This made me so mad I had to start a thread over it rather than just adding it to the regular PAM thread.
We took the dogs shopping today to the Petco and bought a large bag of food and a small chew toy. The check out guy, who came across as a not very smart 19 year-old frat guy type dude, put the toy in a plastic shopping bag. I told him we didn't need to use a bag for just one small item. We usually take canvas bags with us when we shop, or just do without a bag instead of taking a plastic one (which should be outlawed by now anyway). So he took the toy out of the bag and handed it to me and then turned around and threw the fucking unused plastic bag in the garbage can!!!!!! AAARRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! WHY ARE PEOPLE SO GODDAMNED FUCKING STOOOOOOOOOOOPID!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I said, "Hey! Why did you throw the bag away? It wasn't even used, that was the whole point of me not taking it." He just chuckled and said, "Well, that's what happens....." Har har. Then he looked in the garbage can as though he were thinking of pulling it out and using it for the next customer. Then he decided against it.
Sure he's right, really, he'd just use it for the next customer and then that person would more than likely get it home and just toss it way in the garbage. Or maybe the person would take it to a recycling center (the curbside recycling barely takes anything here). But to just toss it away in the garbage right then when it wasn't even used yet? I mean, for fuck's sake. I honestly hate humans.
Oh that sucks. I know when I worked at Wal-Mart I would always have re-used it, as they were a bitch to start a new one when they were stuck together, not to mention if the store ran out using a size too large or too small was the worst!
Well I have a huge stockpile of plastic bags. I am talking probably 200. I was under the impression that at my local store, I could turn them in for a point on my rewards card. No, you only get the reward for re-using them. Well I'm not going to re-use 200 so I'll be recycling them ASAP. AND both stores I shop at for groceries have canvas ones. I have decided I am going to use them instead! I've never *not* used plastic bags so I'm happy to have decided to stop using plastic ones when I can.
Find out where your local Head Start school is. They will always take plastic bags. And egg cartons, paper towel and toilet paper rolls. And empty food boxes that can be taped closed and used as 'groceries'.
The few plastic bags that we get now days (canvas for all grocery store stops and a couple other stores) have various uses. Mostly "poop patrol" for outside and the cats' box.
Also am going to ask if the local thrift store would like some for their check outs.
Didn't know that about Head Start programs and the various stuff that they are looking for. I may have to look that up.
Every single time I use the canvas bags I get comments. I honestly didn't start using them because they were "Green" but obviously that's a great benefit, but when I tell people they hold more, the handles don't break AND they don't fall over in my car people always ask where to buy them.
They are not remotely popular around here. Even though wal-fart and target sell them for $1 each I have yet to see anyone but myself use them.
When more people start using them regularly and it becomes a norm it will get more people thinking about the garbage, including bags, and where it goes.
Hopefully.
What I don't get is why they aren't promoted more? Wouldn't it be more beneficial to the big retailers if the customers bought $1 bags instead of using those cheap ass bags? It seems like it'd be a great PR angle too "look- we're trying to be good for the environment, I know you hate wal-fart but these bags will make up for it" or something like that (I'm tired, it's early) anything to get people to notice them?
Argh
anyway... I've had a few cashiers actually put the items in plastic and THEN in the canvas bag, I tried to explain how that defeated the purpose but they had the IQ of my retarded cat and didn't get it.
~
I've had that exact same thing happen to me. It nearly made my head explode.
I try to always have my own canvas bags or re-used plastic bags at the store.
kirby - I've also had the scenerio you describe happen, where they bag in plastic and then into my bags. ?? It boggles my mind.
I hate plastic bags and the idea of tossing one in the trash (except as an actual trash bag itself) is anathema to me.
Cats, did you blog or post when that happened to you?
I could have sworn I read something very similar from someone else in the not too distant past.
In all cases though, the asshattery is astounding.
Within the past week I just "went canvas!" Then the question arose, what to do about emptying the cat litter box? We were at PetSmart this weekend and bought this contraption ($25) "Litter Locker" which will mean approximately one full plastic bag a week instead of approximately 7.
Well we don't really have "head start" schools here, well kind of but I don't think they are the same or too interested in the bags. I am going to recycle them then quit using them.
Unfortunately that has happened to me too. You think you are doing a good thing by telling them to keep the bag, but a lot of these idiots do exactly what that one did. It's best to grab their attention before they bag it, because once it's bagged, they often do just throw the bag away.
When I lived in dumbass Tulsa, Oklahoma, DH and I brought our canvas bags to the Super Target once when we bought groceries there (oddly enough, the Super Target in nasty suburban Tulsa has a lot of organic choices at good prices). At the checkout, the genius tried to ring up the canvas bags, even though they are beaten and obviously used up, and they have logos from the Wild Oats and the Hannaford supermarkets (from Maine, I do miss the Hannaford). We had to explain to him what the bags were for and he looked at us like he never heard of such a crazy thing in his whole tiny little pointless Tulsa life.
