Recently I stopped at the small local grocery store to pick up just a few things. I don't shop there often, but when it is most convenient it works fine for a few necessities.
I did not have reusable bags with me, and was in a hurry so I wasn't paying attention at the checkout. And my purchase of SIX items was packed into FIVE plastic shopping bags. These bags were so obviously underpacked, that I felt like I was walking out of there with an armful of plastic and a few groceries.
Here is what these groceries looked like when I got home and re-packed them, just out of curiosity.
Does that really look like too much to handle? It actually looks EASIER to carry, if you ask me.
One bag. ONE. That is all it took. The milk already has it's own handle, and everything else fit into one bag and actually weighed about the same as the milk when I held it in the other hand, so nice and balanced. It just makes no sense to me why someone would put this many items into five bags for their customer to set in their car and then carry into their house. What a waste. Can the stores not see the cost savings to them in using less bags? Not to mention the post-consumer waste reduction in sending a customer home with one-fifth of the packaging material?
This happens more often than not when I am shopping, and not just at the little local store. Every once in a while I notice that a grocery bagger has actually used the space in the bags efficiently, and it surprises me. Guess it's time to start emailing some of my favorite stores and see if we can encourage some change.
