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| Old-style Walk of Shame depicted by Elizabeth Banks in the movie |
It's not that Walk of Shame from the olden days - the dirty stop-out walk from the taxi to the door with the neighbours watching. It's worse than that. Much, much more humiliating than that.
In our town it's (cue: da da da dah! ominous chords) leaving the store with your groceries in paper bags.
Here in Oakland the laws have changed. Disposable plastic bags have been banned and if you turn up to a grocery store counter without your own bags you are charged 10cents per paper bag.
I have spent a small mortgage on an assortment of reusable bags. But why do they never make that 20 feet from our (solar-powered electric) car to the store?
As soon as the shop assistant has to say: "Do you need bags?" and you mumble "yes" you are marked. You are the pariah who forgot their bags. You are the one who's killing the earth - the problem not the solution.
I don my sunglasses, check left, check right and I run my cart back to the car. I know one day they will be waiting.
The dolphins and the bees and the endangered yellow coneflowers will rise up. They will flap you will their flippers and sting you with their stingers and leave yellow pollen on your white jeans. Because you are the devilwoman!
Arriving at the store today I muttered madly to myself: "I have to put a sign on the steering wheel." That sign would of course read "Remember the Bags!" But then I would need a sign on the dashboard "Look at the sign on your steering wheel!" And then I would....
And then I went into the store. Ooops, I've done it again...
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| The new style Walk Of Shame |
(By the way, on Friday I'm going to do a wedding post - 'tis the season for remembering nuptuals. Please, please send me one of your wedding photos with two or three lines about the funniest, happiest or most annoying thing on the day - to jody@aboutlastweekend.com)
I have no shame. I believe the whole reusable bag thing is a mere grocery store ploy to make more money and I would remain perfectly happy with plastic bags if only I could find them.. At least they haven't started charging for paper bags here. Yet.
ReplyDeleteThe highways of Oakland are filled with fluttering disposable plastic bags (should theoretically less than there were) which makes me hate the sight of them.
Deleteit's funny how charging 10 cents makes you really think about it. I like that they have imposed this charge.
As with most things in America, the bag controversy seems to pretty much be based on class. If the lower class had a half a chance to make a decent salary they might take more pride in how those highways look. Not saying the littering is a lower class thing but preservation is most often not a priority.
DeleteI am not ashamed of paper bags! I use them for all kinds of things (like my paper recycling), I get my 10 cents worth, and I don't waste them. I even sometimes remember to bring them into the store. Sometimes.
ReplyDeleteGood going Amy! Don't you find they break really easily though?
DeleteI'm a paper bag lover. I'll bring my own if I get those nasty pastic sacs. But a crisp paper whole foods bag with handles is divinely useful (esp for recycling.) I do the walk of shame a lot. Lovely outfit. Very off duty supermodel!
ReplyDeleteShoot, I will have to wear that one more often. The tan cloggy sandals are from Barcelona and are really weird in that they are really long at the toe, when you're not walking they stick out like clowns shoes. That was a few years back and the first time I had seen sparkly and unusual lace-ups. My husband was not keen on them so did not buy -dang!! (another thing he has had to answer for)
DeleteWe have no laws, but I am a dyed in the wool reusable bag person. I wish they would charge people here too. But like you, I gave forgotten and have done the walk of shame on many occasions...
ReplyDeleteSaid it oop above as my Grandma would say, even 10cents makes people think more ! Its a good scheme
DeleteI would make myself leave the cart in the store and go get the bags from the car. A few times of doing that made me start remembering. I prefer my own bags - including a 9 bottle wine tote. I know how to stuff them. Three of them are the large totes from Costco with long shoulder straps. I often fit a good size grocery run in those bags - toss it on my shoulder and leave the cart at the entrance. No dodging through parking lot traffic with the cart to the car and then to the cart return.
ReplyDeleteGood on you for going back to the car to get the bags...I'm so dim I get right up to the counter and then there's all these people behind me.
