08 May 2009

Crazy People Love Plastic Bags

It is a well known fact that The Crazies (harmless or otherwise) love to congregate on the CBC comments boards. But, I have discovered an oft-forgotten habitat of The Crazies, the Letter To The Editor sections of local papers. Case in point, this WTF?-style letter that recently appeared in one of the local weeklies:

"What are local grocery stores doing to prevent the spread of swine flu, especially since they have started to use potentially unsanitary reusable bags? Remember when the cashier punched in the price as your food travelled by, then handled the money; no transfer of bacteria from money to food. Bag boys then put your food into sanitary plastic or paper bags."

There are just so many things wrong in that little paragraph that I don't know where to begin.
1) You are not going to get swine flu at a grocery store in Cole Harbour.
2)Swine flu does not breed in reusable shopping bags.
3)Even if reusable bags were a breeding ground for swine flu, who's to say that plastic bags aren't?
4)If the bag boy has swine flu, using paper or plastic bags isn't going to save you.
5)To the best of my knowledge, plastic backs are not sterilized before use.
6)What use do you make of your reusable bags that makes them "unsanitary"?.
7) The last time I bought groceries, the cashier did ring in all the food before handling the money. Has that changed? How could she handle the money first? She wouldn't know how much to charge you.
8) It's not as if there is a communal pile of reusable bags that the whole city shares. If you're so concerned, boil yours in hot water and bag your own groceries.

Did I leave anything out?

2 comments:

Deb said...

Yup, you did (unless I just read to fast). I've noticed that since the switch to reusable bags, I generally bag my own groceries - not the cashier (before, after, or while handling the cash) and not the swine flu infected bag boys. Oh god, how I hate news story comments.

Deb said...

Oh...I just re-read it, and you did mention bagging your own groceries. Sorry for missing that. :-)