Pairs - Home of La Bag....

On any normal day, I would walk into Walmart, pick out what it is I want, as much as I want, go to the register, have my items scanned and bagged and then out to the car to head home. Well as we know this is no longer the "norm" in our lives. Here, you buy just what you can either carry home or put in your little old lady wheeled cart (photo to come later). But it does not stop there. In Paris, bags cost money, so if you don't bring your own they charge you for what you need and you have to bag up your own items. This goes for anything that you buy, not just groceries. Want to buy an blouse, or shoes or school supplies, you have to have your own bags or buy a bag or bags from the clerk.

Now you must realize there is a method to the Parisian madness. This is a city that is big on recycling or being environmentally friendly. So to force you to think about bringing bags with you, they charge you for them. So everyone here is basically a "bag lady." You have a bag stuffed somewhere so in case on your way home from work you want to stop in and buy something, you have a bag for your purchase. I like the idea, it forces you to really think about the impact of just getting a plastic bag and then possibly throwing it away into a landfill somewhere. If we in America adapted such a simple principle, we might have less plastic bags in our landfills.

So the next time you buy groceries, or kids clothes, or school supplies, think about if the store made you purchase bags from them to put the items in you just bought, would you think about keeping some bags in your car just for those times when you needed to shop and had to have a bag? I recommend getting the bag that is either canvas or already made of recycled materials rather than having a hoard of plastic Walmart sacks in your trunk.

Remember it's not "paper or plastic" but rather reusables.....

Au revoir