DeleteHaven't been to Cosco in years - I should do as its cheap with good often organic stuff - do you find you buy more there though??
Um...I refuse to comment on the grounds it may incriminate me. I have reusable bags n my glove compartment but still get...gasp...plastic because I forget about them. Plus, we are judged the other way here. Spotted owl freak and all. Isn't that strange.
ReplyDeleteSpotted owls are awesome! who could not love them?
DeleteChicago has just passed a plastic bag ban that goes into effect next year. I really should make a better effort to reuse those bags I bought just for that purpose. I also hate seeing those plastic bags always flowing on the lakefront, in parks, etc.
ReplyDeleteAbout the only place you get paper bags up here is the liquor store. That entails its own "walk of shame," in some places, for some people.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, Bears have zero shame. Whatsoever.
Blessings and Bear hugs!
I do use reuseable bags for the most part, but I sometimes forget them. They are huge blue ones I bought at Tesco's in England and I'm quite famous in my local supermarket as 'the lady with the big bags' which sounds like a personal problem! My bro is totally against reuseable bags because they do infact get covered with salmonella and other heebe geebees off the less than sanitary shopping carts. So choose your poison carefully, the walk of shame or an upset tummy?
ReplyDeleteTrader Joes needs to start making much much bigger bags, they are not big enough and they need a square bottom that sits flat (oh er missus)
DeleteIts seems here in America we are forever looking for reasons to judge and condemn one another. I suppose I'm not shocked that California would deign to outlaw bags rather than simply ask people to use paper or reusable bags. But here in Memphis there is no shame. Not at all. And we happily use plastic bags that the store provides at no extra cost (that we're aware of) and think nothing of it. Of course, we also appear frequently on People of Walmart.com, too, so there's that.
ReplyDeleteI have tons of re-useable plastic bags which I have bought and which I leave in the car - how difficult can it be? Incredibly difficult for people like me it would appear. I also have a hubs who has said that if he did a big shop and they didn't give him any bags - he would abandon that shop on the conveyer belt. Thank goodness, I don't shop with him.
ReplyDeleteMy friend always says when I complain about stuff (not drinking enough water etc. ) "pay to do a course on it" the ultimate East Bay thing. Maybe I should set up a course franchise on learning to remember your bags - and make my millions
DeleteReminds me of Vancouver Island. The clerk rang up my groceries. I paid. She shoved my stuff aside and began with the new customer. I asked where the bag was....She looked at me as though I was a moron and answered " I don't know, where did you leave yours?
ReplyDeleteMust have been trained at a certain store in Berkeley where the shop ass.s have a certain demeanour
DeleteReusable bags were brought in in France several years ago. Oakland is hopelessly behind the times! If you forget your bags, you have to buy more of the same which are a lot more than 10cts each. Concentrates the mind wonderfully!
ReplyDeleteI keep mine in the garage which is on my way out through the front door. You just have to acquire a new habit of going and getting them before you go shopping. Start by keeping one bag in the boot. :)
I could write a note on the garage door and one on the front door and...
DeleteIt's only taken several years but I do now remember to bring them. But even with charging money I never could remember. But California needs better recycling waste bins and that would have a bigger effect IMHO but little steps right?
ReplyDeleteYes, you would think Ca would lead the world but often not...still loads of escalades here.
DeleteWe have plant clipping and one recycle bin, though I've been to the plant (on class field trips, the only one worth going on) and they do separate it on a conveyor belt.
Friends in Denver say they don't bother recycling as the recycling plant was taking the money and chucking it in with the other garbage, awful.
I forget my reusable bags sometimes, i just buy more reusuable bags while I'm at the store. But, mine are getting old now, so I need to remember to buy new ones. They do cost a bit when you add it all up, it's good they want everyone to re-use bags, but some places charge quite a bit for one bag. xx
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm always doing the buying more too. Maybe we could recycle them into tents or something
DeleteWe shop at the commissary about once a month and I'll be damned if I'm dragging in 30-40 bags to pack stuff in. We need lots of bags cause we have stairs, way too many stairs, to haul things up, so you can't take a couple of bags and stuff them full, we'd need a tow line to get them up the stairs.
