It’s hard to tell from this picture, but here’s a plastic bag of cherries inside of another plastic bag. Also purchased by my line mate was four potatoes also in a plastic bag. Those things are already dirty! How is this kind of thing not illegal? Of course, said person brought their own satchels.

photo.JPG

I think I’ll just move to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, actually.

61 replies on “Meanwhile at the White Center Safeway”

  2. @ 1 – Seconded.

    Uh, the fact that the dirty produce is dirty is maybe why the person has bagged them, to keep said dirt off the rest of the groceries??

    Just a thought……

  3. we’re all wasting plastic bags on dirty fruit that we’re going to wash anyway. It makes sense to stick dirty things in clean bags just to clean the dirty things and throw away the bags.

  4. To keep the dirt off of our clean pre-plastic wrapped groceries? Brilliant! That’s not a reason why they’re already packaged or anything.

  5. “Uh, the fact that the dirty produce is dirty is maybe why the person has bagged them, to keep said dirt off the rest of the groceries??”

    GROAN.

  7. Is anyone keeping track of contenders for the Stranger Hall of Shame(fully Silly Photography)? We could gather together all the ones that haven’t shown us what they mean to, that got posted upside down or sideways, the ill-lit and the blurries.

    Then Kelly O (whose photographs are always lovely, one after another) could decide which ones go into the permanent collection. Like Awkward Family Photos, an affectionate collection of embarrassments.

  9. Cue a cavalcade of dipshittery to the tune of “omg why are you bitching about a grocery checkout don’t you have bigger things to do” or “i don’t see the problem, fuck you, grocery hipster” which will emerge from people’s own discomfort and defensiveness over the fact that they do the same things even though they know they shouldn’t.

  10. While double bagging cherries is silly, I don’t really see what the alternative would be. Plus, most produce is charged by the pound, so keeping stuff contained on the scale is necessary. I’m more offended by their Lean Cuisine.

  11. Of course your observation is based solely on the assumption that they are going to throw them away as opposed to recycling them.

  12. I don’t think the point of this article was to make you think this is the top of the news agenda. I think it was just an overall groan at the silly things we do. And if we really wanted to be technical or I wanted to start a quarrel, I could say that people should bring their own bags to be environmentally friendly and protect the polar bears and emus. But I won’t do that. Because we all have better things to do than quarrel about the safety of our environment and generations to come- like surf the internet and check facebook.

  13. Hhmmm… Don’t know where you guys shop, but.. Everytime I’ve bought a plastic bag’o’cherries, the cherries are actually more WET than they are dirty…

    Silly foolish civilization-destroying me, for not wanting the rest of my groceries all wet and stuff. What was I thinking. OMG we’re all doomed. And you kids get off my lawn, while we’re at it (condemning stuff, I mean).

  15. I try not to be too germophobic, but considering how many little kids have their pee- and poo-painted legs and shoes all over the inside of those never-washed grocery carts, I usually opt for at least one continuous layer of something impervious around my produce.

  16. I’m with #10 – also, the chemical compound, er, coffee “creamer”, too.
    But honestly, what the fuck are you supposed to put the fucking cherries in, your fucking pocket? Get a fucking life, Derek. jumping fucking Jesus, what a WATB.

  18. Derek, I’m glad you’re finally on Slog instead of relegated to Line Out. Also, I commend your use of the word satchel.

  22. I know, buying fresh fruits and vegetables. It’s an outrage!

    Seriously though, no shitload of groceries in an express lane, no care.

  23. Is this the first time you’ve ever been in a grocery store? Or have you somehow managed to avoid seeing produce bags before? Very bizarre.

    You bag together loose items that are priced or weighed together, obviously. Unless you think it would be fun for your clerk to weigh off and ring up each one of your cherries individually.

    I also find it hilarious that you’re freaking out over bags in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch when there are numerous other items with a higher likelihood of ending up there in your photo. Start with the caps of those bottles. Go walk the shoreline sometime and see what variety of plastic items you can find. Bags won’t be in the top twenty.

  24. I like to put round veges into bags if I’m busing so if my bag tips over they don’t roll around. It’s one of my biggest fears.

  25. I’ve gotta say I’m w/Derek on this one. We’ve all been behind the asswipes who want their bag of food (be it cherries or chips) put into another bag for some fucking reason. And potatoes? Really? You need to put potatoes in a plastic bag because….they’ll get dirty? spread dirt? roll around? Fuck you.

  26. Why are you photographing other people’s groceries? You’re lucky they didn’t grab your little electronic snitch gadget away from you.

  27. @24: The bag of cherries in the other bag looked like this: http://i.imgur.com/REsDS.jpg

    That bag seems like it would do a fine job containing cherries. The original bag of cherries wasn’t drenched in water like another commenter suggested. If you want to put things in three bags, go to town. Have 11 children, eat Funyons all day long.

    But you have the right to know that you’re acting like a total blockhead.

  28. I love/hate these types of Slog posts where the author stumbles upon some mundane facet of daily life that literally no one else in the world would even think to comment upon. Fascinating, riveting stuff.

  29. I try not to overuse bags (bag in a bag is silly, yes) but the big problem I have with produce is when I want significant quantities and they have to weigh it.

    A couple apples or onions or garlic or whatever can be weighed just dandy, but when you get a bunch of some stupid thing that gets all over and rolls everywhere and can’t be weighed… well I guess somebody should start selling really lightweight reusable produce weigh-bags or something.

