So ok today I go to my local Shoppers Food Warehouse to pick up a few things. I drag my well used cloth bags from my car and go about my business. I get into a line and see the woman cashier pinging away at the keys. She is slightly mentally handicapped but she has been there for as long as I have been shopping there, even before when it was Super Fresh before it moved to that location ten years ago. She makes mistakes, sometimes, a lot of them. She apologized to me for messing up my order last time. It wasn't totally her fault. It was a discount item and the sticker was not put over the UPC. Those scanners are hella sensitive so it's understandable and Customer Service gave me my money back without question. But still she remembered and apologized and learned. She looked at the discount items this time. When I said I'll bag, she smiled and nodded seeing my bags. She learned, she might have a slight case of Downs but she is capable of learning and even more she actively tries to be nice and to learn. Very COOL!



Rewind to last week. I go to my favorite market. It is an international market. They carry herbs and tonics and things that if I can get elsewhere not on the internetz carry a HEFTY 'newage'/'pagan' markup. If I can get it on the netz it has a nice hefty shipping charge. I brought my bags there and prepared for a fight. This is no joke Den and I have been fighting with these people for a year trying to get them to understand that 1. we have our own bags and 2. WE WANT TO USE THEM. Unfortunately learning these statements in their language would require at least 3 different languages. Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese. I even thought of making an index card with some sort of statement to the effect of us having our bags and to not use the plastic ones. I thought of a new strategy of putting my bags on the belt first and telling them. It kinda worked. They insist on bagging my shit and have literally weaseled Den out of the way when he tried to bag. But it was going well this time until they got halfway through bagging into my bags then they dumped EVERYTHING out and put it in plastic bags then back into my bags. I swear I nearly blew a gasket...I was so mad I could have smacked them silly. I said as calmly as I was capable, 'The point of my bags is to NOT USE plastic bags.' The bitches looked at me and gave me that 'I don't understand English/Stupid American Idiot', look that infuriated me so badly I was not capable of saying anything else lest I actually assault these people. I should note I have been sick for over two weeks and was suffering from massive PMS...so my fuse was already wet with gas before I got there.

So next time I am going to throw a super American fit on their asses if they touch my stuff. I have so had it. If they think I am a stupid American I am going to show them what hell a stupid American can raise. I am going to tell them not to bag ANY of my groceries at all. I will repeat it as loud as I have to until they leave my shit alone. A year we have tried, I am sick of it. It may not seem like a big deal to you but it is infuriating when I try to do something for our world and these people do not even care to learn. They have no concept of conservation the impression we have given to the rest of the world about using and not reusing has corrupted their vision so much.....they have become worse than the American Idiots they emulate. So yah it's partially our fault but theirs too for not even trying to learn or understand.

Rewind two more days - Wal-Mart is almost as bad - they give me nasty looks. It sucks....BUT self checkouts rock except the last time when this Indian lady grabbed my bag and put it in a plastic bag. She gave me the same look the Spanish and Chinese lady did. I slipped the bag off my bag and threw it on the belt of the self checkout and walked out. Last month at Wal-Mart I ended up breaking a jar of jelly because I was so angry I told the cashier three times very loudly the last time I have my own bags and she put them in the plastic bags. I pulled the stuff out and put them in mine but....broke something ack.

Same day I went to World Market and these people were cool about my bag and even gave me a new one. If you bring yer own bag and spend 20 bucks they give you a nice thick heavy duty canvas bag for more shopping....free. Well rock on this bag is strong enough and big enough to hold 10 pounds of apples and 8 pounds of oranges plus my wallet, keys and a water bottle. Thats a nice free bag!


And sometimes the cashiers are overjoyed when they see me/us. They know we'll bag our own stuff....so there is hope. I never imagined I'd have to fight to do something so small for our environment like use my own bags. It's a fucking fight and I have to get all strategical on their asses. But I am used to fighting for what I believe in. Me, I'll fight, but would you? Or would you just give in? Most people wouldn't keep fighting...So is there really hope? I am not sure but like I said I am used to fighting so fight I will do....I gotta go get some more herbs in a couple days from the International Market...if you see the news and some woman in Baltimore assaulted some cashiers in a grocery store you will know I failed...and...then flipped the fuck out.