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Just pay the damn nickel

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  • Just pay the damn nickel

    This Town, like many other municipalities in This Particular Part of the Country, has a grocery bag law in effect. In accordance with this law, we're no longer allowed to offer plastic grocery bags for customers to carry their stuff out in. We do have paper bags; however, the law requires us to charge 5 cents for each bag. (This isn't a tax, mind you; we get to keep the money from the bag charges, so it's a little bit of extra revenue for us.) The idea is to encourage people to buy reusable bags, so that they'll save money in the long run while reducing the amount of waste that winds up in the landfills.

    At most stores, this is simple; the cashier rings up your stuff, the bagger bags it up with your bags or with paper bags, and the cashier adds the fee onto your total. Here at the Store, however, we don't have baggers; you bag your own groceries here. The bags are in a cubby at the end of the checkstand, and at the end of the transaction, the cashier has to ask how many bags you need so s/he can charge you accordingly.

    And even though a customer may be spending $70 on energy drinks, or buying 20 pounds of fresh pork, or purchasing enough stuff to fill the back of their SUV just in case a zombie uprising happens tomorrow, they balk at the notion of having to pay five cents - an amount of currency which can buy you (checks notes) absolutely nothing whatsoever in this day and age - in exchange for the ability to carry several items at once without dropping them all over the place.

    I see people ask for two bags when they've got about $200 worth of stuff. I see people decline bags at all when they've got $300 worth of stuff. I've seen people tell me they don't need any bags when they've already used three.

    This incident from yesterday, however, has to take the cake.

    While I'm in a checkstand during a rush, I ring up a young couple who are buying about $100 worth of stuff. The man is bagging up the stuff and has used two bags, while the woman is getting ready to pay. I ask if they need bags, and the woman says they have EBT. (If you're paying with EBT or WIC, then you're exempt from the bag charge.) I say that's OK and I give her the total... and she puts her debit card into the chip reader. I tell her that if she's using EBT she needs to run that first. She says she's not using EBT, she just has it. I tell her that if she's not paying with EBT, she needs to pay for her bags.

    This, as it turns out, is unacceptable.

    She starts telling me about how usually she just says she has EBT and doesn't have to pay for her bags. (That's not how it works at all, for the record, and we can actually get fined by This Town if we get stung and fail to properly charge for bags.) I tell her so. She says that she'll pay one cent on her EBT so she doesn't have to pay for the bags. That's gaming the system, but at this point I just wanna get the line moving, so I tell her that's OK.

    She pulls out her wallet and roots through it. And roots. And roots. And roots. And can't find her card. So she asks the man to pull out his wallet, and she starts rooting through it, and still can't find her card.

    At this moment I realize that this is all a lot of theater - she's putting on a show of looking for a card that doesn't exist, in the hopes that I'll give and waive the bag charge so that she can save nine cents. (I should mention at this point that as she's rifling through his wallet I can see several monetary notes of some description, and at one point a quarter falls out.)

    I have two options at this point. I can play along and give her the bags for free. Or I can continue to let her make a fool of herself, pretending to look for a nonexistent card, so she can save an amount of cash that will buy her (checks notes) still absolutely nothing in this day and age, and let the people in line behind her grow increasingly agitated at her.

    I choose the latter. (On the interior, it's what I'm supposed to do as a good supervisor and as a role model to the crew. On the exterior, I'm doing my best not to grin like a fool.)

    Eventually, she decides that her card must be in the car and tells her boyfriend to go outside and look for it. Even he's had enough at this point and tells her to just pay for the bags. She loudly proclaims "I'm NOT paying for bags!" She says they're not using any bags. He says he's already bagged the stuff and he's not taking it out. Eventually, he reaches into his pocket and hands her a dime.

    Me: So two bags, then?
    Her: Yes, fine. (to her boyfriend) WE'RE BAD VEGANS!

    Good God, lady. I don't even understand why people get so stingy about such a trivial sum in the first place. To go to this length and inconvenience these many people in order to avoid paying (checks notes) what I make in approximately ten seconds on the clock just boggles the mind. The "bad vegans" part even more so - it was perfectly OK for you to consume two paper bags when they were free, but you're harming the Earth if you have to pay for them?

    I hope no one tells you about the origins of the liquid you pumped into your car so you could drive here.

    Bonus WTF

    Later that same day I was covering the customer service counter so the CS clerk could take their lunch when the phone rang.

    The caller ID read as follows: "FIRST GOD".

    With some trepidation I answered with the standard greeting.

    Silence.

    I repeated the greeting.

    I heard some indistinguishable, barely audible conversation between two people.

    Then the line disconnected.

    They do not call back.

    Did I just get butt-dialed by the LORD? Is this some sort of sign? Should I be building an ark or something? I mean, it has been raining lately, but that happens every September in This Particular Part of the Country.

  • #2
    Oooh, the dreaded five cent bag charge! My town has banned plastic bags since 2012 and mostly the drama is past but you still see a mini-tantrum every once in a while. I almost always remember my reusable bags, but if I forget I buy a five cent bag which will end up being a cat toy. Or a five cent bag to put my paper recyclables in.

    Also, in my town if a person is low income they do not have to pay with their EBT card or use WIC to get free bags. However, they do have to SHOW the card.

    Are low-income customers exempt from paying the 5-cent fee for a single use paper bag?

    Yes, if they demonstrate eligibility by presenting checks, vouchers or electronic benefits cards issued by state or federal food assistance programs.
    They can't just say "I have EBT." What if I went to pay at Green Mermaid and said "I have a Green Mermaid card with a free reward." And didn't show the card or the app on my phone?
    Replace anger management with stupidity management.

