The Great Safeway Grocery Bag Abandonment
When you walk out of (what I think is) the main entrance of the Safeway across the street from the 4th & King Caltrain station (on King Street), there is a funky pedestrian path/hall/lobby area that brings all Safeway shoppers together as they enter and leave the store - car parkers, sidewalk walkers, bikers, and the rich kids who live in the housing upstairs. In that foyer area, there is a little place to sit down, gather yourself, etc. The picture above is what you’ll see on your way out of the store - several empty Safeway bags (usually double-bagged). (Remember that San Francisco has banned plastic bags.) The number of bags shown in the picture above seems about average.
Do you know where they come from?
Neither do I - not for sure - but I have a pretty good theory.
They’re from bikers who, in their infinite consideration for their fellow wo/man, bag their groceries (or let their groceries be bagged) into regular Safeway paper bags at the registers, and then do the transfer to their messenger bags once they have left the zaniness of the register area. Here, in this outside area, they can calmly pack their groceries into their messenger bags, making sure not to squish the bananas. A lot of people suck - they are inconsiderate at the check-out counter and in other areas in life - but cyclists are different — we are, by and large, very cool people.
I’ve done this on at least a couple of occasions. At least once, I un-double-bagged the bags and folded them up and left them there for reuse. One or two other times I just let them there and ran!
I’ve stopped participating in the Great Safeway Grocery Bag Abandonment myself, or I try, but sometimes I’m just in that daze while at the check-out counter, and before I know it, my stuff is in bags and I’m off.
I’m guessing the reason folks leave the bags there is because they’re perfectly reusable - and what can one do with paper bags if we take them home?
Does Safeway reuse them? That might require a bit of investigative reporting.
Am I correct? Is that where these bags come from?
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November 30th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
I’ve done this several times. At both safeway and trader joe’s. I guess I’m not the only one.