I went to the grocery store last night. I know that isn’t anything to write home about, but they gave me 5 cents back. This is something that has never happened before. A major corporation, Smith’s, gave me money. It didn’t have anything to do with Fresh Values or the likes, they gave it back because I brought my own bag.
We need to back up to Sunday for this to make any sense, and possibly a bit past that. When it was raining a few weeks back I broke down and bought a Green. Fact of the matter is it was almost as cheap as buying racks and fenders for one of my bikes and I didn’t have to retrofit anything. Purchase done. I rode it once, when it was raining and then it sat. It was raining Sunday so I dragged it back down the stairs and headed towards the grocery store. I’ve done my shopping on my bike for a while unless I was purchasing large amounts of stuff. Sunday I was only planning on grabbing a few things for lunch. I stopped by the bike shop to check my email and get my bag when it dawned on me that I had a rack and should use it. so I bought a Jandd Grocery Bag Pannier. I know this isn’t anything revolutionary. Bryce has been going on his after work beer run for years with these but I have never owned one. I strapped it to the rack and headed to the store.

I have always preferred carrying things on my bike instead of on my back. With my new pannier I could keep the weight of my groceries off my back but more importantly I didn’t need a bag for anything.

So I bought a pannier and no longer need any kind of grocery bag to carry my food in. I just take my basket in with me load it up and take it to the checker who unloads it scans it and reloads it. Brilliant! The best part of all of this is that I no longer have the need to consume a bag, which means it doesn’t need to be produced saving the energy of production and transport. Plus there is no waste. Jandd guarantees there stuff and I am yet to see any problems with these so I don’t think I will be tossing it out any time soon. And all of that brings us back to 5 cents.

As I was checking out last night, I noticed that after my Fresh Values discount there was another 5 cent deduction from the total that blatantly stated No Bag discount. I was surprised and asked the cashier about it. She said that it is Smith’s policy to discount 5 cents for every bag you bring in yourself.

What does it all mean, you can save the planet, reduce consumption and production and a major corporation will reward you for it. What more motivation do you need?

Peace.