The Conspiracy To Burry Me Alive In Carrier Bags

[hmmm_tea]

Have just been to Somerfield to buy and onion (one, singular, on it's own, without any others to keep it company).

And yet the cashier still put it in a plastic bag for me.

Why are shops so obsessed with giving you plastic carrier bags whatever you do nowadays?

I'm sure I'm quite capable of walking around with an onion for hours on end without the said onion causing me too much fatigue (may get a bit boring though, but I'm not entirely sure the carrier bag would help with much with that though and I'm not going to put it to the test...).

Surely it's just wasteful the amount we use carrier bags when we don't need them. I'm not sure I know of anyone who's capable of carrying a carrier bag, but not an onion.

Comments

[mair_in_grenderich]

I usually intercept them and say "I don't need a bag". Other people have reported difficulty with this, but I've never had any trouble.

[hmmm-tea.livejournal.com]

I always did that in Cambridge, but they're a lot quicker in London.

Seem to always end with me taking my shopping back out the bag and leaving it on the counter. Feels a bit rude, but I never asked for it!

Although that said there was one shop recently that insisted I needed the bag as proof of purchase (really not sure what was wrong with the receipt they'd just given me...?).

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I've yet to use a plastic bag this year. Just say 'no bag thanks' if they try to give you one.

[hmmm-tea.livejournal.com]

I do...

Just doesn't always seem to work or turns into a race to see whether they'll get me shopping in the bag first or I'll stop them.

[(Anonymous)]

buy one of those carrier bags for life thingies. Very fashionabkle apparently! though a touch camp. I get chjatted up by blokes each and every time now. However, I pretend to be french, and all is well.

[coldclimate.livejournal.com]

thats was me buy the way. deleted some cookies and it forgotted me.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

You think it's bad here. When I was in America in March, we went to a supermarket. I automatically started packing the shopping, and get really odd looks from the checkout person, the member of staff on hand to pack, and everyone in the queue. "You're not supposed to do that," my friend hissed. I gave up... and watched in annoyance as the packer packed every item in a different bag. Anything remotely heavy got two bags. We came out with one loaded bag (the one I'd done) and about 30 other bags, holding about 25 items between them. (An exaggeration, but not by much.)

[chainmailmaiden]

I hate other people packing my shopping, they never do it right! Having worked in a shop for several years myself I am a highly proficient packer of shopping and use the minimum number of bags necessary, while still making sure the heavy stuff goes on the bottom and the light stuff on the top.

Almost every weekend the local Scouts try to raise money by packing people's shopping for them, fortunately because I take my own bags I avoid having to suffer badly packed shopping, but I'm sure they all think I'm a bitch 'cos I won't let the kids do it for me. It's worth it to make sure my tortilla chips and eggs remain whole though :-)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Answering rhetorical question: probably because it's easier to bag everything than to think about it, and people aren't paid enough to want to think for free? I think I would likely need a bag for an onion -- I need something with handles. Though I hope I would have one already I can use, I generally have a backpack.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Sorry, that is, yes, it would be better if we didn't (penny off for your own bag schemes, etc, though they don't seem to work any more), but you probably need some active answer, the current state will be self-perpetuating...

[mair_in_grenderich]

or you could remove a sock and put the onion in that to carry it.

[hmmm-tea.livejournal.com]

Your socks have handles?

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

Why use a handle?

Just tuck the top of the sock through your belt (in the way one would with a morris hanky) and bob's your uncle - handsfree onioning.

I do this all the time when shopping.

[mair_in_grenderich]

holes in the sock are topologically equivalent ;-)