Making a little difference

Originally uploaded by desireux.

I do my weekly grocery shopping at Meijer. One thing that has always made me a little unhappy was their 'generosity' at using plastic bags. It was not uncommon to have 10 plastic bags for a batch of grocerys. And in each bag, sometimes there would only be 2 items. So, I got a huge reusable tote bag to carry the groceries. Initially, I was afraid the checkers would not be too happy to have to do something different. Some do seem abit, just dumping the items outside and then I would have to either ask them if they could please put it inside the bag. But most are okay, putting them nicely into the bag. One young man was particularly nice, going as far as to arrange the bottles and boxes so they were standing upright in the bag. Last week, I had a rather pleasant surprise. Meijer has implemented a 0.05 cent deduction for shoppers with their own bags. It's a small amount and I'm not sure of the effect on other shoppers but it makes me happy to know that they are encouraging people to use less plastic bags. So if you head out to Meijer, do a little bit for the environment and bring your own bag.