Thursday, September 27, 2012

This is Not Spam

It seems to me that people on our island aren't tuned into each other as well as they once used to be almost a second nature trait that you about took for granted on a daily basis. I asked the girls behind the service counter in a grocery store, "Do you dump the plastic bags in the trash that I (and customers) bring into your store?" Before I was half way through with my question, the girls started to point to the special container designated for customers to deposit their used plastic bags. "I already know that." Back to my question, "The trash company for my apartment building takes the trash to the city incinerator where the plastic bags, etc. is used as fuel for 'Trash to Energy" to produce electricity. Thusly, the gist was if the store is dumping the plastic bags instead of hauling the plastic bags off to a bona fide recycler, I minus well dump my bundle of plastic bags in our apartment's trash bin and save me a trip. "No, we take them to a recylcer," they said. Or claimed. It was almost a "We take every last darn plastic bag to a recycler accentuated with a silent of course we do." What I'm getting at, is, it did take a while to get my question across the great chasm. They even gave me some odd looks during the interim. Hey, if you really want to play that game, I'll slap my forehead and shrug my shoulders. But I'm too polite. Bad habit. Perhaps, I shoulda Emailed them my question. I'll do that next time.

Same store but different night. Two of my produce bags, the kind of clear bags that you tear off a roll, ripped apart from the bottom. A frozen slab of corned beef falls to the floor then does a bobsled. A few steps later, a second bag, my oranges tear through the produce bag and roll every which way on the floor. Fortunately, the aisle was empty. Still, better remember to wash the items off at home. I'm sure they disinfect the linoleum floor on a nightly basis but that's only after the store closes for the night. So, at the check stand, I tried to explain this phenomena to the cashier to spare other shoppers the same experience. In other words, possibly they received a bad batch of produce bags from their China supplier. I'm sure the warehouse doesn't test out the rolls of produce bags before putting them out. Thusly, how else would you know but from an I-reporter. I don't think the cashier got the point. I'm almost sure she didn't. Then, I asked her if it's okay with her if I tossed these defective produce bags into the trash receptacle under her counter. She thought I was being wasteful. My story had nothing to do with the litter. Or for that matter, the fact that I had to scoop my food items off the floor.

3 comments:

blournalist said...

I've found it's nearly impossible to engage most strangers in any conversation other than, "Hey - how's it goin'?"

I was at the lake where there's a long and very steep canoe launch. A young lady drove her car down to the end of the launch and parked it. Never mind that you aren't supposed to park there. What really bothered me was that she didn't turn the wheel. Her car was pointed downhill, right at the people on the beach.

When she got out, after telling her that was not a parking space and her misinforming me that there was no sign, I told her she should really turn the wheel. She informed me that the brake was set and everything was fine. I said, "And I'm sure it's in gear too, but stand in front of that car and tell me you don't feel a little scared of it breaking loose. You're always supposed to cut the wheel on a hill." She said it would be fine, she set the brake. I said, "You have to admit, it's a good idea though, right?" She said, "Oh yeah, especially if you're lazy like me and don't want to walk all the way down here and back."





Kay said...

Gosh... you think they just toss those plastic bags? Sheesh! I hope not.

That's really terrible that they didn't do something about those veggie bags. You're nice not to just give them your dirty grocery items and get new ones.

You're also nice not to tell us all which store that was.

RONW said...

blournalist- I'm seriously considering packing a gavel and megaphone around with me.

Kay- I even woulda mentioned, "it's from the middle roll of bags at the fresh meat section." All for nought.