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Paper or Plastic? (1 Viewer)

BrettGallman

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Speaking from experience as a bagger, I HATE paper bags. Absolutely dreadful. It takes forever to bag a huge order with paper bags. I'm glad that people don't request it too often. As a consumer, plastic bags are preferable too if only for one reason: handles. Way easier. Sure, you can put more in paper bags, but if you have 5 or 6 of those it's way too inconvenient.
 

Todd Hochard

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I don't get it. This reminds me of an old joke-

Guy orders a large pizza. Person says "would you like it cut in 6 or 8 slices." Guy says "6. I can't eat 8.":)

It bugs me when I get sent home with 27 bags for $100 worth of groceries. When I buy just 2-3 items, I get looked at funny when I say, "no bag, please." Again, I don't get it.
 

MarkHastings

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LOL - but it's probably more in tune with: If you wanted to drink 10 oz. of soda every day for the next 2 weeks, wouldn't it be better to get (14) 10 oz. cans rather than a 140 oz. bottle? Sure they contain the same amount of liquid and the same amount of liquid will be drunk by the end of 2 weeks, but the 140 oz. bottle won't stay as fresh (once opened) as the cans do, so there really is a HUGE difference.


I don't know what the above has to do with grocery bags :D
 

Steve Schaffer

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The paper bags at the store I go to (SaveMart in California) do have handles, hold more than the plastic bags. I am on a very low salt diet so have to use a hot-air popcorn popper. cutting down a paper bag makes a good receptacle for the popped corn, absorbs melted butter, and is disposable, so no popcorn bowl to wash. I also use them to drain my homemade french fries and homemade potato chips.

My main reason for asking for paper though is still because I hate having 3 or 4 bags to carry into the house for a lousy $15 worth of groceries. I only buy fairly substantial bread--not the kind that crushes into library paste, so it never gets mashed even if there's a 2 liter jug of Diet Rite in the same bag.
 

Bryan X

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What I always liked about brown paper bags was that they were strong enough to keep whatever was in them stacked. I find, with plastic, whatever you put in it doesn't stay organized as well. Everything just shifts all over the place and sometimes out of the bag.
 

BrettGallman

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The reason it takes much longer (at the store I worked at anyway) to bag using paper is because the paper bags are usually folded up and stored under the register. So you have to get the bags out, open them up (which can be a hassle), all while that huge order piles up. With plastic bags, they're already on a rack, so it makes it a lot easier to just put items in. The racks are also below you, so that's easier too because you can just sort of scoop things into a bag (if that makes any sense).

Also, another good point: You can put more plastic bags in a cart than paper bags because you can put plastic bags on top of each other, but you usually can't with paper.

Wow, I can't believe I wrote that much about such a menial job.
 

Jay H

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Whenever I see those plastic bag dispensers and there are no bags that are already separated, I cringe! I can't ever get those things apart without severe trauma!

OMG, the groceries are stacking up and I can't get this bag apart... AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhh....

:D

Jay
 

Joseph DeMartino

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Paper. I live in a 3rd floor walk-up, just down the street from my local supermarket. I make a couple of stops a week on my way home and for various odds and ends and try to end up with no more than two paper bags, one fairly light, as the least-annoying way of schlepping stuff around. (So I'll buy the heavy bag of cat litter and a medium bag of groceries on one trip, and the heavy bag of dry cat food and a medium bag on the next one. :))

I always tell the bagger that I want paper as soon as the cashier starts ringing up my items, so he/she has plenty of time to grab and open a bag or two. If the cashier is alone I'll swipe my ATM card and enter my PIN and then grab the bag(s) myself and start filling them. (I also arrange my items on the conveyor belt so that the heavy items go first and the crushables go last.)

Two well packed paper bags beat the hell out of 15 flimsy plastic ones that tear from sharp-edge boxes and bounce around hitting your knees or side when you're climbing the stairs and that tend to spill out all over the car seats (even the back ones) if you have to make a sharp turn or a sudden stop. Give me a paper bag that I set on the floor behind the driver's seat every time. :)

Regards,

Joe
 

Jeff Gatie

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Paper, unless I have very few items, and like Joe I bag them myself. I will even tell the bagger to take care of someone else. I worked for a supermarket for 9 years (high school and college) and know a little something about bagging and since the onslaught of plastic, nobody knows how to bag (which is why you get 2 items per bag). You have to watch what's coming down the belt, put the soft/fragile stuff aside, grab cans to line the bottom, boxes if there are no cans, irregular items flat on top of that layer and then top it with a softy/fragile (bread, eggs, chips, etc.). I've seen those whippersnappers they call baggers nowadays lob a can of tomato juice on top of a carton of eggs and toss it in the carriage without batting an eye.

