Despite my vow to remain indoors the rest of the day to avoid inhaling any more of the smoke in the air I realized that I needed to buy laundry soap. As the Publix shopping center is only about 1.5 miles from my house I decided to go there and get it from Dollar General.
I wound up picking up the items I went for as well as a nice T-bone for dinner from Publix and a bottle of Gatorade, which I'll toss on the grill later.
As usual I carried my cloth tote bag into the stores with me so as to avoid those despicable plastic bags. The guy at Dollar General didn't give it a second thought, but the young lady at Publix was another story. I think she's new as I don't recall seeing her working there before. When she rang up my steak and Gatorade she started to put them into plastic bags and I stopped her and instructed her to just place them into my tote bag.
This really seemed to confuse her for a moment and she protested that her manager had told her she had to bag all purchases, even if it's just one item. I told her I didn't want the plastic bag because they're a waste of money, resources, and bad for the environment. She said that she had never thought of that before and agreed that they did seem like a real waste but that she really needed to put the items in a plastic bag so she doesn't "get in trouble".
The store manager overheard us as he was only a few feet away. He walked over and told her (very nicely) that they had a number of customers who were environmentally responsible (his actual words) and that if a customer brought their own bags she should be more than happy to use them. He started to apologize to me but I stopped him saying that it wasn't needed as the young lady was simply following the instructions that she had been given during her training and that perhaps they should make a point of including such things in the training of new employees. He agreed, shook my hand, and walked away.
Judging by the little smile on the cashier's face I think she was a tad amused at my admonishing her boss, I gave her a little wink and a smile as I picked up my tote and left.