Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Green with Delight!

Earlier this year, I wrote about Whole Foods Market's decision to eliminate plastic grocery bags in all of its stores by April 22nd (Earth Day). I was practically bubbling over with glee. I learned over the weekend that my neighborhood Whole Foods will use its last plastic bag tomorrow! I am told that it will be the first store in the area to go plastic bagless!!!! YAY! In addition to being delighted about this change, I am also thoroughly intrigued to see how shoppers will react. Will they just switch to paper or will they start bringing in their own bag. I sincerely hope it is the latter and I will do everything in my power to motivate people to do so.

In other exciting news, I recently read that the British Chancellor Alistair Darling (a role similar to our Secretary of Treasury) has told retailers that they must begin reducing the number of plastic bags they hand out or he will introduce legislation that will charge customers for the bags. Love it! Alistair, you may be my new hero even though your eyebrows kind of scare me.


To all of you who have told me that you have made or at least attempted the switch to reusable bags since my initial posting, you officially rock!!! I love hearing these things. Keep them coming!!! And I have to give a huge shoutout to my Mom who I think has earned the title of "Official Reusable Bag Princess of Northeastern Wisconsin." (Mom, I'll make you a tiara!) I sincerely hope she becomes a trendsetter. Funny story: When I was home over Christmas, my mom and I attempted to use a reusable bag at the local grocery store. The cashier looked at us like we were from another planet. I think she even asked us if wanted to put our purchases in a plastic bag before we put them in our reusable bag. HA!

If you are still looking for the perfect reusable bag, body+soul magazine has a nice feature on them in its April 2008 issue. The magazine also has very cute story about one woman's attempt to switch to reusable bags. I am kind of loving this bag from Alchemy Goods (They are made from recycled banner ads that adorned the sides of buildings in Seattle.)


How cool is that?!?
Posted by rebecca at 7:42 PM

2 comments:

  1. I used to bring a reusable bag to the corner shop when I lived in Syracuse, and the cashiers inevitably looked at me like I was crazy. Even the ones who saw me regularly and knew I brought my own bag had to be reminded each time not to put my groceries in plastic. Your Whole Foods cashiers are bound to be more enlightened, which should go a long way towards encouraging your customers.
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  2. Saira!

    I can totally relate. Whenever I go to my neighborhood non-Whole Foods grocery store, the same thing happens. Plus, they always forget to give me my 3 cent reusable bag refund. And I am *so* the frugal customer that insists that I get that 3 cents! LOL, I am pretty sure they hate me there.
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