DOES'NT ANYONE HAVE PRIDE IN THEIR WORK ANYMORE??? :angry: ;)
 

Evan M.

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Personaly, I have a love/hate relationship with plastic bags. I like the fact that they have the handles and appreciate how they force me to use my brain to figure out the many different ways I can hold AS MANY bags as possible so I do not have to make another trip. The thing I hate is getting home from the grocerie store and having to rebag everything because everything falls out. I also like the multi uses as well....grocerie/garbage/dog poop/wet clothes carrier. I do miss the old days though when I would go to the grocerie store with mom and the nice young man would fill 3 paper bags with about 750$ worth of groceries then bring them to your car and put them in for you.......those were the days.

Another good use for paper up here in Maine.....a lot of people here get paper and save the bags to start a fire in the fireplace come winter.
 

Ron-P

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I work for Trader Joes and 99% of the bags that go out are door are paper, and most of the time double bagged. We do not even asd the shopper "the question" they get paper unless they speak up and ask for plastic.

I love the paper bags but for picking up dog poop plastic works better.
 

KDHM

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cloth
I always have a few cotton shopping bags in my back pack. no worry of breaking and a strong handle. when dirty I just toss them in the wash.
kd
 

Radioman970

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Plastic. I hate em for reasons already mentioned (trunk + plastic bags = oil + water). I don't live in the city so I don't need them for dog poop but they sure make quick and easy disposal for wet coffee filters (even though some have small holes). I also hang one on my car's glove compartment and on a drawer handle in the kitchen as quick trash bags. The dogs love to play with them if I jerk them around a bit. They'll tear them up! Although that can be dangerous because of suffication.

My favorite thing about plastic bags is sometimes you'll see plastic bag "tumble weed" floating along. I love that! Not that I'm lacking in concern for the environment, but there's just something warm about seeing a drifting plastic bag trying to make it's escape to whereever those things end up. ;)
 

DaveHo

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I think the real question here is why on earth do you go shopping every day? I can see that being the case if you live in a metro area and walk everywhere, but you've got a car. Huge waste of time. Of course I hate going grocery shopping myself. My wife ususally handles it, but even so it's usually 2-3 times a month at most with the occasional trip to the butcher thrown in there.

Oh and plastic for us. We use them in the small trash cans in the bathrooms & such.

-Dave
 

Joseph DeMartino

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Not sure who this is addressed to, since I don't recall seeing any posts from anyone who reported shopping every day. I said that I go 2 or 3 times a week, and stated my reason - the supermarket is nearby and I pass it on the way home each night, and I live in a 3rd floor walk up and hate to make multiple trips to the car - especially at this time of year. So I'd rather have one or two easy-to-manage and carry bags to deal with each time and rather spread my shopping out across a couple of days. Just "having a car" does not make it convenient to do mass shopping once or twice a month. (I did that when I had a house with a garage and an air conditioned laundry room right off it. The laundry room also served as my "cat airlock" to keep my indoor cats away from the great outdoors. I would open the garage door with my clicker, close it behind me, open the laundry room door and I could transfer lots of bags of any wieght from the car to the tops of the washer and drier in cool comfort, and then close the door to the garage behind me and open the door into my kitchen and put the groceries away. That's a bit different from schlepping bags up three flights of stairs in the Florida August heat and fumbling for keys to unlock the door to the condo. Try that sometime see if you still ask "why on earth do you shop so often"?)

Regards,

Joe
 

Jeff Gatie

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I'm with Joe. I live alone and I hate making multiple trips to the car, which is why I bag my own (I bag heavy so there are less bags to carry). Plus, I love to cook and in addition to the great advantage of having the freshest ingredients; I never know what I want from day to day, sometimes thinking of a recipe just before I leave work. I probably visit the supermarket 3-4 times a week and the wholesale club once a week for staples.
 

Radioman970

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Yeah, that's interesting. Amount of shopping trips. I live in a little bitty town but I still only go shopping twice a month for groceries. I buy most stuff I want online and it gets delivered to me without the need for plastic or paper. :)
 

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