The unspoken norm about useless plastic bags for vegetable billing at the grocery
I recently moved to Austin city (it’s a very beautiful and well kept city). I found these plastic bags used profoundly by almost everyone for each vegetable/fruit that they purchase. The norm (from what I have seen many doing), is to place each unique item in a separate plastic bag and then weigh each item at a machine that gives out a little sticker to stick to that bag for billing purposes. But there is no rule that you have to do it this way.
Do these bags actually serve any purpose? Or are we all just following the unspoken/unwritten trend/norm.
I feel that these bags just cause problems.
Most fruits and vegetables are not meant to be kept sealed in plastic bags when you place them in the refrigerator. They need to breathe! If kept packed in plastic, the air trapped inside might reduce the item’s life.
Do these bags ease billing at the counter? I don’t think so. They are more of a hassle for the customer. You will have to pull out a bag first, and then open it up (this can take time! I have myself at times wasted close to 20 seconds to get the bag to open. This is because they are vacuum packed I believe). And once you have gotten everything home, you have to open the bags up so that you can take out the items to place them in the fridge. And post that the hassle of collecting and throwing these bags in the garbage, with the added guilt of increasing your carbon footprint for a more frightening future for your kids.
If they don’t serve any purpose, how has using them become a trend?
TL; DR Perhaps, plastics were popular initially as a cool thing and now they are still in use either due to -
i. One subconsciously following the norm
ii. Social pressure in action at the grocery store, similar to the Asch Conformity experiments.
Assuming that they don’t serve any purpose (didn’t serve for me but it might have been useful for someone else; please comment or ping me if you found any use), I think that these bags came into picture long ago when using plastic was cool. Getting a clean shiny new bag for each of your items might have given a good feeling, and maybe that was long ago. Perhaps, we didn’t know a lot about it’s adverse effects and the production for these was kept on. And once any industry gets big, why would the producer of that commodity not want to keep his income flowing in? After all, he relies on it to pay his bills. And if bags keep flowing in, and a few people at the grocery use it, others usually follow suit. It might just that one is subconsciously following what others are doing or it might be social pressure forcing one to follow the norm (this was the case with me for the first time at the store in a new city).
The solution?
Retain your original view. Don’t succumb to social pressure or assume that there is a rule unless specifically mentioned. Even if you feel a push or vibe about the norm, test whether it is a rule by not following the norm. This happened with me and two of my friends recently at a large grocery store. I take the liberty to talk for the three of us, but just assume few things might just apply to me. The three of us were new to the city and went to the store for the first time. We were buying different fruits and vegetables to stock our kitchen. Having been just about 30 hrs in the country, everything was new to us. We were super cautious about everything — are we crossing the road at the right place? how much do you have to tip the lyft drivers? can I throw a wrapper in a dustbin on that road or does it look like it belongs to that home, will we get sued? (exaggerating the paranoia, but I hope you get it). At the grocery store we saw a few people placing their fruits and vegetables in the plastic bags, weighing them and sealing them with the billing sticker. We talked amongst ourselves if we actually need to do that. The three of us are a bit cautious and usually feel guilty when using loads of plastic that will mostly go to the landfill (these don’t go to the recyclable waste bin). We thought of avoiding the bags. We first weighed the bananas, took out the sticker and stuck on the bananas. Smooth! Next came tomatoes, but we can’t stick the sticker on top of a tomato (as we won’t peel the tomato’s skin). So we tried placing the tomatoes in the trolley with the sticker on our backpacks or something. But one tomato fell, and then one thing followed the other and we fumbled a bit. And we felt — chuck it, let’s use the bags to avoid some embarrassment for now. And we were also too tired given the heat wave in Austin at that time. So we used bags for every item, similar to everyone else. Also, I heard once from a peer of mine that you have to use these bags. Not sure if he meant it as a compulsion or was just trying to help me figure out my way.
But I kept in mind that I am going to stay adamant and avoid the bags thereafter. I came with my mind prepared the next time I visited the same store. I stuck 4 stickers for my unique items on the trolley and waited at the counter. It was my turn and I am not sure if the lady was surprised as to why there are no plastic bags. I explained to her that I wouldn’t want to use them and that I had got the stickers on the trolley. She scanned them and phew! I was done. It works! I would never have to face the guilt of using plastic bags ever again.
Also, in case you feel that you need a plastic bag to isolate a few items, due to reasons of strong flavour being released by an item (like garlic), try to carry a separate cloth bag for that. And in case you forgot your bags at home and feel that the amount of fuel you would burn to go back and get bags is quite high, piggyback your items into one plastic bag till it is full. And then later put that plastic bag you took to some good use.
In analogous situations, don’t take the easy path to avoid a minor embarrassment (highly likely that it won’t be the case, no one is checking on what you are doing), choose a different path if you have to. Maybe people will follow you.
Still reading on? One more thing to tell -
I was in Bangalore before this and never felt this problem as we used to get paper bags instead of plastic ones at the grocery store. But again, the paper bags too were a waste. I tried to get them used for wet kitchen waste at times, but many would get dumped unused as they would get torn from the middle or something (in case you are in a hurry to stock everything in the fridge or in case it is the cook you have at home who unknowingly tears it from the middle). But the sad thing is, since it wasn’t as pressing an issue as plastic I didn’t bother to not use those paper bags. I was a victim of the norm (not due to social pressure, but was subconsciously following the norm), but I hope I won’t ever be again.