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    • #3
      What on earth does being a vegan have to do with using paper bags??

      I thought vegan meant you don't use animal products. Pretty sure paper bags are still made out of paper - which comes, originally, from plants.
      When you start at zero, everything's progress.

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      • #4
        Quoth MoonCat View Post
        What on earth does being a vegan have to do with using paper bags??

        I thought vegan meant you don't use animal products. Pretty sure paper bags are still made out of paper - which comes, originally, from plants.
        I would assume she was trying to say that good vegans wouldn't use disposable bags at all out of environmental concern, but don't ask me to explain the logic of someone who throws a fit over ten cents.

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        • #5
          I'm not looking forward to the inevitable day when our town outlaws plastic bags. 95% of the time, when a customer requests their items to be double-bagged, and I point them towards the plastic bags we have at every register that are three times thicker (and that cost all of ten cents), they balk.

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          • #6
            A city in my area tried the whole charging-for-bags thing.

            Key word tried. To say it was highly unpopular would be to say the Atlantic ocean is damp. I think it lasted less than a year before they gave up on it and repealed the law.
            Supporting the idiots charged with protecting your personal information.

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            • #7
              I've been using cloth bags that I sewed myself for years, after a large can of baked beans nearly broke my foot when the bag split. I've been fussed at by cashiers because it takes time to open them and fill them, but I'm still going to use them.

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              • #8
                I wish my town had a bag law, to be honest.

                I buy most of my groceries at a store that charges for bags. I grumbled at first at carrying reusable bags, but then I realized how much I like them.

                You can find sturdy ones in various sizes, pretty much everywhere, for a dollar. The style I like the best stands up nicely, and doesn't tip over in the car. My groceries just look so dang tidy! It's deeply satisfying in a way I never anticipated. I even have little "wardrobes" of bags -- sets with patterns that look nice together. (My eco-bunny sister in law keeps looking at my bag stash and asking if she can have one of them. No. The answer is always no. Take all the leftover chicken, take the plastic containers, take the folding chairs, leave my bags alone.)

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                • #9
                  As a young adult (22-33) I had luch bags that my mother had sewn out of awning canvas scraps. Those puppies were TUFF! (and stripy)
                  I am not an a**hole. I am a hemorrhoid. I irritate a**holes!
                  Procrastination: Forward planning to insure there is something to do tomorrow.
                  Derails threads faster than a pocket nuke.

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                  • #10
                    I make reusable bags as well. (I've actually sold a couple to people behind me in line at the store. That was a trip!) Washable, recycled upholstery samples, recycled denim for the lining, they even work as hot/cold thermal bags.

                    The only thing the little plastic bags are good for is used cat litter . . .

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                    • #11
                      Quoth Monterey Jack View Post
                      I'm not looking forward to the inevitable day when our town outlaws plastic bags. 95% of the time, when a customer requests their items to be double-bagged, and I point them towards the plastic bags we have at every register that are three times thicker (and that cost all of ten cents), they balk.
                      A few years ago, before This Town got the bag law, I went to the Big Science Museum in the Big City Nearby (which had a bag law before we did). There was an exhibit featuring the stomach contents of a whale that had beached itself and died. There must've been dozens of plastic bags in the mess, and quite a few of them had the Store's logo on it.

                      So I support the bag law, because I feel kinda guilty that my company helped kill that whale.

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                      • #12
                        I have a whole car full of reusable bags. They're everywhere these days, passed out free by the dozen at fairs. About once a year I go through the pile and give away at least half of them.
                        BUT.....I also have 4 little garbage cans at home that fit cheap plastic grocery bags perfectly. They were bought for that very reason, so any plastic bags that come home with me get used. It just doesn't make sense to me, to get rid of all plastic grocery bags, so I'll have to BUY small plastic bags to line my garbage cans. When I start to run low on bags, I put out a plea on Freecycle, and usually get enough bags to keep me going for another year or two, proving once again that One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure.

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                        • #13
                          New Zealand is in the process of phasing out both Plastic bags and plastic straws - a number of supermarkets have already phased them out and are selling cloth reusable bags for $1 each (with one supermarket chain having it so that when you wear the bag out, you can get it replaced for free), other supermarkets hoping to have them banned by the end of October (they supposedly want a full ban in effect by the beginning of 2019)
                          Violets are blue,
                          Roses are red,
                          I bequeath to thee...
                          A boot to the head >_>

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                          • #14
                            And then there's me. I have and use my washable bags ALL the time. Except at Trader Joe's. I always have to buy a paper bag there because they are thick, crinkly brown paper bags that my cats just love.

                            This always causes questions "Mam, you have plenty of bags and I will have to charge you if you take a paper bag." Once I explain that my cat's love the bags, they usually dig around and find a bag with a handle pulled off they can give me for free, because they know that if I am giving them to the cats as a toy, I will pull the handles off before the cats get them.

                            Only 50 cents for a toy my cats will use for at least a week before the crinkly newness wears off? Such a deal!!!

                            Edited to mention that I do have uses for plastic shopping bags, but I get them free at the local St Vincent's thrift store. Warning, if you go to a place that takes donations and ask for plastic bags, you will end up with enough stuffed in your car to last a nuclear winter.
                            Last edited by Slave to the Phone; 09-26-2018, 02:27 AM.

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                            • #15
                              Quoth Slave to the Phone View Post
                              ... if I am giving them to the cats as a toy, I will pull the handles off before the cats get them.
                              But... But... But watching them run around after getting their head stuck through the handles is the funniest part!!!

                              (Yes, I am a horrible cat daddy!!)
                              “There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged.
                              One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world.
                              The other, of course, involves orcs." -- John Rogers

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