Plastic Bags

Most of the customers that come to the Farmer's Markets bring their own reusable bags.  But as we all know it is easy to forget them by the door at home, or in the car.  Some people struggle along with multiple items, but don't seem to want to ask for a bag.  Others want a bag to keep the wet ends of their bunch of greens from getting their cloth bag wet. Years ago I purchased a whole box of plastic bags to put customer's purchases in.  Last year sometime they ran out, and I managed to get by with bags I had accumulated myself.  I was stingy at handing them out, and managed to finish out the year that way.  Starting the markets again this year, it didn't take long for us to go through the bags we had accumulated over the winter (from when we had forgotten to take our own bags).  I'm refusing to buy more.  There are far too many plastic bags out there as it is.  So I sent a call out to my egg customers.  They seem to frequently forget to take their own bags too, as they were quite happy to hand me bags of bags.  And I really appreciated it, thank you, thank you!  Much better to reuse the plastic bags that are already out there, than to be purchasing new ones.  Saves us a bit of money too, although buying a 1000 bags at a time is only about a couple of cents a bag.  

So when Larry wanted something easy to do, usually as a break between the more physical jobs around here, he would sit down and sort out plastic bags.  He'd take the bag of bags one person had given us, flatten all the bags, check them for cleanliness, and sort them into piles.  Not quite sure what his categories were, I know that some of them didn't make any sense to me, but he got a kick out of seeing where different people shopped.  He got one surprise.  In one bag there was a clean pair of black La Senza Girl underwear:)