I used to work in a health food store: all the crunchy granola eco hippies shopped there. Do you know how rare it was for people to bring their own bags? At a conventional grocery you'd expect it more, but it was just as bad at the health food store.
And then I'd have half the people complementing me (I was a cashier) on how well I packed a bag for them; I packed their paper or plastic the same way I packed my own - heavy things on the bottom, light things on the top, fill the bag - and half the people would protest that it wouldn't hold the twenty yards they had to walk to their car. We didn't have the flimsy plastic bags like most stores have, we had the really sturdy ones that some customers reused for years. I would tell them that on the rare occasion I used one instead of my canvas bags, it would survive me walking miles (since I don't drive) with it packed that way, it would make to their car. Some of them still insisted I didn't know what I was doing and made me give them extra bags and repack their groceries into an unnecessary number of them. Because they were used to other stores that throw three things in a bag and send you home with twenty (a thing that drives me up a wall).
People take norms to be rules, and conveniences to be necessaries. We are creatures of habit way more than of reason.
There is a health food store here that several years ago banned ALL disposable bags, period - no paper OR plastic. If you don't bring your own, they have bins of the boxes they receive their orders in for you to use. People accept it (though I'm sure if you asked a cashier, they probably have a few customers who flip out about it, because that's retail life) and just take a box or bring their bags, because there's no other choice. As much as some of us try to be responsible, others will only do so if they're made to.
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I am surprised! I rather expected more forethought from hippy types.
It seems we really are. I guess that's why we have to make something habit before we do it regularly. It took me a while to get into the habit of bringing my own bags, but now I keep some fold up ones in my handbag for unplanned purchases.
In England, one of the supermarkets had a reward points system and you got extra rewards for every one of your own bags you used. I think it cost 10p for one of their plastic bags and when it got too worn to keep using you could swap it for a new one and they'd recycle the old one. It was a clever ploy, really, because it won over a particular customer base, but still kept the ones who would rather just pay than bring their own. My daughter went back there recently and most places have stopped using plastic straws too.
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Yeah, some stores here will give you 5¢ per bag you bring to reuse. When I worked at that store, there was an option to take the credit or donate it to charity (usually something local like a school). I think Whole Foods started doing that when they bought out the stores I worked at, but I don't know if they still do. And now Whole Foods is owned by Amazon.
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Perhaps the people that have tanties over having to take a cardboard box have never shopped at Bunnings XD
Lol! I've been to Bunnings just for the boxes before! I'd be so disappointed if they stopped leaving them out for using.
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We don't have Bunnings here, I presume they have the same set up?
It's a hardware store chain and as far as I'm aware, they've never provided bags, but they put out their empty boxes at the front of the store so if you need them you can use them. I think, being a hardware store, bags aren't really something you expect to use anyway, so no-one had ever complained that they don't provide them. If you're doing a big shop, it's usually for big things that go straight into your car anyway. Other hardware stores don't even provide the boxes.
Ahh! Here even the hardware stores have bags. I used to work at one of those, too. It always struck me funny what people would put in a bag there. Like, sure, a bunch of loose plumbing bits or electrical outlets or some such. But like, loose sharp metal things? I was like, you know this will tear through as soon as you're out the door, right? 😂
😂 trails of nuts, bolts and nails to the cars. The store can collect them back up at the end of the day and resell them!
You must have some tales to tell working in different retail stores. Perhaps you should publish some. Customer service can be the worst, but also the most enlightening work.
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Years ago I started writing a guide to dealing with your doctor's office, from the perspective of having been a ward clerk and secretary in health care but I never finished it. I could also write a retail horror and humor stories book, I suppose. LOL Or just share tales on Steem!
The humour (maybe even horror) ones might make a good entry for #comedyopenmic.
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