  32. I try not to engage in profanity on Slog – it being a family-friendly website and all – but I am more than a little in love with the phrase “fuck you, grocery hipster”.

    Thank you, dear balderdash.

  33. @15, it’s kind of sad that “not too germophobic” these days consists of not wrapping quite everything in disposable plastic. That’s not a dig at you, though. We just live in a generally neurotically germophobic society, and “normal” to us is, relative to human history, pretty dang obsessive-compulsive about hypersanitiation.

    Really, do you not at least rinse off your fruit and veggies before you eat them? Or steam or boil them? Why do you need to keep them squeaky clean? They grew in dirt! DIRT!

    Also, I totally called the “who cares, omg you’re so petty” dipshittery. I did.

  34. But you have the right to know that you’re acting like a total blockhead.

    Did you actually speak to this person, or just blog at them?

  36. Oh man, I’m just kidding. I actually really like Funyons. Munchos are pretty good too, but Funyons are so much better.

  37. Hello daddy, Hello mom
    I’m your ch-ch-ch-cherrybomb

    Hello world, I’m your wild girl
    ch-ch-ch-cherrybomb

    CHERRYBOMB

  39. @28
    Actually, the ziplock on those damn bags rarely works. I’ve had one spill half the cherries inside my grocery bag before. So, I don’t really blame this shopper for the second bag. And as I said before, how do you know this person isn’t going to recycle that bag.

    Also, “blockhead?” who are you, Charlie Brown?

  43. Balderdash won the thread! A correct prediction, and a sweet little turn of phrase!

    “FUCK YOU, GROCERY HIPSTER!!!” (I know others noticed, but I did too.)

    PS – Just wash your damn produce.

    PPS – Hell, people his POINT was the amount of plastic on that conveyor. Fnarf, the turtles EAT all the bags. And die. WHY YOU DO HATE TURTLES?

    PPPS – I’m actually curious about where the bags go compared with bottle tops. I wouldn’t use what washes up on a beach as an assay of what would be in the GPGP.

  44. I’m going to start double bagging all of my produce and groceries just because it gets so many panties in a twist.

  45. @45 The majority of sloggers seem to already be fighting for their right to bag as much produce as possible in as many bags as possible. The vitriol in Bellingham now that they’ve banned plastic bags is reaching a fever pitch.

    My favorite is when I see one or two oranges in a plastic bag, or when the clerk bags glass bottles each in their own plastic bag, then double bags all of the plastic bagged bottles together. Or gives you a bag for a single item. The American obsession with plastic bags knows no bounds.

  46. There are reusable produce bags you can buy, at least I’ve seen them up here in Victoria. But I haven’t bought any yet :/

  47. Fnarf received his Ph.D. in Opinionated Comments on Plastics from the Dustin Hoffman Graduate Institute in 1967.

    To the point of this post, and for what it’s worth, I ceased bagging non-rolly things months ago. The scales at the market are large enough to fit, weigh and charge me for all the loose vegetables and fruit I buy for my sad, lonely house of one.

  48. maybe this person is actually sticking it to the Safeway man by acquiring plastic bags for free. i use those things to empty the catshit box. this shopper could be a true subversive!

  50. Just noticed that shopper is buying Dave’s Killer Bread. Uh oh. So much fiber. I made that mistake once and didn’t get a damn thing done the next day.

  51. Wow. Can’t ya just let a person shop for groceries in peace? I mean, seriously, you take a snapshot of their cart contents and then get all judgmental about it in a blog? Really? This is how you spend your energy?
    And yes, that’s right — now I’m judging you.

  52. Should be laws against – the excessive number of Strangers dropped off in multiple locations, along with the ads wrapped around them…the gas consuming vehicle used for delivery of same. The filthy cloth bag used over and over again allowed to be placed near food service areas, children pushing grocery carts…Safeway,

  53. I’ll make sure to walk my dog by the stranger office next time he has to drop one. Not really but, if not for plastic grocery bags there’d be a lot of dog shit lying around everywhere.

  54. Every time I decline bags they give me the line, “we need to ask because other people get upset if you don’t bag every item.” Does anyone have any data on this phenomenon of people demanding more bags? I’ve never seen it.

    I just went to Staples and bought a single ream of paper that they were going to put in a plastic bag on a sunny day. Why?

  56. @46: The rest of the slogger who are talking about bags are mentioning pretty realistic uses for them. Bagging round veggies so they don’t roll all over the scale? Legitimate use. I am double-bagging for the sake of all the melodramatic hippies who think that crying about garbage on a blog will do any good.

  57. @44 In Seattle we lug all of our garbage down to Oregon via train, and it goes to a dump. I haven’t seen OR dumps, but I have seen California dumps and all of the plastic bags fly in the air with the slightest amount of wind. Any tree in the area looks like some modern artwork, completely covered in bags. From there the bags likely find their way to some bush or tree, and eventually decompose. Note “decompose” when it comes to plastic bags doesn’t mean goes away – it means they break down into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic until they’re just part of the environment. I’m not sure that having a massive amount processed petroleum is a great thing for the enviromnent, but I don’t really know the actual effects. Either way, I guess it’s OR’s problem.

    I just put my potatos in the cart, but these things are a great idea too. They’re $1 for three at Fred Meyer’s and I use them at the farmer’s market (I’ve even been given a discount for using my own bag!).

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