Saving the planet in the S.A.V.

So I'm at Kroger the other day and I decide to buy a couple of the reusable blue totes in which you can bag your groceries, rather than using paper or plastic. Conscientiously, I put the totes on the conveyer belt before the rest of my groceries, to facilitate ease in bagging. Then, as the cashier begins to ring up my food, I notice the bagger* calmly placing my totes into a plastic bag, along with my other groceries.

"No!" I say. "I don't want plastic. Please just put my groceries in the blue bags."

I have to repeat this because he looks very confused, but then he shrugs and obliges. After the cashier is finished ringing me up, she puts my last item in a plastic bag.

"No, Miz Pat, she wants her groceries in the blue bags!" says the bagger, who then proceeds to take the item from her and place it, STILL in the plastic bag, into the tote. So, feeling like a bitch, I ask him to please take it out of the plastic bag and explain again that I don't want ANY plastic bags. He looks at me like I'm on crack, and the cashier rolls her eyes, but I finally make it out of Kroger sans plastic bags.

And people wonder why recycling is so difficult in Savannah.


* In defense of the bagger, whom I see all the time at Kroger, I have to say that he's a very nice guy, obviously has a strong work ethic, and is all about customer service--invariably he asks if you'll need help loading your groceries into your vehicle. But mentally, he doesn't seem to have the capacity to advance much beyond bagging groceries. So I don't blame him for not getting the recycling bit; I just think the store management should have explained the point of the blue tote bags better. It's great that they have them, but less great if no one knows how to use them. And the cashier has no excuse.