User Profile - Julie
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Wednesday – On her way home from work Julie remembers she’s out of paper towels and decides to stop at the local convenience store for a few essentials. Before going in she remembers the Whole Foods reusable bag in the car. She grabs it. Why not put it to use for all her shopping. She gets a few things, paper towels, soap, shampoo, a box of cereal.
At the checkout the cashier asks Julie if she’d like a bag. Julie replies: she already has one, unfolds the reusable bag and loads her purchases. Another disposable plastic bag avoided. The bag is useful at more places than just Whole Foods.
Thursday – Julie is planning to make dinner for her friends on Friday, so once again it’s back to Whole Foods on her lunch break. This time however, she has plenty to buy: drinks, vegetables, bread, meat, dessert, etc, etc.
Julie recognizes she’ll need more than the one bag she brought back to the store to carry all this food back to work. At the register she doesn’t even wait for the words paper or plastic, she immediately requests to check-out two more reusable bags, and a two dollar deposit is added to her bill. Carrying the three bags back to work is a snap, thanks to the shoulder strap and the comfortable handles; she carries one bag on her back and one in each hand.
Sunday – Sunday afternoon Julie wants to pick up some food so she can pack her lunch during the week. She remembers the three Whole Foods bags and decides: she’ll go there, pick up some groceries, and return the bags. She folds up the bags and leaves for the store. During this trip Julie only spots four items, requiring just one bag. At checkout Julie returns two of the folded reusable bags and unfolds one to bring her things home. The cashier scans the barcode marked “return” on each bag. She receives a two dollar credit (two dollars off her bill) for returning the two bags.
In one week Julie avoids using somewhere between 10 and 15 disposable plastic shopping bags. At that pace she will pass up close to 800 disposable bags per year. She used an environmentally responsible alternative that was better designed, easier to carry, and made no impact on her shopping routine whatsoever, thanks to the comprehensive system surrounding the reusable bags.