Hang onto all those receipts. In Connecticut consumers must now bring their own bags whether they are shopping for groceries, clothing, hardware or an evening take-out. I have no issues with bringing bags for groceries, I even understand the hardware store, but the clothing stores? Really? I have to bring an assortment of clean bags with me when I just happen onto a store having a sale in just my size? By clean, I mean a previously unused bag. I do not want my new clothes to smell like broccoli or bananas.
I am having nightmare visions of wandering from store to store in a mall making small purchases but having to show the mile-long receipts for each item as I attempt to leave each store with my new small purchase placed carefully in my single shopping bag.
The dream begins innocently enough I am just wandering thru a clothing store where I found a blouse or maybe a dress but I place it in my handy bag. Then I am in a shop or a department with gift items. I keep picking things up and putting things down and suddenly am dancing in the aisle with something held high by my hand in the air and then into the sack it goes. Then I am in a pharmacy I think. Two items go in the sack and I am waving long receipts in the air as if they are ribbons on a baton. I am then in a long hall dancing when there is a giant hand palm toward my face and it turns as if asking for the receipts/ribbons. More it motions, more receipts. I begin pulling receipts from the bag. Endless receipts. Long receipts. Short receipts. More receipts. More receipts the hand commands. I keep pulling them out of my bag and then I wake up.
What should I do? When I go to a mall should I bring a seperate bag for each place I might possibly visit? Should I carry a single envelope for my daily receipts just in case I need to prove I paid for the items I have stuffed in my bag? Just today I stopped at the grocery. I bought a few items but didn’t have a bag so I put them in my purse. I am certain I was carefully watched that I left the store directly and did not stop in front of any display. I have since put my extra bags into the car in case I want to stop and shop somewhere again. A friend had me laughing with a story of how she went to a local chicken place to pick up dinner. When she paid they asked if she would be needing a bag. She was out grocery shopping so she said no and went out to her car for bags to carry her take-away.
Are all your bags disposable? Washable? Do you make additional cardboard liners for the bottom of your favorite bags to make them stronger? How many bags do you keep in the car? Do you have seperate bags for department store purchases? Do you save all your receipts for the day seperate from your purchased items?
Holiday shopping may get very interesting this year.
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