The first voicemail I had today was from a friend making a 6:30 a.m. emergency trip to the supermarket for breakfast and lunchbox items. She called from the parking lot.
“I just bought reusable shopping bags,” she advised me. “It’s funny; now I feel like everyone is noticing my bags - - like they probably think I have them full of fresh fruit and vegetables instead of the frozen waffles, Lunchables and pizza. I remembered what you said about status or stigma are often the reasons people change.”
I didn’t hear the phone ring so I avoided waxing philosophical about grocery bags at 6:30 in the morning, but I am glad she shared her milestone. I am interested in the green bag culture shift. It’s one that I’ve been working on myself - - for months - - I keep forgetting to take my cloth totes into the grocery store. When the bagging associate asks, “Plastic ok?” I try to compensate for my memory lapse. “No, I’m fine. I’ll just carry these. My bag is in the car.” Monday I walked out carrying a loaf of bread and balancing two apples and a bottle of salad dressing in my arms just to defy the plastic bag. (That wasn’t sensible, but I made it.)
Recently when I had my reusable totes, I asked the bagging associate at my nearby Publix supermarket if many customers were bringing their own bags. He shook his head. “Not many.”
Why aren’t we using them? Heaven only knows there are plenty of totes around. I think it’s because we don’t know how. We haven’t created a convenient system yet.
In 1971, I spent September in Norway where my parents lived. Twice a week I shopped the small town of Risor with my mother, and we’d meet downtown for coffee with the ladies of her generation. Their shopping ritual seemed quaint and charmingly foreign. These women carried in their purses several nylon shopping totes, each of which folded into a pouch about the size of a wallet and weighed almost nothing. As they went from shop to shop in the several blocks that were downtown, they unfurled a tote as needed and purchases went into the handy lightweight reusable bags. They had a convenient system, which was propagated by an attitude of self-sufficiency in a small country.
Currently I own a hodge podge of colorful cotton and canvas bags collected from conferences I have attended. When I shop I’m advertising everything from Mohawk carpet to Fannie Mae mortgage. When not in service, these totes lie in a rumpled cluster on the seat of the car. No system. I’ve decided it’s time to solve my problem.Some online research confirmed what I hoped. Nylon zip-into-pocket tote bags are available out there but with prices starting from $29 to over $100 (clearly meant for a status culture beyond mine). I am going for sensible value. I kept looking until I found a source for affordable totes; it just means I have to buy 500 hundred at a time. I’m going for it.
If you have tips for organizing and using your totes, please consider sharing your methods with me.
4 comments:
A-ha-ha-ha, I remember taking my own bags back into a Naples Publix in the early 90's and getting the very squirrelly looks from everybody. That was when it was still communistic to mention anything green in the great construction mecca, no?! Now I love getting those same looks when I bring my own food containers into dining establishments for my leftovers. Try it, it is FUN!
I'm interested! How do you carry the food containers into the restaurant?
Big Purse! I'm a mom. But sometimes I just carry a couple containers in my hands if the place isn't as fancy. It mortifies my husband, but just like carrying in my bags to the grocery, he'll get over it eventually!
I'm 32 years old and have been getting surly looks from baggers and check-out clerks alike since I started college. Some people really took it personally. Now people are finally catching on and the stares are diminshing. By the way, khaki, thanks for the restaurant tip. My youngest is 15 months old and I still use a diaper bag so I have plenty of space to sneak in empty containers. Hmm... maybe I'll use one of my canvas grocery bags to carry the empty containers in! Haha!
Also, Ms. Childress, I am going to make every effort to attend your seminar at the Marathon Green Expo. It is Mother's Day weekend, however, and we have plans to head up to the mainland to see family.
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