New Bag: Big Shopper

One afternoon while Colby was babysitting I went to Fran Prix grocery store. [I've started cooking so much that I will probably be starting a What I Ate For Dinner blog with Josh Brown and one of the Mike V's in my life.] I bought olive oil and something else that came in glass. French supermarkets do not utilize the tool that holds plastic bags open so you can pack your groceries while you're being rung up; they simply leave a small pile of bags near the end of the counter, most of which are attached and clinging, keeping the situation as inconvenient as possible. On this day there were only two plastic bags available. My French being what it is, and the environment suffering as it does, and a line forming steadily behind me, it only seemed right that I pack my things in one bag.

I bought vegetables at a market and when I was a block away from our apartment the olive oil broke through the plastic bag and smashed on the ground. And as usual, I was not dressed incognito, so I had no choice but to cross the street and hide in a store [in which I could replace the olive oil]. I also had to buy a buy-two-get-one-free pack of Buenos to keep from crying.

And so I have invested in a reusable grocery bag. The first time I saw the Big Shopper bag was on the subway. A homeless guy was passed out near the train door, and under some plastic bags he carried around was a filthy Big Shopper bag. I knew I had to have it. I found it later at a hardware store near our apartment for 4€50.