Natural Environment Blog

I recently read this article from Dallas News about the reactions from some checkout operators when customers bring their own reusable bags.

Here’s how some of the checkout operators reacted when the customer refused plastic bags:

Case 1:

When I plopped my cloth bags onto the counter and asked the cashier to use them instead of the plastic, he looked at me as if I weren’t speaking English. After a pause, he reluctantly put a few items in my bag. Then he stopped bagging my items altogether. So I did it.

Case 2 (customer put items straight back into the trolley):

The cashiers at the Tom Thumb by my house have been thinking I was nuts for years now.

Case 3:

I have to be sure to hand my bags over before the scanning starts or the baggers will start stuffing things into their plastic bags.

I suppose it’s something I never really think about anymore - how the checkout staff will react when I present my reusable bag. I’ve been using reusable bags for 4 or 5 years now, and I can’t think of one instance where the checkout operator didn’t know what to do.

I admit that I can relate to case 3. I’ve learned to place my reusable bag on the conveyor belt in front of my groceries. Otherwise the checkout operator will start placing my groceries straight into a plastic bag. This is to be expected though - if I don’t present a reusable bag how can I expect the checkout operator to know that I have one?

I suspect this checkout experience is different for each country, and even in different states within those countries. The Australian government has been discouraging plastic bags and encouraging reusable bags for many years. They even introduced the “green bag” which is sold at most, if not all, supermarkets.

The green bag resulted from a campaign in 2003 to discourage retailers from giving away plastic bags.

So, it appears that if nothing else, the government campaign from 2003 has instilled an awareness in Australian checkout operators, so that they know what to do when someone presents them with a resuable bag.

Tags: eco friendly bags, plastic bags, reusable grocery bags, Sustainability

Related Posts:

• Plastic Bags - A Hard Habit to Break?
• Alternatives to Plastic Shopping Bags
• Reusable Bags Result in Less Plastic Bag Orders
• IKEA Eliminating Plastic Bags from its Stores
• Whole Foods Market to phase-out Plastic Bags

This entry was posted on Monday, May 5th, 2008 at 10:31 pm and is filed under Sustainability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.