forth all the way to the place I called home.
In order to be able to carry all that food I had to use quite a few plastic bags (you just don't want one to rip open on a bus) and thus I also had to put the gallon of milk in a plastic bag because you just can't hold on to a broad milk-handle while also carrying 10 plastic bags in the same hand.
So there you have it: no complete ban, but a reasonable rant is justified!
Okay, I see the case for a bag, Jochen. Maybe bagging your milk is acceptable if you're using public transportation. But as I left Target that night, I walked past the lady who was in front of me in line. She had one of the closest parking spots to the door, and she was loading her stuff into a big old SUV. I kid you not.
Ah, but you see, a SUV is surely necessary at her place because all the plastic bags littering the driveway around her house get extremely slippery when wet.
Ha.
bob, you are absolutely right. we use the reusable bags for all of our purchases possible. when we forget, we also instruct the workers to load the bags with items together. we have even gone so far, lately, to take the bags from the recycle bin at walmart to use as packing stuffing and then will recycle them when we are done. why can't more people have an attitude of good earthly stewardship?
Ironically, there is an ad at the bottom (thanks, Google) for plastic bags on a roll. Google ads mocks you, Bob.
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