We hate them; we love them. Those single-use, plastic bags our groceries get packed in. But, not for long! Soon enough, they will be illegal in New York State. The bags are an environmental nightmare (that\u2019s the part we hate), but a useful device for a lot more than the so-called \u201csingle-use\u201d function they are designated to serve. <\/p>\n
Customers shunned them when they first showed up in grocery stores. Eighty percent of shoppers answered, \u201cpaper,\u201d when asked, \u201cpaper or plastic?\u201d Eventually, the percentages swapped places and most people accepted the plastic. <\/p>\n
The paper or plastic question is not even asked in most stores. If you want paper, you have to ask for it. Most of us accept plastic bags without giving it a second thought. <\/p>\n
Actually, we prefer the plastic bags. It\u2019s the handles! We love them! We\u2019ve discovered they can facilitate a single trip from the store to the car and the car to the house. <\/p>\n
Our family\u2019s present record is held by my wife, Marcia. She can handle 15 bags without batting an eye, eight bags clutched in her right hand, seven in her left. I\u2019m only good for six. The hard part is to maneuver the load, so you can get to your keys and open the car door. Ditto, when you get to your house. <\/p>\n
But, it\u2019s all coming to an end. I suppose we\u2019ll go back to paper, at first. That\u2019s going to be a hard transition. You can only carry two paper bags of groceries at a time. When you try for a third, you have to squeeze it between the other two and hold it in place with your chin. It makes walking across the parking lot to your car a perilous journey with your head bent down like that. <\/p>\n
When you get there, it\u2019s impossible to open the door without putting the bags down on the parking lot. Maybe the stores will resurrect the \u201cbox\u201d option, like the one that was common back in the good old days, with various size boxes piled in a heap at the end of the checkout counter. One box would hold three of four bags worth of groceries. <\/p>\n
Most likely, we\u2019ll be required to bring our own containers, like they make you do at Aldis, because replacing plastic bags with paper would cause too many trees to be cut down, hurting the environment more than the plastic bags do. <\/p>\n
I guess Amazon has the right idea. We stay home and order what we want from them and wait for a drone to land by the back door. It\u2019s a brave new world out there! The new \u201cgrocery purchase\u201d question, will be, \u201cWhat do you want, drone or Uber delivery?<\/p>\n
Comments, complaints? Send to \u2013 mlessler7@gmail.com<\/a>. Old articles are available at www.oldcootwisdom.blogspot.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We hate them; we love them. Those single-use, plastic bags our groceries get packed in. But, not for long! Soon enough, they will be illegal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":65531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\n