I laughed when I read this column. And while it centres on sanctimonious shoppers and their bags–it is about a mentality: Give me canvas or give me death, those who believe fair trade coffee actually makes the world a better place, etc. For the record, I agree, reusable bags are better. But I’ll be “blessed” too, as Hannaford puts it, if I lose my sense of priorities, and figure that not using plastic bags is actually “making a difference”. Getting their knickers in a knot over the wrong things, indeed.
Too many people are getting incensed over the wrong things. Years ago on Vancouver Island, I saw the same people who publicly demonstrated to save the forests, wave placards supporting abortion at a different demo. Today, you can be all kinds of things that weren’t cool 50 years ago, but if you bring your own shopping bag, you’re halfway to being a good person.
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Véronique adds: Yesterday, we went to the grocery store as a family. All seven of us. I asked my designated driver (a.k.a. husband) to please park in the pregnant ladies parking spot: I am having an increasingly hard time staying upright in deep snow and ice (I am 34 weeks and 2 days pregnant, not that anybody is counting…). I think that pregnant ladies parking spots should be reassigned as mothers of toddlers parking spots becauser what is really riskier? A pregnant woman in a parking lot or a mother of three kids under age four trying to make her way to the mall entrance? If you have been either, the answer is a no-brainer.
Anyhoo, half-way through the grocery shopping experience (and grocery shopping with 5 kids is an experience, believe me)–it became obvious that we would not make it on time for my daughter’s gymnastics class next door. So I abandoned ship, grabbed said daughter and proceeded to walk over two snowbanks and three parking lots to the gym, thus proving the futility of pregnant ladies parking spots. But, this is NOT the point. By doing so, I left my non-pregnant husband to bring back the groceries and remaining four children to the vehicle.
Oh My. He said he got so many evil eyes, he thought he was morally bankrupt. Some people even slowed down to stare at him pack his groceries into his immorally-parked vehicle. But maybe they were looking at our plastic bags. Or at our large family-sized gas-guzzler. Who knows?
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Brigitte has fun shopping adventures to share, too: I was at evil Wal-Mart the other day, one of the more recent “super” stores that’s even bigger than big. And I noticed, in the gigantic grocery section, that the freezers and fridges had motion sensors on them so that if nobody stands in front of them they are mostly dark but suddenly get all lighty-light (LED bulbs too, unless I’m mistaken) when you walk or stand right in front of them. And I thought to myself: There! It takes an evil capitalist merchant to be so dang smart about not wasting energy! YAY WAL-MART! I must have looked a bit funny standing there, imagining the save-the-earth types chewing off their own right arm rather than give any kind of green credit to Wal-Mart…
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My grandmother (God rest her soul) was the most frugal (in a good way) person I know and admire. She was conserving before it became trendy and I love everything about her. Unfortunately, the anti-plastic baggers are ruining the idea of conservation for me, and I’ve been deliberately taking/buying more at the grocery store just to be less conservationist. I am disgusted by the city of Calgary deciding to ban plastic bags.