USING ECOBAGS ? YOU MAY BE SUSPECTED OF BEING A SHOPLIFTER!

MAYBE WE SHOULD JUST LET THOSE ECO-BAGS THAT ARE SO HANDY ROT ON THE SHELVES and go back to PAPER OR PLASTIC ! USING THEM CAN GET YOU SUSPECTED OF THEFT!

This morning I packed one of those inexpensive but very lightweight ecobags that are being pushed to sub in for paper and plastic by almost all the grocery stores in Southern California - maybe around the country. I packed it with three library books, a bottle of water, a wallet, some fruit and a can of tuna I had bought for lunch. Also a folding umbrella, and a couple work files. It's lighter than any purse or backpack I have.

I went into my local grocery store - a RALPHS - to see what they had for sale for Halloween; cakes, cookies, candies, candles, pumpkins, all those things in various departments. So I was roaming all around the store. I don't think I was in the store too long. And no employee approached me to ask me if they could help me locate anything. As I was heading out, there was a woman with a full shopping cart ahead of me. She was older and slow. The alarms went off. I hesitated behind her. Then we both went out, though I was still behind her.

Suddenly an Operations Manager, three employees (likely baggers) and a Coke-A-Cola representative were accosting me on the sidewalk, because supposidly I set off the alarm. I told the Operations Manager that it was not I who had set off the alarm, but the woman ahead of me. I threw my ecobag to the pavement. Let her pick it up and search through it, I thought. I suggested she check her CAMERAS TO SEE WHO SET OFF THE ALARM. She said that "People don't walk around the store with ALREADY FULL ECOBAGS!"

By now customers were coming out of the store and taking looks my way. I said I was embarrassed and humiliated to be thought of as a thief. I pointed at one customer and then the guy who turned out to be the Coke- A-Cola guy. I told her that lots of people use the bags for other things.

"SO WHY DO YOU SELL THEM THEN?" I said.

In the end she was not going to put her hands into my possessions. And in the end I will not be shopping at Ralphs until I get an apology from corporate.

AREN'T WE SICK OF SHOPPING IN STORES THAT TREAT CUSTOMERS AS CRIMINALS?!