Plastic Bags
by Jeff
Image text: The high I feel when I actually remember to bring my reusable bags to the store--and take them inside rather than leaving them in the parked car--can last for days.
This comic is commentary on how grocery stores try to give you as many plastic bags as possible (and in the end frame, it appears they double bag the reusable bag, which shouldn't really need its own bag at all, let alone two.)
For whatever reason, the stores love to give you as many plastic or paper bags as possible, but if you bring your reusable bags, they try to pack all your stuff into as few bags as possible so that they can save the store 5 cents because they only give you credit for the "bags you used". Even though you brought 4 bags and the bagger stuffed all your things into 3 bags that are impossible to lift. But, hey, if it saves 5 cents for the company, it is worth annoying your customers that have to walk through the city with 3 awkwardly heavy bags!
I always try to bag my own groceries because I was once a bagger and I'm really OCD about what goes in each bag and making sure nothing gets squished. Also, it is very important about the weight of the bags as I usually have to carry them for a good bit. Two heavier bags and two lighter bags so that the weight can be distributed evenly. Yes, I'm a nerd.
December 14th, 2011
Here, in good ol’ Europe, there are no baggers in shops. Problem solved
December 14th, 2011
Plus you’re charged 0.50€ or something for the bags, so you would be pretty stupid to pack “unwisely” – which can lead to funny (depending on who you ask) bottom-tears-open incidents with overpacked bags
December 14th, 2011
The have baggers in many stores in the UK and France. They also used to have them in Germany (and German stores still have no area for packing the bag, and just lets your groceries pile up or fall on the flour after being scanned because of this)
December 15th, 2011
German stores do have areas for packing the bag, but they are not immediately next to the scanner. You are supposed to put them back into your cart, drive this to the packing area (or your car) and pack there.
December 14th, 2011
@Sten: not in whole Europa,
i once was in a little shop, they had baggers. (was a bit irritating, if you are not used to it)
December 14th, 2011
Here in America, we give awkward stares at the cashiers if a bagger hasn’t arrived at the line. After a few moments, they’ll start packing away your stuff. I usually redistribute the weight for carrying after I get outside once I’ve gotten my point across.
December 14th, 2011
Um, he doesn’t speak on behalf of all us Americans. Most of us are rather polite to our cashiers, and sometimes I’ll even assist with the bagging my purchases when appropriate to do so.
December 14th, 2011
Speak for yourself. I usually try to get a piggyback ride out of the cashier while he’s bagging my shit. Hey, he’s getting paid. He might as well make himself useful.
December 15th, 2011
He should make himself useful doing the job he’s paid for: cashier. I am always annoyed when a cashier is bagging someone else’s grocieries (who is doing nothing) while I’m sitting next in line waiting to be checked out. It’s one thing if there is a bagger; here in Toronto we don’t get that much anymore. In fact, at some stores, it’s completely self-bag (the counter continues past the cashier and often is divided into two lanes so two customers can bag at the same time. We also get a 5-cent bag charge, so the aforementioned comic is quite non-applicable to us anymore.
December 16th, 2011
It’s your stuff now. Why should the cashier care what happens to it?
December 14th, 2011
A few times I saw a customer like you that wouldn’t help the poor cashier put away all the groceries. Takes forever and is terribly rude. For shame!
December 14th, 2011
Also “your point across”? Which is what? This person on the other side of the conveyor belt is here to do your bidding?
December 14th, 2011
I thought it was funny, Harm.
+1 for sarcasm in the comment section!
December 16th, 2011
Fun game: try to post a comment so stupid that…you know, everyone really likes Black Hat until he’s not fictional.
December 15th, 2011
No no no… When there’s no bagger, that’s your opportunity to jump in and bag the damn things PROPER. Don’t just sit there like a lazy-ass consumer.
December 14th, 2011
First, the comic does not say grocery store, it says store. Most department stores do tend to spread items across too many bags. However, I have not noticed grocery stores bagging items across too many bags. In fact, baggers seem to be more scarce these days. Please do not get the idea that all, or even most grocery stores in America still bag our grocerys for us.
Second, am I seeing the comic wrong, or did you mis the fact that in the last frame, all the items are in the reusable bag, and then the reusable bag was double bagged in plastic bags as well?
December 14th, 2011
It is obviously a grocery store; Apple has not yet invented circular iDevices.
December 14th, 2011
You are seeing the comic wrong. There isn’t anything in the reusable bag, that’s just the texture. He just bought the bag and they double bagged it.
