Save the Planet, Kill a Bagger

The supermarket I work at normally simply does business as usual as much as possible, much more than most others.

As only one example, many stores in the area have established special hours to accommodate senior citizens. Ours, not.

So, it stunned me, on Friday, when word came down from ownership that our baggers and cashiers are no longer required to handle reusable grocery bags. 

I hate those things...for many reasons. 

One is the self-righteous smugness of some of the people who use them that, because they use them, they are truly enlightened and are doing their part to save the planet. 

Another, more reality-based reason, is that those things absolutely reek of germs...even the bags that their owners clean after each use...and, almost no one does that. 

Political correctness is a powerful, and fickle, phenomenon. 

Until a few days ago, reusable grocery bags signified the saving of the planet.

Now, suddenly, the reusable grocery bag is a danger that carries and spreads the plague of the coronavirus. 

It's now politically correct to think: Save the planet, kill a bagger.

So, in our place, the new rule is that the customer may use their own bags but our baggers are freed from the requirement of exposing themselves to germs from that source. 

Most customers are saying that this is no big deal and that it's not a problem. 

Some, though are indignant, and even resentful.