Environmentally most retail stores

just don't seem to get it. I was at the drugstore yesterday to pick up my prescriptions. 2 little bottles of pills. They used to fill them both at the store but now when I do the automated refills one of them is filled at some pill warehouse and then sent to the store. So the clerk retrieves the one from the pill warehouse and it was encased in a plastic over-wrap bag of hefty see through plastic the size of a woman's large handbag. She also got the one they fill at the store and that little bottle was inside of a multi layered paper bag with receipts and advertising stapled to it. Before bringing it all to me she then grabbed another large plastic bag nearly the size of a kitchen trash bag and put the two others inside of it and then handed the whole thing to me.

I looked at her, not a young naive teen either, and said "That is a gross amount of packaging for just two small pill bottles." It didn't phase her one bit and she just blew it off. I realize it's not the young woman who filled the remote one into a huge bag/wrap or even the paper wrapped one. But why compound it by now using an additional bag? Why not take a moment and ask the customer if they want this or if they would be fine taking the two separately? So I end up with gobs of plastic and paper packaging that is a negligent contribution to landfill use. The drugstore shall remain nameless but you can guess because they're one of the largest and always complaining how they need to cut costs. Which to them usually means wages.

The second example was at the main office supply chain near me. I happened to be there looking at a new mouse. Didn't buy it but on the way out I thought about a small key ring that I've been needing. Nothing fancy just one of those little ones on the blister-pack card. So I took it to the counter to pay for it. The cashier rang it up I used my card and she took the little carded key ring and began to put it in one of their fairly large store imprinted plastic bags. I said "Please don't do that" and she looked shocked and I said "I don't need a whole big bag for just a tiny thing I can put in my pocket." She looked at me strangely and said "Are you sure?" I told her yes that the bag is a waste and she looked at me like I was an annoyance.

But occasionally there is a bright spot. I have all kinds of choices near me for grocery stores. The super mart, uh-huh. (If you don't get that last part look it up) One in particular is a small regional with quality a good couple of notches higher than average. They actively have aggressive campaigns to get people to use their very nice quality cloth reusable grocery bags with sturdy handles. They do promotions from time to time where they are next to nothing in cost and they are quite reasonable even when regularly priced. Plus you can use them for all sorts of other "carrying" chores. The food prices are a little higher but they have lot's of personnel working and getting assistance is never a problem. Even with their slightly higher prices they are always pretty full of customers.

So it can be possible to find a pearl within the muck. Just need to give the right oyster a try. People can laugh at me all they want or think I'm strange but just a little thought and effort to reduce your environmental footprint can go further than we sometimes think.