Update: Veggie Bags

I ventured out of the house Friday, my first attempt at driving since the eye surgery.  So far so good.  I had to get to the grocery store to pick up a few things for the monthly potluck luncheon for Ethical Society of Austin.  I had a couple of adventures with the veggie bags, so I thought I'd share my progress so far.

• Have I mentioned that the first step in using the reusable veggie bags is to remember to bring them?  They can get lost in the mass of reusable shopping bags that we accumulate in Austin, so it takes a little extra effort to make sure that they are handy when needed.  So far I have gone off and left them in the house only once.  I decided that I would just have to do without fresh produce that day, so the lesson was quickly learned.  I now hang them separately so that I don't miss them when I need to get them back to the car.
• On a recent trip to a store where other items are available in bulk and/or bag your own bins, I discovered that the bags could also be used for fresh bread and for some bulk foods, in this case, non-sticky candy.  
• A friendly baker voiced approval of my bags and then told me about how other shoppers have dealt with the sticky tags used to tell the cashier how much an item will cost.  He demonstrated how people would stick them all over their clothes, "just about everywhere," and then mimed the cashier trying to scan them.  The important point for me was that I didn't have to be so neat about getting my tags on a special piece of paper--all the cashier wants to see is the bar code.
• The cashier was, however, happy with my tags stuck on a sheet of paper. She "voted" my strategy the best of any that she had seen.  Oh, sweet validation!
• Friday's adventure was a little less positive.  The cashier was happy to see the bags and the little sheet of stickers, but the bags were kind of floppy.  I didn't pull the string all the way to close the cucumber bag, so, yes, that was my cucumber rolling out of the basket.  Worse, the lemons were missing! The cashier rang them up because they were there on the sheet, but the lemons, bag and all, were gone.  I backtracked and ended up in the produce section near the lemons--and there was my bag complete with three lemons. Apparently, I weighed them, printed the label, stuck the label on my sheet of paper, and then walked off without the lemons.  *sigh*  

Well, yes, now that you ask, my life is rather like The Perils of Pauline. Adventures aside, reusable veggie bags--whether you make your own or buy some for the purpose--do seem to be becoming more common here in Austin and do help reduce the need for plastic produce bags.  Of course, if you have secondary uses for the plastic bags, that's good, too.