December 14th, 2011
I use to work on a grocery store also, we had no baggers, but as a cashier, we had to bag the customers groceries anyway. Now, I really hate for other people to bag for me. One, I like paper and plastic bags (paper inside plastic) because the plastic bags here break, and the paper bags have no handles. But for some reason, no one seems to understand even how to make the paper bags neat inside the plastic ones. You put the unopened paper bag inside the plastic, then open it…
Then again, that job sucked (I hate oysters now. Oysters leaking all over my register….blargh) so maybe I shouldn’t care how they bag, since I know I hated working at the same store (different location though)
December 14th, 2011
I bring reusable bags when I remember and I always tell the cashier to just pass me the stuff and let me bag. Or I go through the self scanners so I can do it my self. I don’t mind them packed full or being heavy, I don’t have far are walk with them. I always hated having a million plastic bags after getting groceries. I used to be that cashier and I know that it is not there fault they have to use so many bags. Those things are cheap and crappy and will rip if you are not careful
December 14th, 2011
First off, I am from Europe, too. Never heard of baggers before.
One question:
‘but if you bring your reusable bags, they try to pack all your stuff into as few bags as possible so that they can save the store 5 cents because they only give you credit for the “bags you used”.’
Credit as in “bonus” or “refund”? Substracted from the overall bill?
And by the way, doesn’t it take more time, and hence money, to stuff more than necessary?
Another sidenote: I guess giving as many bags as possible has advertising purposes. Or did no one mention as Captain Obviuos already did?
December 14th, 2011
Many grocery stores, in order to reduce bag waste and incentivize reusable bag use, have started to offer credits back on your bill for bringing your own bag. So say you buy $50 of groceries. If you pack it into your own bags, you save $0.05 for each bag.
Bill without bags: $50
with 1 reuseable bag: $49.95
with 2 reuseable bags: $49.90
with 3 reuseable bags: $49.85
The idea being that the grocer no longer has to pay for their own bags (which do cost a few cents), and we’re being better about reducing consumption and waste.
If there is a mismatch to the plastic bag price versus the reuseable bag credit, then it might be in the store’s interest to put as much as possible into a reuseable bag, only having to discount the $0.05 one time, instead of multiple.
Most stores I shop at this get around it by giving you a one-time $0.10 credit for bringing your own bag, regardless of how many you use.
December 15th, 2011
That is exactly what I wanted explained.
In Ontario they were going to put a law forward requiring customers to pay 5cents a bag but it never went through but many stores and pretty much all grocery stores still started to charge 5cents a bag.
I got a little mixed up when Jeff commented on how the store saves money by packing things into as many bags as possible.
But if they offer you a discount it would make perfect sense.
Though even though they have no motivation many cashiers will still grossly over pack the bag.
December 15th, 2011
It’s the law in Toronto, as far as I know; surrounding GTA stores (esp. chains with a lot of stores in Toronto) are also starting to voluntarily do it.
December 19th, 2011
I am from Niagara and my understanding is that it was proposed to become a law, got a lot of media attention, but got pushed aside for more pressing issues.
The law never actually passed but many stores used the opertunity to institute the policy and people just assumed that it was a lax or something.
All grocery stores I have been to charge 5cents/bag but most department stores give them away for free.
A few Google searches confirmed that Toronto has a city by law. But Rob Ford seems to be trying to eliminate the bag tax.
December 14th, 2011
There are local laws in some places regarding bag fees. Some places started charging a fee for plastic bags, and therefore the fee must be refunded if the plastic bags aren’t used. The nature of the fee/refund varies from place to place. The main point was to limit the amount of pollution from plastic bags in the environment.
December 14th, 2011
I actually once had a cashier try to put a reusable bag in a plastic bag when I bought it. I was dumbfounded.
December 16th, 2011
Clearly you’ve never been the cashier who has been yelled at for NOT doing that, on another occasion? Customers can be serious assholes sometimes.
December 14th, 2011
The grocery store I shop in most doesn’t have bags at all. You either bring your own, grab some empty boxes off the shelves, or have a ton of loose items in your trunk. You also have to bring your own cart back to the store (there’s a $0.25 deposit that you stick in the cart and get back when you nest it with the other carts).
They save a ton of money that way and everything is usually much cheaper than even Walmart (which is why I shop there).
December 15th, 2011
Did you buy a cart or steal a wal-mart one?
