how do you not use or re-use produce bags? - Page 3

[purplerose]

i wonder if this counts when people eat fruit before paying for it. when i worked at a grocery store, people frequently brought the banana peel for me to weigh! that is stealing! occasionally they would have me weigh a whole banana in it's place but that was rare. if you pay by weight, but eat part of it(concealing it in your body lol) before weighing, that is wrong.

Originally Posted by serenbat 

   Presumptions. Any person purposely concealing unpurchased merchandise of any store or other retail mercantile establishment, either on the premises or outside the premises of such store or other retail mercantile establishment, shall be prima facie presumed to have so concealed such merchandise with the intention of depriving the merchant of the possession, use or benefit of such merchandise without paying the full retail value thereof, and the finding of such merchandise concealed upon the person or among the belongings of such person shall be prima facie evidence of purposeful concealment; and if such person conceals, or causes to be concealed, such merchandise upon the person or among the belongings of another, the finding of the same shall also be prima facie evidence of willful concealment on the part of the person so concealing such merchandise.

[serenbat]

i wonder if this counts when people eat fruit before paying for it. when i worked at a grocery store, people frequently brought the banana peel for me to weigh! that is stealing! occasionally they would have me weigh a whole banana in it's place but that was rare. if you pay by weight, but eat part of it(concealing it in your body lol) before weighing, that is wrong.

Non-white, or poor, or non-familiar shoppers run a much greater risk of being harassed if they use their own bags

I sometimes go to a WF an hour away- it's like night and day what I see people getting away with--not in my area-I have seen store employees go up to people with food (even for their children) and they do have to pay!

I have seen people give whole muffins to their children at WF and nothing is said to them and they don't offer to pay (and I'm sure they didn't pay up front!) I was behind one of these mothers one time- that would not fly in my area

[mambera]

I have some meshies but not enough and also they are not very sturdy, they are getting destroyed after a couple of years of not-heavy use.  I mostly reuse the plastic ones as others have said.

[tillymonster]

I reuse them as garbage bags when I chop my veggies up. Or I line my garbage bowl. They are pretty useless! Thanks for the mesh bag idea!

[beanma]

I volunteer at our food co-op and one of my jobs is bagging groceries. I have seen every possible combination here. The mesh bags are great. Some people save the plastic bag that cereal comes in inside the box and reuse that. Folks have cheese cloth and nylon bags that are designed as produce bags. Most people just skip the bags for a lot of produce, but every now and then you'll get someone who bags every single item in a plastic produce bag — down to a single cucumber or orange. We have small brown paper bags (like lunch sacks) available as well as the plastic film bags. For things that aren't wet the paper bags work great. For things like mushrooms and peaches that need to breathe they're preferable.

Personally, I avoid using the plastic produce bags, but occasionally if the lettuce is really wet or something I'll take one. Sometimes I put meat in it if the package looks suspect. I re-use them at home a lot. I just wash them and put them in the dish drainer to dry. I might put them over a glass or something. Occasionally I hang them outside on the line. If they're not very dirty I'll just skip the washing. I use paper a lot for the bulk items like flour and grits and oatmeal. 

I have always meant to make one of those stick plastic bag dryers (http://www.gaiam.com/product/countertop+bag+dryer.do?utm_medium=shoppingengine&utm_source=googlebase&extcmp=cse_froogle&cvsfa=3728&cvsfe=2&cvsfhu=30362d30303037) out of Tinker Toys or Fiddlesticks, but have never gotten around to it, so they just end up drying over something in the dish drainer or hung on the line.

Another of my jobs is recycling. I'm the person who takes all the plastic grocery bags into the back to be recycled. In our county we do accept all plastic grocery type bags, the produce bags, ziplocks w/ the zip removed, bubble wrap, saran type wrap, etc. It can all get recycled together. 

[ShadowMoon]

I bought several re-usable mesh and cotton produce bags and bring them with me when I shop. I have enough for storage in the fridge and enough for shopping. The only time i may use a plastic bag is for very wet greens.

I go to various markets and none have an issue with putting items in re-usable bags as you shop around.