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Post by lonewolf on Sept 16, 2020 12:09:43 GMT
I didnt see my first supermarket until the early 70s and then it was small compared to some these days.
I remember my mother saving silver foil and grease proof paper, when we went to the grocers everything was loose and we used paper bags and every person had their own shopping bags, we used net bags to carry vegetables home.
milk was in glass bottles and delivered to the door by the milkman.
now everything is plastic,plastic,plastic as far as the eye can see.
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Post by fenrisulfr on Sept 16, 2020 12:11:13 GMT
Virtually nothing came in plastic till the 70's,it was all carboard or paper. Now everything is packed or wrapped in it. I do miss brown paper bags, loose stuff being weighed out in front of you and wrapped and fish and chips coming in a sheet of greaseproof and wrapped in newspaper. There's a need to reinvent the wheel and go back to that type of wrapping and back to reusable glass bottles with money back on returning them.
I've used a couple of butchers before lockdown where the meat was put on greaseproof and just wrapped in paper and it lasts longer in the fridge too as it doesn't go slimy.
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Post by lonewolf on Sept 16, 2020 12:14:33 GMT
its a well known fact that food left in plastic goes slimy, the plastic makes it sweat, especially fruit and veg.
the trick is to remove it from the plastic as soon as possible and let it breathe.
I bought some easy peelers and bananas this morning in the co-op and removed them from the packing as soon as I go home.
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Post by NomadCris on Sept 16, 2020 12:45:21 GMT
I can only think of fairy liquid and bleach coming in plastic bottles. Fruit veg meat fish cheese came in white paper brown paper greasproof paper, tissue paper,newspaper, small medium or large paper bags,paper sacks,paper carrier bags,bottles jars or tins. If you bought clothes,shoes or household things they were in plain boxes or wrapped in parcel paper and tied up with natural fibre string.The shop staff were always magicians at wrapping up the most awkward items neatly and tieing them up in seconds.
All that paper card and string found a use at home afterwards.Non of it got wasted or chucked in the bin.
We definitely need to wind the clock back with some daily practices. New methods dont always equal better methods and many have created unnecessary and avoidable problems. Made things slightly more convenient and created a mountain of waste disposal and pollution issues.
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Post by VanWoman84 on Sept 16, 2020 13:17:33 GMT
Morrison's have reintroduced paper bags for fruit and veg. There were trying paper carrier bags but when I was in yesterday they only had plastic. I bet the paper ones were crap. I use those big woven plastic bags, pulled out of the charity shop bins. That's recycling itself.
I am not seeing plastic bag use reducing, despite shops saying otherwise. Only yesterday I found a brand new bag for life in a trolley. I regularly see people buying two or three bags at a time. I haven't bought a bag once since the plastic bag charge came in.
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Post by lonewolf on Sept 16, 2020 13:55:55 GMT
a lot of these supermarket things like paper bags and wonky veg dont make it this far down country.
the supermarket branches are too small for them to bother.
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Post by NomadCris on Sept 16, 2020 16:20:59 GMT
Theyve got paper bags in the fruit and veg section in my local tesco...great...except theyve got a plastic window in the side of the bag like the instore bread comes in...why does a brown paper bag need a fucking window in it FFS.Youve already seen what the veg looks like as you pick it and put it in the bag!! And what does the bag do when you half fill it? Tear all down the side of the window!!! You end up using two or three to avoid tearing them.
Tesco here only has 10p plastic carrier bags that the handles come off after a couple of uses or if theyre in the sun.
Or £1 bags for life which i wont pay because they don't last long either.
The paper carrier bags we used to have were tough like potato sacks with thick bottom and had strong handles with some kind of string embedded in them andvthat was back in the 60's.
They used to have paper minisacks in Coops like those you found in American local grocery stores and liquor stores which were brilliant, but suddenly they were gone and we had the plastic carrier bag menace everywhere.
Im sure with technology today its not that difficult to make a suitable carrier out of paper,hemp or bamboo fibre thats also recyclable and doesnt cost an arm and a leg
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Post by VanWoman84 on Sept 16, 2020 17:04:44 GMT
Those bags with windows are to stop naughty people filling them up with avocados and ringing them up as onions. They aren't recyclable because they are mixed materials, like those paper straws and takeaway coffee cups that are lined with a plastic film, that end up in the landfill.
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Post by NomadCris on Sept 16, 2020 17:26:12 GMT
So what's wrong with opening the bag and looking in to check the naughty people arent sneaking avocados out as onions?
The cashiers always open the bags anyway to see whats in them.
Thats my point,theyre not recyclable because theyre mixed with plastic.
Designers for you.Some are geniuses,the majority are morons.
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Post by VanWoman84 on Sept 16, 2020 17:45:46 GMT
Self scan. There's still somebody there, but they can't watch everybody. The old opaque plastic bags were easy to spot mismatched veg, the brown paper bags not so much. Serves them right if they lose money. Self scan is a way of one employee operating six or more tills.
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Post by NomadCris on Sept 16, 2020 17:58:31 GMT
Well amazingly,they have the technology to make translucent paper bags,theyve made them for years.You can see well enough to determine the difference between onions and oranges.
Most of the packaging is for marketing,to make it attractive to the buyer.
A lot more people are buying loose stuff now compared to last year as the loose sections have expanded and prepacked reduced.
Possibly because people dont want the packaging and possibly because theyre sick of having substandard crap shoved in with good items and you cant tell till you get the items home.
The self service tills have been reduced here too,there were 8 theres 2 now. People wont use them, i wont, ive had staff point me to them and i refuse. Ill wait at the checkout half hour than use one because theyre only doing it to make more money by saving on labour so screw them.
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Post by VanWoman84 on Sept 16, 2020 19:46:35 GMT
I always thought I should get a discount on self scan, I am working for the store after all....
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Post by NomadCris on Sept 16, 2020 19:55:39 GMT
If youre picking it yourself and doing your own checkout they should give it you free.
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