In hopes of fore-going the plastic wrapping of pre-packaged sliced meats and cheeses, I opted to go straight to the deli. After seeing the lady behind the counter package previous customers’ meat in plastic, I shot straight from the hip, asking, “Can I have you wrap my items in my own packaging instead of plastic?” She gave me the scrutinizing look of a woman who doesn’t want to be bothered with excess requests, nor people with extra heads growing out of their bodies, as though I’d just asked if I could have my cat butchered and sliced into lunch meat.
“I know it’s strange, but I’m trying not to use plastic. Can you pack it in my container? Or maybe wax paper if you have it?” I gave her an apologetic, please-humor-me smile.
She gruffly agreed, and as I rustled through my bag to get out my own packaging, she slipped it all into one of her plastic bags anyway, behind my back. “Oh…” I said with obvious disappointment. “Do you have wax paper?”
“No.”
“Well, don’t worry about it, now. It’s too late,” I said lightly, trying to brush off the insult I felt as she went to cut more of meat, not giving any thought to it, as I’d read in other places that it could be a difficult concept for people to grasp. She ended up taking the meat out of the plastic anyway, which was a nice effort, though useless.
From behind me an older woman with a canula asked, “Are you allergic to plastic?” not unpleasantly. I at least got the chance to tell her about my experiment. I felt like one of those anti-cigarette commercials that show an asterisk above the heads of those who’ve been enlightened, and could almost see the asterisk appear over her head. At least she was understanding! She thought I’d get a better reception for my request from Sunflower Market.
When the deli worker asked about cheese I was ready with my container, but even as I held it out she STILL grabbed ANOTHER plastic bag. Not even at least using the bag she’d already gotten out for the meat.
“Wait, wait, please…” she didn’t hear me ducked beneath the glass case, or ignored me. “Wait! Stop! Please don’t put it in the bag!” I was pleading with as much reserve and dignity as I could. Maybe I should have gotten on my knees.
“Alright!” she snapped, startling me. And I gave her the container, both of us flustered.
I thanked her very, very much for using my container and asked her to please, please use the plastic bags she’d taken out for me for another customer.
“You can use them on my order!” volunteered the woman behind me brightly.
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Was she doing the plastic thing because she's a creature of habit or for another reason?
ReplyDeleteMaybe she didn't know how to adjust the tare weight. Whole foods used to have bio-degradable containers you can opt for from the salad bar that you could take to the deli counter to get your lunch meat and cheese. You should call the store and inform them that you would like to become a regular customer if they could accommodate you.
ReplyDeleteI think creature of habit. She weighed the cheese with only wax paper that miraculously appeared even though she said she didn't have any. (Maybe it was actually a piece of plastic. . . :( )
ReplyDeleteGood idea, Lori!