Every fucking time!

I stopped dicking around with that and instead bought a couple of nice strong totes.

I keep them in my trunk, and I don't even bother bagging. Toss it all right back into the cart and load up the tote when I get to the parking lot.

Then just n-totes to carry in, instead of n*8 bags.

The trick is, once you unload the groceries, the tote(s) must be returned to the car immediately. If not, you have to put your keys in the tote and the tote near the door.

It's reverse for me. I don't have a car so I bring a backpack pretty much anywhere I go. And in that backpack, there's also a reusable bag.

If stores want me to leave my backpack at the entrance, I turn around and go shopping where they don't automatically consider you a thief for having a backpack.

This sounds too pre-meditated and organised.

Monkey wants banana,
banana is at the store,
monkey gets banana(s),
now monkey can’t carry more.

I don't have this problem, because I always carry one in my backpack and I haven't left my house without a backpack for the last 30 years. My back feels naked without it.

must be returned to the car immediately

This is the part I struggle with.

I forced myself to buy more at the store every time I forgot them as a kind of negative reinforcement. Sure enough, after maybe 5 or 6 trips I stopped forgetting. I also have like 30 bags now.

Where I live, everything that isn't bagged at checkout needs to be stickered or they assume you stole it. If I buy something that doesn't fit in a bag, it also needs to be stickered.

I try really hard to remember to put my bags in front of the door immediately after unbaggging everything. Then I usually grab the bags and bring them with me the next time I leave. The problem occurs if I ever need to temporarily use the bags for something else... then I get to add to my hoarde.

I haven't forgotten them, I just thought I'd be buying way less stuff than I ended up getting.

thats fine except MY WALLET DAMN I LEFT IT TOO

This is exactly why I feel reusable bags are dumb, I never remember to bring them and my anxiety on what to do with them while in the store prevents me from even bringing them when I do remember.

Don't get me wrong, I'm on board with the idea of reducing plastic waste but this is just not the way to make it happen (at least when I'm involved).

I much prefer just pushing the cart to my car and unloading it there.

I store the fabric ones in the car and the plastic ones in my bicycle panniers. If I'm at the grocery store, I got there either with the car or the bicycle, so bags are always with me.

The reusable bags come out with me when I take the bins out. Throw them in the car, stuff them in the panniers, then take the bins out since they're in the garage as well.

My reusable bags hold all my plastic bags.

I feeel that. But then i just carry it with my hands, somehow

Haha yeah. I recently bought myself a super cute and spacious tote bag. I knew that if I put it inside my backpack, I'd forget it, so I have crammed it into one of the side pockets on my backpack, so I see it all the time. I hope it works this time.

Haha I love that. I never remember to bring a reusable bag to the store and I hate myself every time I have to buy an overpriced plastic bag, for roughly 90 cents per bag.

But that's nothing compared to buying these reusable bags every time. I could imagine that it would work on me.

When they charge you 20c per paper bag, you start to remember really quickly.

A bunch of the grocery stores where I am have no backpack signs. It's like 2 college towns and a military base all next to each other. Everyone has a backpack, the signs are universally ignored lol

Yeah this is just replacing the bags I forgot at home with totes that I forgot at home.

I leave the bags in the car and bag the groceries once I get back to the car. The only exception is in winter if its freezing out.

Mandatory Auntie Donna sketch (Youtube)

That last pic is what you'd get if the author of Roller Coaster Tycoon made an airport simulator.

Just go in regularly and be friendly and the staff will recognize you. Typically once they feel they know you and know you won't steal they'll let you in.

Sorry but this is unacceptable to me. If they default to "everyone is a possible thief" then I will avoid them. It's a horrible way to profile the customers.

I make efforts to walk or bike everywhere, be environmentally friendly, and my backpack is a big part of that. I don't want to become friendly with the staff of random stores I go to in order for them to let me in with it. It's already a pain that I can't use my reusable bags or my own cart/trolley in the stores.

It just doesn't feel welcoming. And it also seems to be a car centric culture thing, because I live in a metropolis and this "no backpack rule" is pretty rare here, whereas when I go visit friends and family in small towns this rule is everywhere. What's different? There's much more people in big cities walking around and shopping with a backpack, compared to a small town where everyone goes to the store with a car.

I live in one of the biggest cities in Oklahoma, so its no New York City, but there's a lot of people here. It's a safe bet that 1/3 people here with a backpack are in fact stealing, which I can validate because I've seen it. To be clear, they're largely stealing food, clothing, diapers, or medicine, and never once have I judged them wrong for it. But they are stealing, and as such it's a reasonable policy for the stores here. Maybe try to avoid major corporations in smaller towns? They're the only ones who really care about Danny stealing a Vienna sausage for his kid.

I keep mine in my car and go back out to the parking lot sometimes 😭

Keep all your lists on your phone and you won't lose them. Lose the phone? Get another one and restore from backup.

InstaCrate changed my life.

https://www.costco.com/p/-/greenmade-instacrate-collapsible-storage-bin-4-pack/4000179775

I do the opposite and refuse to buy any more because I have like 100. If I forget to bring them in to the store I bag in the parking lot or at home

Yeah but then that would require you to put the reusable bag back into your car after you unpacked your groceries.

This used to be me, but I put a hook by the door where I handle my bag back up after I've unloaded it. I rarely go to the grocery on impulse though, so I'm always making a dedicated trip and leaving from my house, and the routine of it finally sank in. I highly recommend an extra large tote with stiff sides. I can typically fit an entire shopping trip in there for our family of 3 and just sling it over my shoulder

Depends on the store.

Around here, Aldi doesn't bag your groceries, they just toss them into a cart and you can bag them yourself.

Market Basket (New England Chain) does the sticker and bag thing, but they also don't have self-checkout and always has baggers (and ones that know what they're doing, at that).

Stop and Shop (another chain, related to Giant) don't care.

You are not alone buddy...

I dont have adhd but i can relate so much to everything posted here that i started doubting if i dont actually have adhd

I have to bicycle to get my groceries.
So when I forget my bike lock key at home. Which is on my keychain. Which also means I have locked myself out of the house.

The braincell piloting my body: . . .

Instructions unclear. Now have 40 crates… I store my bags in them.

I did this all the time until i started storing them in the trunk of my car. Now I forget them in my car instead!

Every single time... I wish there was an app that would call me when I get out of my car and I'm at the store to remind me to grab a bag. LOL

Usually how it starts to be honest lol

This is the way.

Also, there's stuff in my backpack. If they don't trust me not to steal, why should I trust them?

Indeed. I often have my laptop and I'm not confortable just leaving my backpack to them.

Anecdote time. While on vacation in Saint-Martin, the security guard at the grocery store in Marigot insisted that I had to leave my backpack in a secure locker at the entrance. I didn't want to turn around, walk back to my hotel, leave the bag, and go back, so I reluctantly put it in their locker. But THEY had the key. When I was done and wanted to get my bag back, the security guard was not in sight. He eventually reappeared after a few anguishing minutes and I signalled him from afar that I wanted my bag back. He made a sign that he'd be back soon and took several more minutes to come. So I was standing in the entrance by their lockers, just looking intensely at the security guard in the store, waiting for him to give me back my bag, but he was in no fucking hurry. And while waiting for him to eventually come back, I had enough time to realize that I left money and documents in that backpack.

It's insulting and the whole thing made me super nervous. I'm never doing that ever again.

My cat sleeps on all of mine. They're stored in a reusable shopping basket, which she has claimed as her bed.

hell yeah brother a350-1000 and not recycling maybe we should be friends 👉👈