I stopped at a local filling station to fill up the car so I wouldn’t have to worry about it when I get back from my Christmas break. Normally these stop are fairly uneventful. Today I wish it would have been more eventful.
I happened to go inside because I wanted to fill up my travel mug and grab a bag of baked Lays. As with most gas stations at noon they had one register open and it was kind of backed up. I was standing in line and the woman who was checking out was taking forever. She was acting as if she hadn’t purchased anything at a store in 10 years. Unfortunately, I see this often so this wasn’t shocking. After the transaction was complete the cashier says thank you and I thought everything was done. At this point I still hadn’t seen what the lady was purchasing, but I heard her ask for a bag.
This is where the funny/irritating part occurred, I saw the cashiers expression of disbelief, she asked “You want a bag?” The woman reaffirmed her choice. At this point I thought the cashier was being a bit rude. Then I saw it, the woman had asked for a plastic bag for…wait for it….a gift card. At that point I wished the cashier would have hit her when she asked for the bag. I would have lied to keep the cashier out of trouble if she would have. I’m not the person who lectures my friends on environmentally conscious behavior, but I try to at least do some of my part. I try to avoid using bags unless I actually need them, I often ask the cashiers at Target to take the items out of the bag if they don’t ask me whether I need one or not.
This lady took the time to request a bag for a gift card. I’m still kind of annoyed, and take this as a sign that Minnesota needs to institute a bag tax like the one proposed in New York City immediatly.
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As if Minnesota doesn’t already stick its nose in where it doesn’t belong… Let the businesses decide whether or not its economical and environmental enough for them to dispense plastic bags to their customers. Aldi has done away with any sort of bagging (much like Sam’s club) and I feel that every grocery/gas station store should follow suit. We try to use reusable bags but sometimes the ones we do have are in use elsewhere or we just forget. I certainly agree that this woman was being ridiculous in her request but I feel it’s just as ridiculous to suggest that the government become involved in adding yet another unnecessary tax into our lives.
Bill, I agree with you that Minnesota does stick its nose in a lot of places it shouldn’t. Then again sometimes a financial incentive is the only way to get people to change their habits. Is a tax the answer, probably not.
I usually get the opposite reaction from cashier: “You . . . don’t want a bag?”
Though usually that’s in one of the cases where I’ve bought a lot of stuff and forgotten my reusable bags, so I’ll shove a ridiculous amount of stuff in my purse.
Not a bag tax. An idiot tax.
Agreed, though until I read this I didn’t think something like that was possible.