Monday, November 24, 2008

Swedish for Evolution

This past weekend, the hubs and I made a great escape. We left L-Bug with his Aunt and Uncle and headed north. We were on a mission in search of meatballs, pinewood furniture, and men named Sven. That's right, we went to Ikea.

While there, we saw many ways to spend every penny in our pockets. It took a good 30 minute sit-down to whittle our dream list down to something more within our budget. Luckily, sit-downs at Ikea can involve meatballs and lingonberry juice.

One interesting thing I observed while checking out was the complete Lack* of bags. It seems Ikea simply did away with them. I was actually amazed by this. I figured most people would be left fumbling for what to do with their stuff, but I was wrong. Everyone simply reloaded it all into their cart in the same fashion which they used to bring it to the register. Genius, no? There were a few people who were prepared with their reusable bags (ours were taken out of the trunk to make more room), but most simply dealt with the situation.

It's a wonder to me that other stores don't just follow suit. It seems the American consumer IS adaptable and able to find other means for transporting our purchases. So, Target, Wal-Mart, Kroger... It's time to go cold turkey, and take away our bags. We'll be ok, we can adapt.

*Also a line of economical furniture.



6 comments:

Anonymous said...

dang. I wish we had an Ikea anywhere nearby. Their online selection is pretty limited. I like the lacking bags. I feel the same way at Costco -- a little naked at first without bags, but no big deal to load stuff directly in the trunk. I am great about using the reusable bags at the grocery and Target, but I have a hard time remembering them other places, like clothes stores, for instance. Would love to be forced to go cold turkey bagless!

Chimpsea said...

Yep... they phased out plastic bags after a period where consumers could pay 5 cents per bag, and even adding that little charge really cut the use of plastic bags.

http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/about_ikea/press_room/press_release/national/blue_bag_thank_you.html

I wish grocery stores would do the same... I was a little peeved at Harris Teeter the other day for wrapping all of our meat in plastic bags (individual bags for each meat item, of course - wouldn't want one plastic-wrapped meat product to touch another's plastic wrapper) before putting them in our reusable canvas bags. Really?! But I do like how they cram things into the reusable bags in ways they'd never try with plastic, where they seem to think that the supply is so limitless that all sorts of things can be wrapped in bags and placed in other bags and on and on...

There's my plastic bag rant for the day. Now I need to find a way to deal with our kitty litter so I can be completely done with evil plastic bags.

Anonymous said...

Aha! We carried out our stuff in the cart--although a lot of folks bought their own bags. I was kind of happy to see no bags and I agree with your final sentence there!

Amanda said...

Ok indeed!

Melissa said...

Ikea leads the way!

I forget my bags about half the time we go, so we end up loading stuff into the stroller and having the toddler walk to the car. It works. :)

carrhop said...

Love me my IKEA!

Blessings!