December 19th, 2011
Our discount grocery store is like that. The much nicer locally-owned grocery store actually has baggers to bag your groceries, put them in tubs, and put the tubs on a conveyor belt that carries them out to a covered drive-through loading dock, where you drive up and another employee loads your car up for you. For parents who have to buy a lot, and the (many, many) elderly shoppers, it’s very helpful, especially in bad weather, since it can get pretty nasty up here in the winter – lots of lake effect snow from the Great Lakes.
On a related tangent, I’ve heard in Europe and parts of Asia it’s common to only buy enough groceries for the day, since homes are usually smaller and don’t have space to store tons of groceries. I know even here in America in the bigger cities where space is at a premium, it’s a pretty common practice.
I live in a very small town, though (notice we only have two grocery stores) and it’s common to do the grocery shopping once a week, so you can easily have a lot more groceries than could easily be carried by hand. One of the other commenters mentioned fitting their groceries in a backpack, and that would never happen unless you’re only shopping for one meal (and/or one person). When all my siblings were at home, we could pack six reusable bags and still need to use some plastic ones as well, because we only went grocery shopping once a week.
It’s a cultural thing in rural communities (like mine) where space is cheap but money is often tight, and in the past taking a trip to town to buy staples was a much bigger deal, and even now some people live a ways from the nearest grocery. Raising – and hunting – for most of your meat and growing and freezing some of your own fruits and veggies is still pretty common. (Yes, guns are common too, because of this.) Many families around here have a chest freezer or two just to store these things. So shopping infrequently and buying in bulk is kind of a carryover of those practices.
December 14th, 2011
Baggers in the grocery stores around here are usually young people at their first job. They often don’t care much how they do the job. It is easier to use more bags than to try to properly fill fewer bags, so that’s what they tend to do. If an older or more experienced bagger does the job for you they will often pack things better and use fewer bags. Randall of course is joking, there is no contest to use more bags. I like the bags and use them around the house for all sorts of things (mostly as trash or lunch bags). I almost never throw them away until after a second or third use. I’d have to buy plastic bags if I didn’t get them as an extra bonus at the grocery store.
December 14th, 2011
I read through all the comments, I knew exactly what I was going to say and nobody had said it yet… and then at the end, Edward steals my thunder and says what I was going to say.
So in lieu of what I was going to say here, reread what Edward said.
I will add that any bags we don’t use around the house, we can take up to the church and they’ll surely be used for carrying something.
December 14th, 2011
I have found that the equation:
3(s – r) = t works quite well in my house
where
3 = average number of bags received per shopping experience
s = number of times that I go shopping
r = number of times that I remember my reusable bags
t = number of trash bags needed in home
December 15th, 2011
Good point, man. As an American, I try to consume as little as possible and still end with tons of bags. Yet, the much-reviled plastic bags get far more use from me than the so-called ego-friendly paper bags. I re-use and recycle plastic bags all the time. Paper bags spent time under a chair and eventually go to the trash.
December 15th, 2011
Paper bags?!? I have three reusable bags made from cotton fabric. These are in use since years and at least one is always in my pocket, so I never need plastic bags or, let alone, paper bags. (The only paper bags I see here in Germany are those at McDonald’s.)
December 14th, 2011
In DC, we have a $0.05 disposable bag tax that is paid to the government, not the stores. Most stores still provide a $0.05 refund for bringing your own bag, which I think is paid by the store. The tax appears to have drastically reduced the use of disposable bags but I did not find any reports on the effectiveness of the refund.
December 14th, 2011
I’m in South Korea atm, and it sounds similar to Europe. Bags cost 0.5 cents at supermarkets, but most offer free cardboard boxes. Corner stores give free bags though.
December 14th, 2011
Is there any truth to the rumor that re-usable bags breed e coli because of their re-usable nature?
December 15th, 2011
If that would be a valid concern for you, there exist reusable bags which can be washed in the washing machine.
December 14th, 2011
@Rosenberg: there was some news to that effect, based on a study funded by the good people who manufacture plastic bags. Sounds like a scare tactic to me. If you worry about it still, just throw your reusable bags in the laundry with your clothes, problem solved!
December 15th, 2011
As a college student, I proudly bring my Granny-Pushcart to the grocery store whenever I go shopping. I manage to fill it perfectly while actually shopping, then have to unload it to pay for all the groceries. I used to get irritated when baggers succeeded in accumulating twice the space of my cart after bagging.
Now, while they ring up my items, I start packing them back in the cart. I only let them bag eggs, milk and meat. If they filled any bags while I was packing the cart on my own, I empty them and hand them back.
