Adventures in Shopping; or, How to Waste 3 Plastic Bags and 1 Afternoon

So what with Mr. Laelaps liveblogging it up in North Carolina I’m a single woman for the weekend. I thought I’d really crank up the party while he was gone by getting sushi and then cleaning the house and watching Battlestar Galactica on DVD. I had a lovely plan: Leave work at 3pm, do one quick errand, pick up my sushi and get him and into my pjs by 3:30.

Well, naturally nothing works out like we think, one errand turned into five, all in different directions, and home didn’t get seen until nearly 6pm! To add to my general frustration, was a screaming lady in the parking lot, a guy who parked across two spaces at once, a general grayness to the sushi at the first place stopped, and one other thing.

You see, as I did my more-than-expected errands, I toted my little canvas bag to each store, placed it on the counter with my purchases, and said clearly, “I have this bag to put the items in, ma’am.” And at each location, the clerk did the exact same thing while I wasn’t looking. He or she carefully put the things in my canvas bag…wrapped in the store’s plastic bag! ARGH.

At last, I got to my final stop. It was a grocery store, with automatic computer check-out. We bag our own in those lanes. Finally. My groceries would go in the bag I brought. As I scanned my groceries, an over eager clerk ran up while my back was turned and proceeded to bag them for me in the store’s bags. I turned around. “Oh, no,” I wailed forlornly. “But I has this…canvas…bag…”

“Oh, no problem!” she replied brightly, with an understanding smile. She took the canvas bag from me, and removed my groceries from the store bag and put them in my bag. “Thank you so much!” I breathed, my faith in the power of environmentalism restored.

“Sure thing,” she said, still smiling, as she balled up the plastic bag my things had been and stuffed it in the waste basket.

I think I’m gonna go lie down now…

~ by lycaon on January 18, 2008.