COVID-19 # 25 MUST BRING OWN BAGS SHOPPING NOW - HOW MANY WILL BRING BAGS WITH CORONA VIRUS ON THEM?

 Well, another week gone by – I hope everyone is hanging in and not going completely crazy while staying at home for this long – for us it is since basically the start of March, though we were not told to do so by our Governor until later in the month.  More recently we have been going out to run errands more and more – lately seemingly once a week, occasionally twice a week for something or other, with food being about once a month unless we are out for something else in, say, Walmart, where there is also food.  Last week we went out to get a renewal of Diabetes supplies and since we go to Walmart,, also filled in a (very) few food items as long as we were in Walmart.  Tomorrow we are going food shopping.

Shopping in general now has a new challenge here.  March 1 a law went into effect in our state that stores (in most cases) can not distribute “one use” plastic bags.  They can distribute papers bags and charge for same – in some counties/cities they are required to charge a 5 cents fee for the paper bags.  So, almost immediately after this law went into effect the Corona Virus panic set it in.  People of course did not know about or remember the law coming into affect (despite news on TV and in print talking about it) and showed up to panic food shop without bags – what a mess and confusion.  When we went food shopping mid March I brought 3 of the old “one time use” shopping bags shoved in the back pockets of my jeans, and two of the large, zippered bags that had been for sale for one to buy and use instead.  (One supermarket had offered a trade in the week before March 1 – bring in a one time use bag and get one of these zippered bags in exchange free, so husband and I had each done so.)  In the middle of March (just after our shopping “spree” the law was on a halt – I had thought it was due to good sense, in a pandemic do we really want people bringing bags from home into stores – was my logic.  But no, there had been a court case against the law – that it was illegal.  The case was finally heard and the plaintiffs lost, so now we must bring bags when shopping for our items.  In normal times this would be a pain to remember with trips back out to the car where we always have some of the “one time use” bags, but now it is a bigger problem as when we go food shopping we end up with 8 or 9 paper bags (which hold more) of food and remember to bring them with us.  All of the articles about the law are so helpful about remembering to bring bags –

    Put them in your purse – how large a purse does someone have to fit in 8 or 9 paper bags and what about people like me who do not use a purse.

    Put them by the door – where? on my stove? And we have been known to forget things hung from the door knob so we don't forget them.

    Keep them in your car – have to remember to bring them back out to the car and need them in all cars, and then of course with this idea and the prior one – once the bags are in the car – one has to remember to take them out of the car when one goes into the store.  

Well, the shopping list is made and printed out – and we will be going tomorrow to the supermarket.  We will see what will happen.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Understand, I get the idea of using less and appreciate it, but in general it is a problem and even more so right now, when  items from one's home should not be coming into stores as they may be contaminated with Covid-19 and then are put where other people will have to put their bags to load their food orders into them.