Speaking of Portland... I think the city is so interesting to me because it's the polar opposite of where I live. Take grocery shopping. First of all, Portland has a curiously high concentration of vegetarians and vegans. And in Portland, as you can see in the clip below, not bringing a reusable shopping bag is practically punishable by death. (And my sister assures me this is fairly accurate.)
Like I said, things are a little different here in Louisiana:
Usually when I bring a reusable bag to the grocery store, the cashier picks it up and promptly forgets about it, bagging my items in a plastic bag instead-- and odds are, they're using the "one item per bag" method.
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On more than one occasion, a cashier has said something like, "I remember you! You're the one with the bags!"
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And one time after I placed my bag on the conveyor belt, the cashier tried to ring it up. I didn't notice until she had tried to scan it three times, and look at me, frustrated. "Do you remember how much this costs?"
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Recently I was leaving the produce section, the top of my cart (where you would put a baby) filled with fruits and vegetables for the week. "Excuse me," another customer asked from behind me, "Are you a vegan?"
"No?" I answered in my usual we don't know each other so why are you talking to me tone.
"Oh. Well you have lots of vegetables in your cart, so I was just curious. I'm thinking about going vegan."
Has it come to the point, I thought to myself, that just because a person happens to have some produce in his/her cart, he/she is on extreme diet restrictions? Can't a family just like fruits and vegetables?
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I have had to tell a cashier what a kiwi was so they could enter the correct code.
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Where are you guys on the Louisiana to Portland spectrum? Hopefully somewhere in the middle... because either end of the extreme could get annoying really fast. Believe me, I'm tired of being the Bag Lady of my local grocery store.
On St. Maarten, EVERYone used reusable grocery bags...but mostly because they would charge you for plastic bags and you can hold more in a strong reusable grocery bag.
ReplyDeleteI went to the grocery store here {Inland California} and picked up an onion by first putting my hand in the plastic bag, picking up the onion and then turning the bag inside out. A man looked at me and asked if I was from the Midwest because that had to be a farmer's daughter trick. Um, no. Also in the "don't talk to me" voice.
I don't think there are many veggie eaters here either.
haha! I think you win - I have yet to be accused of being a farmer's daughter at the grocery store!
DeleteToo funny. (We've also been watching a lot of Portlandia around here lately.) I'd say I'm more in the middle of the spectrum with my reusable grocery bags, but a couple years ago cashiers definitely didn't know what to make of them. Ironically, when I bring my own bags, the high school boy bag fillers will do things like put the orange juice and milk in the same bag and I can hardly lift them. But the one time I forget to bring my own, they try to do the one item per plastic bag thing...
ReplyDeleteI like to bring the giant blue Ikea bags, have the cashier put everything in one bag, and then impress them with my secret strength. Although that can lead to problems like hairspray spilling all over your sweet potatoes (which, if Y is reading this, is why our sweet potatoes were in the drying rack yesterday).
DeleteIt sounds like they use the one item per bag technique across the country. WHY?!
Haha! Here in NY it depends on where I go shopping. Obviously WF knows what to do with bags and I always get compliments on my bags (which were bought at Earthly Concerns in BR). If I bring them to the kosher grocery store down the street I get the "Seriously woman?" look from the cashier. Once they bagged my groceries in plastic (utilizing the one item per bag approach) and then put those bags into my reuseable bags. I hate to be a biotch so I just took them and didn't say anything. One of my favorite places to go is the farmers market in Union Square because EVERYONE knows what to do with the bags and no one looks put out that you want to bag your own stuff. Instead they're like "Yeah! Look at you with those bags! You go girl putting your own stuff into your own bags!" Okay, so maybe it doesn't go quite like that but that's how I feel in my head.
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Haha! I'm picturing you at the farmer's market with a thought bubble over your head in which the entire farmer's market is celebrating you for bringing a bag.
DeleteI try to remember to bring our own bags - I used to a lot before we got Miley. Now I use those plastic bags to pick up her...droppings.
ReplyDeleteSo if we didn't have a dog I would be using them a lot more, but until we have a yard I don't see that changing anytime all that soon. And yes, I know you can buy poop bags, but that just seems weird to me.
I used to save them and use them as garbage bags for the small trash cans we have around the house, but honestly, the only reason I bring reusable bags is because plastic bags started taking over our house. I don't really care about the environment. Maybe a little. ;)
DeleteI am way closer to Louisiana on the spectrum, and sometimes it's hard, having lived in Austin. And when I'm behind people in line, I judge their food choices. #guiltyandjudgmental
ReplyDeleteSo Portland. We have innumerable reusable bags...everywhere. We also purchased one of those small urban grocery carts that we take to Safeway. I like it. Huge difference from growing up in Texas. Something I will continue when we leave Portland.
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