December 15th, 2011
I used to do likewise, but those carts get pretty hard to drag up stairs when one arm is already occupied with a toddler.
My aproach: Reusable bags of large size, with handles long enough to sling them over the shoulder.
Lets me often get all of my stuff in one bag, ans yeah..it might be heavy, but slung onto the shoulder this works.
IKEA Bags work realy well for that purpose. Quite sturdy, although their handles tend to dig into the shoulder faster then others in my experience.
December 22nd, 2011
I have to ask, because you’ve clearly thought about this before, and what with obviously having a toddler, I’m assuming your time is a bit more occupied… Doesn’t only filling up one bag mean you need to go to the store more often?
I would love to just bring a bag, because our university doesn’t have an elevator at the subway stop, nor the ones immediately before and after, so I have to carry my full car up the stairs every time.
December 15th, 2011
European.
I can put my own grocieries in my backback, thank you.
And please discover the usefulness of HANDLES ON THE BAGS. I can easily farmers-walk two or three bags in each hand.
December 15th, 2011
In regards to the image text, many people buy a re-usable bag but end up never actually using it for its intended purpose. Fun college tip: use the bags for carrying clothes to a laundromat, then wash the bags in the same load. Saves you carrying a basket, plus they are easier to sling over your shoulders.
December 15th, 2011
I actually do remember to bring bags when i go shopping from home. But quite often I end having to buy something becaue I get a phone call to do so, or we are just near the store and it´s easier to shop stuff right then and there, then to go home and get a bag first…
But if it´s just samll stuff, like one pack of cheese, or one bell üpepper or something like that lars is right: no need for bags at all.
December 15th, 2011
There once was a Simpsons episode featuring baggers going on strike.
I always thought it was a joke, but apparently they do have those baggers in the US.
Crazy people.
December 15th, 2011
US stores can afford baggers because minimum wage in US is pitiful. In most Australian grocery stores, the cashier immediately bags each item after it is scanned. No need for a separate bagger or for the customer to pack items. Some Australian states/stores have banned plastic bags. Customer needs to supply re-useable bags. There is no credit on your bill for using re-usable bags.
December 15th, 2011
I don’t see many baggers now. But I like many bags, i think it’s easier to carry. The more bags, the easier it is to distribute the weight across both hands, i.e: 1+1+1+1 can be distributed as 1+1 and 1+1 while 3+1 cannot, for example. So instead of bagging proper, I get many bags and worry about weight distribution when getting to carry the stuff (usually at home, since we drive the shopping cart to the car), when I can, I also distribute over several people considering also their carrying capabilities (mom carries less than me).
Also, I like plastic bags! I get as many as I can! They’re cheap (here it’s free with any purchase) and are good to hold garbage. So I’m actually recycling them! Also, I haven’t seen any other bag (other than plastic) that’s good enough for garbagemen not getting wet in that squicky thing that drips.
December 16th, 2011
I have a German Shepherd… I will take as many plastic bags from stores as I can get!!!
December 16th, 2011
+1 for being a responsible dog owner
December 16th, 2011
Some five years ago, the city where I lived back then introduced public supplies of little plastic bags, targeted at dog owners.
Since then, streets are really cleaner, a lot of little plastic bags are flying around as well.
And I once read on BBC about platic bags in central Africa, which where a problem not only because of their sheer number (There were pictures of trees full of empty bags blown and stuck into the branches), but also because of one typical usage, the “flying latrine”. Flying, because after usage, one would immediately throw them as far away as possible.
December 19th, 2011
It would differ from one area to another but where I am they want dog poop in biodegratible bags in your green bin.
I think it costs me about 6 $/year but it is totally worth it because the bags you buy never have those little holes in them that most store bags have.
December 18th, 2011
Two years ago in China customer have to pay for plastic bags they need to use — an plastic waste reduction act of government. Interestingly, however. After this act the cashier stop packing for customers. Before they pack your things into plastic bags and hand the bags over. How then scan the bag and give you the bag to pack yourself, the bag is now just one goods you purchase!
March 27th, 2012
So way after the fact… I was a Shoprite cashier and cashiers who used the least amount of bags were rewarded. They were incredibly insistent that we did not waste plastic bags, going so far as to ration them and they were even stingier with paper. If customers asked for extra bags we had to deny them. Seriously, and it’s going to sound a bit crazy, but a cashier trainee was told to get a plastic bag out of the garbage so she could practice bagging because they didn’t want to waste a fresh one.