Thursday, May 13, 2010

Reusable Baggage

As you may be aware, I have some reusable shopping bags that I very much like. I use them whenever I go-- grocery stores, clothing stores, Target, wherever. And usually there's no real problem. Sometimes I'll have to say "wait!" as I dig around in the depths of my purse for a bag or sometimes the checkout person will forget I've handed them a reusable bag and almost put my stuff in a store bag until I remind them. But aside from these little issues, the process is usually pretty easy, peasy, mac-n-cheesy.

But! Sometimes, not very often but often enough that I've noticed it, sometimes the checkout person will act as though reusable shopping bags are the BANE OF THEIR EXISTENCE.

They will audibly sigh or grumble under their breath. I even had one store clerk lady look at the bag and then look back at me and say "I don't know what to do with this!"
Um.... Couldja... put my groceries in it?

So I'm wondering. Am I missing something? Is there some big inconvenience about reusable shopping bags that I just don't understand because I've never worked as a checkout girl? Are they so hard to pack in a sensible way? Is there some understandable REASON why today I was handed one barely liftable bag with three milk jugs inside and one bag with cat food and berries and spaghetti sauce all crushing a carton of eggs?
Just. Just. WTF?