Vee: Why... why are they taking away our plastic bags?
First, they taxed them. It was five cents per bag, which I didn't really mind. What DID bother me was how fucking lazy the cashiers became after this fee was put into effect. They wouldn't bag my shit anymore. I'd say "and bags please", they would ask "how many?" and I would say "I'll leave it up to your expert opinion"- because I don't know how many fucking bags it'll take for my groceries.
SOME.
Give me SOME bags.
And they would do exactly that, the BARE MINIMUM: rip off two or three bags, and throw them on top of my purchases.
Then they would stand there.
And stare at me like, GET TO IT.
With the advent of chip cards, this means that the attendant's job is solely to push things over the scanner, and MY workload has increased to both swiping my own card as well as bagging my own shit.
Now, I know these people don't get paid much, but this is your JOB. Give me a fucking HAND. There is a line of six hundred people behind me and I am desperately trying to cram a week's worth of groceries into two measly god-damned bags.
Oh, and they see the line. For sure they see it- because they start ringing the NEXT person through as I'm embracing my new job as a baggirl. So our shit gets all mixed together and it's super confusing and just... just plain stupid.
HONESTLY.
This is how it's supposed to work:
Step 1: Scan my shit
Step 2: Bag it and charge me for the bags, OR if I have brought my own bag, I will hand it to you and you WILL TAKE IT and
Step 3: BAG MY ITEMS
Step 4: Take my card and swipe it
Step 5: I will pay and everything will move along nicely
Sure, you don't get that two minutes where you look at your hands, or dick around with receipts, trying vainly to focus on ANYTHING BUT ME struggling to pack up my stuff.
I swear, I swear to god, if I handed somebody an un-programmed phone and was like HERE, DO IT YOURSELF, they would rip off my face.
Just, clean off.
Like an orange peel.
Second, I'd like to address these reusable bags that supposedly save the environment. I think what they actually do is rake in billions of dollars for the stores -ON TOP of the plastic bag tax- which they spend on.... ??? Not more cashiers, that's for damn sure, because the lines still stretch way down into the aisles.
I also have something like twenty of these 'reusable' bags at home. They are thick, huge, sometimes made of cloth, and CERTAINLY take longer to biodegrade than the flimsy plastic sort. And you know what? I throw them away.
THAT'S RIGHT, HIPPIES.
When I get more than ten of these fat fuckers, I toss them IN THE GARBAGE, because I'm just going to get more of them. I know it, because nobody wants to carry around a parka-sized sack, on the off chance they'll go to the store, ALL FUCKING DAY.
This is not how city people shop. We pop in and out of marts AT OUR LEISURE, and expect to be able to purchase things and have some kind of method to carry them home.
Which brings me to my last point- what are we going to do now? If plastic bags are illegal, and I inevitably forget my enormous woven tunnel of a "reusable bag", HOW DO I GET MY GROCERIES HOME?
Just... cradle them in my shirt like a 1920's kid picking apples?
Is that what I'm supposed to do?
I'm not much for crackpot conspiracy theories, but if there ever was one, THIS is IT.
Let's be frank here, the stores wanted to make more money, they saw people assuaged their 1st world guilt being "green", grabbed us by the collective balls, and TWISTED.
First, they taxed them. It was five cents per bag, which I didn't really mind. What DID bother me was how fucking lazy the cashiers became after this fee was put into effect. They wouldn't bag my shit anymore. I'd say "and bags please", they would ask "how many?" and I would say "I'll leave it up to your expert opinion"- because I don't know how many fucking bags it'll take for my groceries.
SOME.
Give me SOME bags.
And they would do exactly that, the BARE MINIMUM: rip off two or three bags, and throw them on top of my purchases.
Then they would stand there.
And stare at me like, GET TO IT.
With the advent of chip cards, this means that the attendant's job is solely to push things over the scanner, and MY workload has increased to both swiping my own card as well as bagging my own shit.
Now, I know these people don't get paid much, but this is your JOB. Give me a fucking HAND. There is a line of six hundred people behind me and I am desperately trying to cram a week's worth of groceries into two measly god-damned bags.
Oh, and they see the line. For sure they see it- because they start ringing the NEXT person through as I'm embracing my new job as a baggirl. So our shit gets all mixed together and it's super confusing and just... just plain stupid.
HONESTLY.
This is how it's supposed to work:
Step 1: Scan my shit
Step 2: Bag it and charge me for the bags, OR if I have brought my own bag, I will hand it to you and you WILL TAKE IT and
Step 3: BAG MY ITEMS
Step 4: Take my card and swipe it
Step 5: I will pay and everything will move along nicely
Sure, you don't get that two minutes where you look at your hands, or dick around with receipts, trying vainly to focus on ANYTHING BUT ME struggling to pack up my stuff.
I swear, I swear to god, if I handed somebody an un-programmed phone and was like HERE, DO IT YOURSELF, they would rip off my face.
Just, clean off.
Like an orange peel.
Second, I'd like to address these reusable bags that supposedly save the environment. I think what they actually do is rake in billions of dollars for the stores -ON TOP of the plastic bag tax- which they spend on.... ??? Not more cashiers, that's for damn sure, because the lines still stretch way down into the aisles.
I also have something like twenty of these 'reusable' bags at home. They are thick, huge, sometimes made of cloth, and CERTAINLY take longer to biodegrade than the flimsy plastic sort. And you know what? I throw them away.
THAT'S RIGHT, HIPPIES.
When I get more than ten of these fat fuckers, I toss them IN THE GARBAGE, because I'm just going to get more of them. I know it, because nobody wants to carry around a parka-sized sack, on the off chance they'll go to the store, ALL FUCKING DAY.
This is not how city people shop. We pop in and out of marts AT OUR LEISURE, and expect to be able to purchase things and have some kind of method to carry them home.
Which brings me to my last point- what are we going to do now? If plastic bags are illegal, and I inevitably forget my enormous woven tunnel of a "reusable bag", HOW DO I GET MY GROCERIES HOME?
Just... cradle them in my shirt like a 1920's kid picking apples?
Is that what I'm supposed to do?
I'm not much for crackpot conspiracy theories, but if there ever was one, THIS is IT.
Let's be frank here, the stores wanted to make more money, they saw people assuaged their 1st world guilt being "green", grabbed us by the collective balls, and TWISTED.
Jaime: You'd think we'd be using paper bags now; easy to produce, biodegradable and they can be made into hand puppets when no longer useful!
The only downside really was the lack of handles, but so what? I've used paper bags before with paper handles (fancy gift bags and whatnot), they're not too shabby at all.
There's this strange mentality among some people, a horrible and subtle kind of patronizing rationalization, that we can use tax laws as deterrents for behaviour we deem unhealthy or bothersome. First of all, how big must your metaphorical balls be if you think you have the right to dictate what someone else does, when that activity harms no one but themselves? And secondly, you just end up making the average working person, particularly the poor, even more destitute than they already are. Who are these people who think they aren't taxed enough, and who think the government does such a fantastic job spending our money that they trust them with more of it? I mean, heck, I believe in a great deal of liberal ideals like employment insurance, public education and universal health coverage and I'm willing to pay my fair share for that... but taxing bags, and cigarettes, and soda?
