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Well, WishyWashyton wants us to be Europe. I don't know if they still do it, but when I was in Germany in the late 60's the people had to take there own bags or some sort of container to the grocery store, as the stores didn't furnish any kind of bag, paper or plastic. Kroger - my favorite grocery store - is starting to push those mongrammed cloth "totes" to carry your stuff in.

I'll admit, when the plastic bags came out, and the question at the checkout was "paper or plastic", I always chose paper, because that's what I grew up with and I was used to it.

Then slowly and incrementally - as these things happen - plastic has almost entirely replaced paper nowadays. But, I've gotten used to the plastic, and even have come to prefer them.

I can carry up to 5 plastic bags on each arm when I get home, depending on the weight, because they have those nifty little handles. These little bags are pretty strong for their size too. We have one of those plastic bag holders under the sink where we keep all of these bags, they are NEVER taken to the dump unless we use them for auxillary trash bags. They're great for all sorts of things, like dumping the litterbox in, carrying your bait on a fishing trip, turn it inside out and pick up doggie poo, makeshift plastic gloves, etc.

Now, even a casual trip to the grocery usually requires 4 or 5 bags to get your bounty home, and a full blown grocery run can use up to 15 bags or more.

Now, having said that, those cloth, european style "totes" are not much bigger than a plastic bag, so if you go on a full scale supply run, you're going to need 15 or 20 of those bad boys. I've seen them advertised at $10 each, so it will cost you up to $200 to gear up for grocery shopping. The same number of plastic bags under WishyWashyton's rules will be only $2.00....or 100 big runs to the market.

Now, if my Kroger gets to the point where they no longer have plastic, or charge for them, I have already told the manager that I will start shopping elsewhere. It's not the nickle, it's the principle of the thing.

We sailed over here from Europe to get away from Europe...

"I'll admit, when the plastic bags came out, and the question at the checkout was "paper or plastic", I always chose paper, because that's what I grew up with and I was used to it."

Every time I hear that phrase I laugh. My granddaughter had never experienced going grocery shopping by herself until I sent her. She was then faced with the question "paper or plastic" she said she was taken back by the question then asked the clerk do you mean "cash or credit card"? LOL!