I went to that bastion of good fashion, Big W after work tonight, to look at some eveningwear. Not the night on the town with my special lady kind of eveningwear, more the sitting at home alone in front of the telly on a cold winter evening kind of eveningwear. Trackie dacks, to be precise.
I found a fine pair that should suit my requirements, for $8. Pondering the fact that I’d looked at some very nice suits in my favourite suit shop yesterday costing around a hundred times that (and that was the sale price, but they were pretty damn nice), I toddled along to the checkout, with a couple of other nearly-bargains I’d chanced upon.
As I paid for the items, I noticed the plastic bag the girl had put my acquisitions in had no handles. No straps, and no holes for me to put my hand through. All the other bags she had were identical. On the train home it felt like I was carrying a swag.
(Yes yes, I had to take a bag; I don’t take my re-usable ones into work you know…)
What’s the bright idea behind giving out bags with no handles? Surely it can’t be an economy measure. Or perhaps encouragement for us to not take plastic bags, by making them inconvenient to use?
4 replies on “Handleless”
I think it is the latter!
My partner and I went to Big W last week and it wasn’t until we were on the train that I noticed the handleless bag he was given for our DVD/yarn purchases.
I ALWAYS forget to take my green bags shopping, I guess this is how they intend to make people remember – by making their shopping experience mighty uncomfortable on the hand.
Get yourself an oversized, industrial strength hole punch (with a shoulder strap to make it easier to carry) carry it to big W use it on said plastic bag. Problem solved.
I suppose those bags were designed for women with long sharp fingernails, well-equipped to make the appropriate piercing.
Even the “green alternative” bags are thoughtlessly designed. They are oblong when viewed from above – fair enough – and *only* have handles on each of the “long” sides – that’s the thoughtless part. Aren’t we also supposed to be into “accessibility” as well as conservation? The bags I just described *don’t* hang comfortably across the back of a wheelchair! The scungy, planet-destroying, non-biodegradeable ones [with handles] do! I’m a wheelie. Guess which ones I use!