Paper or Plastic?

After spending part of my Sunday afternoon at Trader Joe's with my mother, I noticed an interesting thing that recalled some of my previous posts on class. What struck me as even more interesting was my observations at the checkout line. Trader Joe's only offered paper bags for us to load our groceries into, where as our other favorite grocery store, Jewel Osco, offered both paper and plastic. My mom used her fancy-smancy reusable bags and opted out of the offered paper bags in general, but all the fuss over the bags had me thinking. 

Later, I heard about the recent Chicago "plastic bag ban". In a quest to save the environment from the approximately 185,000 plastic bags that become litter each day, officials made it official that in August of 2015 all chain grocery stores in Chicago must only use paper bags to package their customers' purchases. The teacher of mine who happened to introduce me to this ban, noted that it was only a ban that applied to Chicago, and the surrounding suburbs, such as mine of Wilmette, were not following suit nor had any interest to. 

I found this ban and my Trader Joe's experience to be telling me something about class. Was it a coincidence that a store that only offers paper bags was known to be one that also sold "designer" food products? I don't think so. I think that the plastic bags that we are offered at grocery stores are cheaper to produce, and therefore, as menial as it may sound, connote a lower class mark than their sturdier and more eco-friendly counterpart. Many popular stores along the North Shore only offer paper bags; take Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Fresh Market and Treasure Island for example. All popular stores among the shopping crowd of the North Shore-ians, and all which are known to be more upscale super markets. And although there are other extremlely popular grocery in the area that DO offer the plastic bag, I would argue from my own experience that many of the shoppers, like my mom, use their own reusable bags that they bring from home. Which seem to make a statement on class even greater than that of the paper bag. 

While it all sounds to be a little ridiculous for someone like me to argue that our thirst for class perceptions goes down to the kinds of grocery stores we visit and even greater the kinds of bags we use there, I believe, from my own observations, that these bags we use do, in fact, connote class. Hence the need for a ban on the prominent plastic bags in the inner city of Chicago and not the wealthier neighboring suburbs. Do you think this to be a crazy conclusion from such a menial part of everyday life, or have you observed similar trends?