11 December 2010

Still Can't Get This One Right

THE FOLLOWING POST appeared on this blog in December of 2007. I'm re-posting it because I still can't remember this simple concept...

It's a simple concept, really. We just can't seem to master it.

Unlike grocery stores in the States, stores here in France charge you for the bags you use to carry your food home. There are varying qualities of bags at various prices -- from flimsy plastic bags to strong, sturdy canvass bags (the shopping carts even have nice little places to hold the bags while you shop). The French will use the same bags over and over for months, making sure to always take them with them during trips to the market. Our kitchen cabinet is full of dozens of these sorts of bags, ready for reuse the next time we make a trip to the local Intermarche, Champion, or Carrefour.

But it never seems to work out that way. Instead, we find ourselves in line to check out with no bags, requiring us to purchase a few more to add to our growing collection. Forgetting our bags isn't such a big deal during those spur-of-the-moment trips to the store for a quick baguette or some milk. But when we leave the house for only one reason -- to go shopping for food -- and we still forget to throw a few bags into the car it gets annoying...really annoying.

Perhaps there is a trick we haven't learned or a way to remind ourselves to bring bags with us when we shop. But until we master this BYOB concept, we're going to have a surplus of really nice grocery bags filling up our kitchen cabinet.

8 comments :

Anonymous said...

I think the trick is to store the bags in the trunk of your car instead of the kitchen cabinet. When she returns from her grocery shopping, my mom leaves the bags by the front door so the next time she leaves the house, she puts them in the car right away... With all the bags you may have accumulated, just throw a bunch in the car and leave them there... They will eventually come in handy! :)

deedee said...

Like magali said, you have to keep the bags in the trunk of your car.

French for a While said...

I know, but the problem is that I put them in the car, use them once, then forget the next 3-4 times. I'll get it one day, I'm sure.

cocopuff1212 said...

When I come home and unload the content of the bags, I *immediately* put the bags next to the front door. And I mean immediately, not five minutes later, because I'd forget.

Anne said...

The District of Columbia now requires all food stores (which includes drug stores) to charge for plastic bags. Change is coming.

Anonymous said...

We have to pay 5 cents for every plastic bag we need from stores. I consistently forget our canvass bags (which we paid for) in the trunk. Of course I always remember them while in the checkout line.

jim

Michel said...

We are only in Sablet a few weeks a year and we never remember either so have a huge collection of plastic bags from Intermarche, IKEA too.

Megan said...

I use a caddy to do my shopping on foot once a week.