Paper, Plastic or Nothing?
August 5, 2008
If retailers are serious about lowering their costs, and if consumers are serious about saving the environment, an absolute no-brainer would be to alter the way we utilize plastic bags. Progressive states, like California, want to tax plastic bags, or ban them altogether; but that isn't going over too well politically. Sure, Whole Foods has its Bring Your Own Bag program, where they give you 5 cents off per bag; and sure Giant Eagle has its plastic bag recycling program. These are all good starting points, though they have their flaws. Sometimes you're out and simply don't have your Whole Foods bag or don't have anywhere to store your plastic bag until you can recycle it. What bothers me is that our current system requires you to opt-out of plastic bags, rather than opt-in. Convenient? Maybe. Efficient or cost effective? No.
Case in point: last week I bought a bag of coffee beans at Whole Foods; I figured that with just one item, something that I could easily carry home, I wouldn't need a bag, but before I finished paying, the cashier had already shoved the item into a bag. Yesterday I went to CVS to buy a bottle of Pepsi; again, a single item that I could have easily carried out of the store on its own, yet before I finished punching in my debit card PIN, the bottle was already in a plastic bag. At Giant Eagle, cashiers bag items like a gallon of milk, or a 6 pack of Pepsi, even though these items are just as easy to carry without the bag. Why are we doing this!?
But it gets even worse. If you aren't quick on the draw and your tin of mints gets bagged and then you say, "no bag, please", the cashier usually grumbles now that the bag isn't conveniently folded and ready to place items in, sometimes they even throw the bag out! Psychologically, people respond to whatever the default option available to them is. If employers require someone to opt-in to 401k plans, significantly fewer people save for retirement than if they require you to opt-out. The same is true for plastic bags. If a person buys a bottle of Pepsi and it isn't bagged by default, they will more than likely carry it out of the store and probably think nothing of it; but if the store bags it without, they will probably carry the drink out of the store in the bag, then proceed to throw the bag in the nearest trash can and walk around with the drink in hand.
Now before you go blasting me and pointing out how necessary bags are for big shopping trips, keep in mind that I'm not suggesting we stop bagging everything. What makes obvious sense is to switch to an opt-in policy for plastic bags. If people want their pack of gum in a bag, so be it, but make them ask for it. I'm sick of having to take my items out of plastic bags that I never wanted in the first place before I leave the store; and take note retailers: this can save you money too!
Case in point: last week I bought a bag of coffee beans at Whole Foods; I figured that with just one item, something that I could easily carry home, I wouldn't need a bag, but before I finished paying, the cashier had already shoved the item into a bag. Yesterday I went to CVS to buy a bottle of Pepsi; again, a single item that I could have easily carried out of the store on its own, yet before I finished punching in my debit card PIN, the bottle was already in a plastic bag. At Giant Eagle, cashiers bag items like a gallon of milk, or a 6 pack of Pepsi, even though these items are just as easy to carry without the bag. Why are we doing this!?
But it gets even worse. If you aren't quick on the draw and your tin of mints gets bagged and then you say, "no bag, please", the cashier usually grumbles now that the bag isn't conveniently folded and ready to place items in, sometimes they even throw the bag out! Psychologically, people respond to whatever the default option available to them is. If employers require someone to opt-in to 401k plans, significantly fewer people save for retirement than if they require you to opt-out. The same is true for plastic bags. If a person buys a bottle of Pepsi and it isn't bagged by default, they will more than likely carry it out of the store and probably think nothing of it; but if the store bags it without, they will probably carry the drink out of the store in the bag, then proceed to throw the bag in the nearest trash can and walk around with the drink in hand.
Now before you go blasting me and pointing out how necessary bags are for big shopping trips, keep in mind that I'm not suggesting we stop bagging everything. What makes obvious sense is to switch to an opt-in policy for plastic bags. If people want their pack of gum in a bag, so be it, but make them ask for it. I'm sick of having to take my items out of plastic bags that I never wanted in the first place before I leave the store; and take note retailers: this can save you money too!
Exactly.
Completely agree. Even if I catch the cashier before they bag my item, they still look at me like I'm crazy. It's really annoying and seems like it should be common sense not to bag my 1 jug of milk.
Several stores in my area ask "Do you want a bag?" which is perfect, because you're opting in or out seamlessly.
California has actually just passed a ban on plastic bags by 2010.
But yes I agree, the checkers are a pain regarding this. The stores don't push the reuseable bags at all, they're usually hidden away in a corner (unless it's wholefoods).
