The Bag Lady

Okay, so today my boss went to our local supermarket and got quite a shock. There was a new cashier on that she had never seen before. She was around age 40, my boss noted, because she was checking out the woman's various facial piercings. My boss totally dislikes all tattoos and body piercings, so she was paying attention to all that and then blind-sided by what happened next.

Keep in mind that this was a higher-end supermarket, not a cheap-o discount one. This place does not charge for its plastic shopping bags, just suggests via signs that people can pick up the 'enviro friendly' (ha what a joke) bags. So my boss was buying several heavy cans and two jugs of milk, and asked the cashier to please double-bag them.

The woman refused. She said it's not environmentally friendly and carried on packing. My boss was rather floored. She saw that the woman had put ALL the cans into one bag, so she asked again to please double-bag that because the plastic is so thin, there's no way it will hold. The cashier again said that it was 'not good for the environment' and carried on. My boss was stunned. She is a very friendly nice woman who hates to cause trouble (aka a wimp lol), so she didnt say anything.... but then the woman got to her milk and my boss asked her to double bag those as well. By this time my boss somehow thought the woman WAS actually double-bagging, assuming that she was making a tsk-tsk comment (still unprofessional, but whatever).... and paid the bill and left. At this store they still pack your cart for you too. It wasnt until she reached her car that she realized NONE of the stuff was double bagged.

And sure as sh*t, when she got home and grabbed the bag of cans, it ripped to shreds and sent cans rolling down her driveway and into the nice mudpuddle at the bottom. Yeah, she could have been more careful, but that's not the point. Those thin bags rip on me all the time if I forget my own bags, or they have a *gasp* cardboard box in there that slices through. But the point is that the cashier outright refused to follow a customer's request based on her own idealogy.

Boy I can't WAIT to go in there next time and see if that woman is there cos I will go to her till and request double bags and see what happens. My boss should have complained, asked to speak to a manager, pack up her stuff and go to another til, and/or phoned the store when she got home. She didnt because as I said, she hates to cause trouble, but that is her choice. My choice would be different.

What the hell is going on with people these days? That woman is paid to do her job, not tut-tut people for using plastic bags. If she doesnt like it, why is she even there? I would love to know if she does it to others and then gets the riot-act read to her. She should go work at a place that charges for bags, or does not offer plastic at all, if that's what she believes. I wish I could call about this myself, but I am just an ear. I was not there and didnt see it, but I believe my boss. She has never told a story like that before and still seemed stunned when she came back to work.