Thursday, July 3, 2008
Chicago vs. Dallas: Grocery Shopping
I have decided to make a stars and stripes flag cake for the 4th of July. In order to get the ingredients for my cake, we needed to go to the grocery store. Did you know that in some parts of the country, YOU HAVE TO PAY A DEPOSIT FOR THE SHOPPING CART?!?!? I was outraged. Additionally, at this particular store, they even charge you for bags. 5 cents for paper, 11 cents for plastic. My mother says this is less about saving the earth and more about protecting their company's assests, but I don't know. What do you think? Do you pay a deposit for a shopping cart, and then pay for bags? Is this the way it should be?
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3 comments:
Oh, the horrors! LOL. We've actually started using cloth bags when we shop. It was a matter of getting into the habit but I just keep them in the car and use them every time. Maybe get some and start up the habit in Chicago to avoid paying for theirs??
I do wonder if paying a deposit for shopping carts would be a good idea here in the 'Cliff--we end up with folks shopping carts regularly in our ally. The stores pay somebody to drive around and recover them. Hmmmm...Have fun making your cake!
I like charging people for bags. I know it's mostly about the companies bottom line, but in my experience the only way to get people in the habit of doing something is to charge them for it. And getting people in the habit of reuseable bags is a good one. When you hurt someone's wallet they won't quickly forget it.
In LA we didn't pay a deposit for the carts, but they had these annoying magnetic things that caused them to be immoveable (sp?!) at the edges of the sidewalk so they couldn't leave the premises, no matter how many blocks away you had to park.
And you know, I rarely saw homeless people with shopping carts. They shouldn't charge a deposit, maybe they should call Ralph's in LA and ask about those magnetic things.
In reading all the frugal blogs I can find I frequently hear of Aldi's. So imagine my delight when driving through OKC I spot a small building (about the size of a dollar store) with an Aldi sign. I was so excited I made Jamie stop so I could run in. I took the debit card and ran - yes I said ran - to the door. But wait...yes, you need a deposit to use a cart as they were locked up outside AND they only take cash AND you must pay for bags! ugh.
I didn't see anything I couldn't live without and agree that possibly the bag charge would be ok. We should be using reuseable bags anyway!
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