I was going to start donating $20 a month, going and buying bags, and randomly giving them away... but now that the law is in place, I can save my money to try and save the beaches.
It's really annoying and seems like it should be common sense not to bag my 1 jug of milk.
When I was a kid, the supermarket had a roll of "PAID" stickers for placing on things that already had handles (like a gallon of milk.) It's harder to carry a jug of milk in a paper bag than it is by hand. I no longer buy milk by the gallon, so I don't know if that's a regional difference or a sign that the times have changed.
It has been brought to my attention that Whole Foods does not use plastic bags anymore; that was a lapse in memory on my part... When I bought the coffee I referenced, it was bagged in a small paper bag with little paper handles; the bag was almost exactly the same size as the coffee and even if I had bought anything else, it probably would not have fit. Did I need handles to carry a 1 pound bag of coffee beans? No. Although that bag has come in very handy for storing mail/envelopes. I doubt many of those bags get recycled in such a way, though.
Don't forget that they "double" your bags for nothing (6 corn on the cob !?) or give you 4 bag for 5 items !!!
That's because when they decided to lower the cost of bag, they bought thinner bags, but the employee are doubling them automatically...what a save.
Even the "double bags" are so cheap that they sometimes break. Although that usually happens when carrying something not meant for a bag, like a gallon of milk, as someone already said.
I went to Subway for lunch today. They didn't ask whether the sandwich was for there or to go, and they handed every customer his/her food in a plastic bag. I proceeded to remove my sub from the bag, put the sandwich in my backpack and walk back to my office. The customer behind me used her plastic bag to carry a six-inch sub 10 feet to a nearby table, and presumably, the bag ended up in the garbage can shortly afterward.
Subway is a great example, I guess its because their saving on cleaning trays. I, myself re-bag all my stuff at the end of the counter when they are done bagging my stuff, most of the time wrong (eggs under the watermelon, WHAT ?!)
Also good to mention that using reusable bag is useless if you don't bring them back and therefore buy new ones every time.
As someone who works at a Whole Foods, I can say that the cashiers/baggers that put your stuff in a bag before you can get over there are doing it wrong. We are instructed to always ask the person if paper bags are okay before we start bagging everything.
The main reason for that, however, is because people shove their tiny canvas bags into their purses or such, and they don't realize it until it's too late. So we always ask if you need a bag.
Good observations in this entry, though. Cheers!
Thanks Nick,
It is good to know that the official Whole Foods policy is the exception to what I experienced. I do appreciate the company's social consciousness, as I'm sure many of the other customers do as well. In the past I have been asked if I wanted a bag. I always responded "no" and the cashier stuck little (I think yellow) stickers on my items to show that they were paid. Seems like a reasonably solution to me...
On another note, the Cleveland Public Library has a system that I think is well implemented. The librarians check out your books, stick the receipt in one of them, and then hand them to you. There are plastic bags sitting on the check-out counter if you'd like one, but you have to put the books in yourself. As a result, you see a few CPL bags leaving the library, but a lot of people carrying books out either in their hands or in a backpack.
If I'm only buying a couple of things, I hold them in my hands until the cashier is ready to start scanning them, then I say "I don't need a bag" as I hand them over. That way it breaks up their automatic "grab-scan-bag" response.
I was a cashier for a while, and I found that there are a surprising amount of people who will yell at you if you don't put their pack of gum in a bag. I always asked people if they wanted a bag, but I understand that for most cashiers it's just easier to avoid the hassle and shove everything in a bag.
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The same thing happened to be the other day when I bought a single half-gallon of milk... and last week when I bought a single pack of razor blade cartridge. I don't remember if I caught it in time...
I don't get it.
Hey! Thanks for finding me on 20SB. I completely agree with you about this. Plastic bags are taking over the world. I recently went grocery shopping with a handful of canvas bags... but when I ran out of room in those, the cashier DOUBLE-BAGGED all of the remaining items in plastic bags. I left feeling defeated.
II noticed at a recent trip to IKEA that they charge $.05 per plastic bag that you want to use. They say the money goes to some charity. It seems like this is a good way to make you opt-in on plastic bags.
On a shopping trip to Heinen's, I was asked if I wanted paper or plastic. I didn't have a canvas bag, so I said paper, thinking I could recycle it. The cashier put my items in a paper bag - but then wrapped each paper bag into a plastic bag, because the paper ones didn't have handles.
I was at Walmart and I brought my own reusable bags. While the cashier threw my items into the bags, she and a co-coworker just kept talking about how much they hate the reusable bags. I believe cashiers need to be more educated about the fact that more and more people want to use reusable bags