ReplyDeleteSo charge me what you may, I have no shame.
HI there - what is a commissary?
DeleteMy friend who lives in Wellington where it's really steep has one of those flying fox things for her groceries, which was handy when she broke her leg (and she was pregnant at same time)
I am always forgetting my bags. So every week I get more bags... and eventually they all get stuffed in the under stairs cupboard. My stairs are very well insulated.
ReplyDeleteSx
Good point, if i ever get trapped in my car in the snow I have good insulation there too
DeleteI finally have gotten BETTER..........I think charging for them will HELP your memory!They charged 23 years ago in ITALY!!DO you think we the USA is a little behind??
ReplyDeleteItalia leads the way again baby!
Delete10 cents for a paper bag? You don't know you're born!!! Here in Ireland, we have a choice - you can do the shameful walk with the nasty 23 cent each I-am-killing-the-planet-single-handedly-plastic-yes!-plastic-bag OR avoid the shame by paying the €1.50 for the 'bag for life' to join the other 30 'bags for life' sitting in the car. What can I say? I've enough bags to last me several lives :(
ReplyDeleteHa! Like a puppy, these bags are not just for Christmas
DeleteI got hooked on the Baggu reusable bags, they are the best! You can toss them in with the wash. They hold a lot of weight and fit a lot, squash down into nothing. My problem is they are so useful that I end up using them for other things too and then i don't have enough in the car for the groceries. I also ordered some old-fashioned stretchy string bags from Amazon and they are different but kind of useful and fun too. I'm probably batting about .500 for remembering to take them to the store. When I forget, they'll give me plastic bags for free (or paper if I ask for them, also free). There is a big bin outside the store where you can bring back your plastic bags to be recycled, so that's what I do. There is no shame where I live. I'd say maybe only 25% of people at best are bringing their own bags. I never see the plastic bags in the trees or on the roads, though.
ReplyDeleteWashable is good as many is the time some squash (or was it?) got squashed on ours
DeleteUghhh--- even without that law I feel shame when I forget my reusable bags!!!! I feel like I have to explain to everyone why I am using them and that I won't just throw them away! Ha!
ReplyDelete(PS--I will send you the wedding photo!!! :) )
I know generally there is loads of "splanin' to do in my life."
ReplyDeleteRe pics = yay, so happy! I will post tomorrow am...if that works?
I am bad,too, except when I go to Trader Joe's, for some reason. Otherwise I wold never have any liners for my garbage can. :)
ReplyDeleteIn Canada only Superstore charges for bags (around here, anyway). Germany used to charge 10 pennies per bag in the 80s, as far as I can recall.
North America is way behind.
Funny story about friend living in Germany. They learned pretty quickly to recycle properly. Someone was going through their garbage and reporting them if if was not sorted properly, using old addressed envelopes as evidence, think they were fined
DeleteJody, Hilarious and so true in out town too. I feel like the worst person when I forget my bags, not to mention I own about 40 reusable ones...I do think there are still people out there that are clueless and refuse reusable. One mom I worked with at school once brought about 100 paper bags for bag check for a dance. I asked her how she collected so many, she told me she never uses reusable because they hold GERMS!! Of course I still see her exit the store with 10+ paper bags often.... I'm not judging though!! This is so a Northern California thing!! xxoo Kim
ReplyDeleteWowow, I wonder how many gallons of hand sanitizer she goes through.
DeleteI do think that plastic bags are the scourge of the earth.
ReplyDeleteYou and me both. I have a car full of bags that always stay in the car! Let's creat a steering wheel magnet reminder. We'll be rich!
ReplyDeleteI think most of us have had this happen! I now use reusable tee shirt bags that fit easily into my purse without taking up hardly any room. Love them.
ReplyDelete