So I guess I expected more from San Diego, being that it's California and a real city and all. And it is a bit more environmentally conscious in general, but it is also a huge bastion of right wingers, so these asses fill the Whole Foods parking lot with their Hummers and Porche SUVs and Mercedes SUVs and Lexus SUVs and always use plastic bags, because they don't give a fuck about anything but themselves and their money.
CF Scorpio Wrote:Unfortunately that has happened to me too. You think you are doing a good thing by telling them to keep the bag, but a lot of these idiots do exactly what that one did. It's best to grab their attention before they bag it, because once it's bagged, they often do just throw the bag away.
This is what I've been doing - point the bags out, tell them no plastic, or whatever you need to until you see the light bulb (if any) go off.
Then the problem I run into is that the cashiers will hand me things instead of sacking the bags themselves, like they can only use plastic themselves? WTF?
Ugh.. this happens exclusively at, you guessed it- wal-fart. Luckily I shop mostly at Target and Kroger's so they are better about it...
Dana Wrote:Well we don't really have "head start" schools here, well kind of but I don't think they are the same or too interested in the bags. I am going to recycle them then quit using them.
Someone told me animal shelters can use the bags for all the poop-scooping they have to do.
Yes! Most animal rescue groups will always need plastic grocery bags whether it's for their shelter pets who get walked, or foster pets who are walked on adoption clinic days (when you see pets at Petco/Petsmart on the weekends for example)
Petfinder.org will have a list of rescue groups in your area for anyone that needs to donate.
daria Wrote:Cats, did you blog or post when that happened to you?
I could have sworn I read something very similar from someone else in the not too distant past.
No, it happened a while ago.
catsnotkids Wrote:No, it happened a while ago.
I guess it's just more proof of general asshattery in this arena, then. It was yet another person whom it happened to that I read about!
I put mine on the belt in front of my groceries every time. If they don't seem to get it, I say "I have my own bags." If they still act glassy-eyed, I do my own bagging, when I can.
I don't get what's so hard about this. (For store folk.) I actually had one COP AN ATTITUDE, just because I had my own bags. WTF?
Jen M.
CF Scorpio Wrote:Unfortunately that has happened to me too. You think you are doing a good thing by telling them to keep the bag, but a lot of these idiots do exactly what that one did. It's best to grab their attention before they bag it, because once it's bagged, they often do just throw the bag away.
CF Scorpio Wrote:Dana Wrote:Well we don't really have "head start" schools here, well kind of but I don't think they are the same or too interested in the bags. I am going to recycle them then quit using them.
Someone told me animal shelters can use the bags for all the poop-scooping they have to do.
Or you can give them to people like me who have dogs and no fenced yard. A few of our neighbors and one of my co-workers save their newspaper and grocery bags, so we never have to buy poop bags.
When DH and I first married, we lived right next to a local supermarket that charged a nickel for each grocery bag. I got some mesh and canvas bags and took them to the store myself (it was a self-bagging place). This worked great for about six months until one day when I was walking home, one of the bags burst open at the bottom. I ended up with a mess of cans all over the sidewalk and a very difficult journey ahead of me!
We use plastic grocery bags for our poop cleanup both in the yard and the kitty box. They are also useful for containing paper towels and stinky stuff after any household "accidents." If we start to get too many, I will take a bunch of them up to the grocery store. They have a recycling bin for them in the front of most of our major shops.
This is not so much about enviroment bags for ME
But the title "asshole in Petco" is what intrigued me to comment.
I walked into a Petco for the first time in years a few days ago.
And there was not a single person there to assist me?
Like WTF doesn't anyone work here?
I walked all over the store and there was not a sole around
Not even any other customers!
I was looking for Boots bed at the time.
And I did find one. It was not the color I wanted.
So I was trying to find someone to ask! If other colors were available
Plus there was no price on the bed. And I wanted to know how much it was?
NOTHING.. Zippo, Nadda, LOL
I finally had to resort to shouting out.
"Does anyone work here"
And finally this young lady comes out and says
"I did not see you, sorry"
Well ya DUH........ You did not see me cause you was in a seperate room behind registers that no customers have access to
how could you see me dipshit.
LOL That was what I wanted to say.. but I said "thats Ok" and I asked my questions about the bed.
But to her credit, she did help me with the bed at last
and even gave me a $5 discount on it.
So that made up for her lack of enthusiasim of working.
Kids today just don't understand the value of
work ethitcs.
You know be at your station at all times.
regardless if it is slow or not.
Pay attention to the doors when they open and close.
I know all of this, cause I too, use to work in retail.
It does not take a mental giant to pay attention to a door.
GRRRRR
I seriously doubt I will be spending any more of my DH's hard earned
$$$ at PETCO