The one with Environmental Responsibility

I love the new reusable bags that they have at Meijer.

I love them for their environmental friendliness.

But even more, I love them for the way they've changed my shopping experience.

Prior to the dawn of the reusable bag, my shopping experience went something like this: I would grab a cart, wander around aimlessly for a little while until I remembered what I had planned on getting (since I almost never make a list, and when I do I inevitably leave it in the car) and then I would start my shopping. I would head here and there, gathering what I needed, until my collection of groceries seemed complete. And then - on to the checkout!

Now, whenever I go to checkout, there seem to be about 4 lanes open in the entire store and so I would head to the self-checkout with the assumption it would be much quicker and more efficient. And every time, I was proven wrong.

I would grab my first item - perhaps a package of strawberries - and slide it, oh, 3 or 4 times over the scanner until it finally scanned. And then it was time to bag it. That's when the real trouble would begin.

The little plastic bags in the self-checkout are never open. And if you've EVER gone through the self-checkout, you know that those little, innocent looking plastic bags are impossible to open. So there I would stand: Strawberries in one hand, frantically trying to get the bag open with the other hand, the checkout machine droning "Please place the item in the bagging area. Please place the item in the bagging area. Please place the item in the bagging area" every 3 seconds, and inevitably someone behind me tapping their toes, rolling their eyes and sighing impatiently as if they were the master of the plastic grocery bag and found my struggles completely imbecile.

But now, my beautiful little blue reusable bags have rescued me. The showdown is over: the little white plastic bags may have gotten the best of me in the past, but now I stroll confidently into the self-checkout knowing that they can humiliate me no more.

Thank you, my environmentally friendly shopping bag. I am sincerely grateful.