Got groceries on my bike for the first time ever
#26
Senior Member
There is an art to packing and carrying the plastic bags given out for free by stores. You can double-bag if you're concerned about them breaking, but with lighter items I don't really worry. It can be tricky to turn them in a way that keeps the contents and corners from swinging into the spokes of your front wheel, but I've learned to either hang them on the very ends of the hand grips or wrap them around my hands in a way that keeps them from hanging too low and/or turning in the wrong direction relative to the front wheel.
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Hy-Vee credits the customer 5¢ for each canvas bag that the customer provides for packing the groceries, and will provide free plastic bags for the groceries not packed in customer provided bags.
Free grocery plastic bags are perfect for lining small kitchen trash cans for disposal of wet/stinky garbage. Grocery bags (plastic or canvas) hanging and swinging from the handlebars of a bicycle moving in traffic - not so perfect for safety or aesthetics.
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#29
Prefers Cicero
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From a safety standpoint, it is not. Anyone smart enough to buy their own groceries should be able to figure out what will fit in his/her pannier or backpack without cramming. Or figure out how to buy bananas when he/she has the means to carry them home safely.
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I have a crate on a luggage rack, but when it is full, I carry plastic grocery sacks on my handlebars. I didn't read any posts about that method, so I thought it would be worth describing in detail, since it is very efficient and convenient. I'm sorry you worry about looking like a 'destitute junkie' so much that it deters you from taking advantage of all the options available to you, but maybe one day your mind will be liberated from this negativity that seems to consume it and you'll be able to enjoy using shopping bags without worrying about looking ugly by doing so.
#34
Prefers Cicero
You think carrying bananas on a handlebar is dangerous and I think biking with earphones is dangerous. I guess we're just a couple of worry-warts.
#35
Senior Member
If you live in a place where there are monkeys, or chimpanzees around, the bananas might attract them. Also, there might be tarantulas hidden in a big bunch of bananas.
#37
Full Member
Oh my. Such funny responses! I love the banana idea! Ingenius even if it's not practical (I don't have mtn. bike handlebars on my hybrid. And if you have an odometer, a headlight, etc. mounted, there won't be enough space, I think!) Donuts on the seat post??? Definately not practical.
I'm interested in the fact that apparently California isn't the only place now charging for plastic bags on steriods. What other states or countries are requiring a small charge to buy bags that last as long as the original cheap bags that every cashier/bag boy were terrified to fill too full and double bag? I find it pathetic that all focus has been on the check out bags and not the fruit/veggie bags! I reuse mine for maybe a dozen times if not more before I have to trash them. I rarely encounter anyone else who thinks to do this!
I'm interested in the fact that apparently California isn't the only place now charging for plastic bags on steriods. What other states or countries are requiring a small charge to buy bags that last as long as the original cheap bags that every cashier/bag boy were terrified to fill too full and double bag? I find it pathetic that all focus has been on the check out bags and not the fruit/veggie bags! I reuse mine for maybe a dozen times if not more before I have to trash them. I rarely encounter anyone else who thinks to do this!
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Seatposts can be a little greasy, and although donuts are fried in grease, you wouldn't wan't to mix that grease with your seatpost grease. The solution is to individually wrap each donut in plastic foil before threading it onto the seat post. Buying plastic foil may not seem like a cost-efficient solution where plastic shopping bags are free, but in California it may be cheaper than buying a bag for your donuts every shopping trip. If you're bothered by the time and mess it makes to wrap donuts individually in plastic foil, just call ahead to the store and ask them to have the donuts wrapped for you when you arrive. If you shop at an overpriced supermarket dedicated to service, this should be no problem.
#39
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I'm interested in the fact that apparently California isn't the only place now charging for plastic bags on steriods. What other states or countries are requiring a small charge to buy bags that last as long as the original cheap bags that every cashier/bag boy were terrified to fill too full and double bag? I find it pathetic that all focus has been on the check out bags and not the fruit/veggie bags! I reuse mine for maybe a dozen times if not more before I have to trash them. I rarely encounter anyone else who thinks to do this!
I'm with you on this: we reuse plastic bags for groceries and also for household tasks - pet waste, trash, protecting areas for painting, and so on. The cloth bags we have (obtained for free) are nice, but do not do nearly as well at e.g. keeping a tub of Feta Cheese from spilling on my laptop and work papers in my commuting bag.
What's amazing is that when I was a young grocery bagger, we were actually trained to get people to use plastic because it was cheaper for the stores than using paper.
#40
Prefers Cicero
I know for a fact that Austin, TX charges for bags now. I would also suspect areas of the Pacific Northwest.
I'm with you on this: we reuse plastic bags for groceries and also for household tasks - pet waste, trash, protecting areas for painting, and so on. The cloth bags we have (obtained for free) are nice, but do not do nearly as well at e.g. keeping a tub of Feta Cheese from spilling on my laptop and work papers in my commuting bag.
I'm with you on this: we reuse plastic bags for groceries and also for household tasks - pet waste, trash, protecting areas for painting, and so on. The cloth bags we have (obtained for free) are nice, but do not do nearly as well at e.g. keeping a tub of Feta Cheese from spilling on my laptop and work papers in my commuting bag.
#42
Senior Member
To get back to the issue of gocery shopping by bicycle. A couple of weeks ago I saw these enourmous SUVs in the parking lot of the local Supermarket, one was a Range Rover, driven by women who had at most a shopping bag of groceries. I thought how absurd.
#43
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I don't drive an SUV, but I have in the past and probably will even when I bike shop for the most part, driven large car to store for one or 2 items.. BUT I drive by the entrance to the Meijer Parking lot on my way home from my 42 mile away clinic (it's between the highway exit and the house), so it's not really absurd to just make the extra stop. I drive a Subaru Impreza because I work in the medical world and have to get into work no matter what the weather.. so the smallest AWD vehicle I can drive.... if I need something for dinner or because we ran out and I can stop and pull in, park, get one item and then finish the drive home, it makes sense to do... I am not going to get home and turn around and bike back because that would put me crossing a 5 lane road at rush hour most likely just to get back to the store I already drove by. Will I plan to do most shopping trips with the trike, yes.. but they will be when traffic is lighter too.
#44
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Of course the driver could have driven home to get another car, or even bought another car to keep on hand, perhaps a Corvette or Lamborghini, devoted to carrying only one or two bags of groceries, just in case a high minded busybody might have a conniption when scoping the parking lot for strangers' "misdeeds".
#45
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Of course the driver could have driven home to get another car, or even bought another car to keep on hand, perhaps a Corvette or Lamborghini, devoted to carrying only one or two bags of groceries, just in case a high minded busybody might have a conniption when scoping the parking lot for strangers' "misdeeds".
Never worked, though; they still just spent all their time griping about the cost of diesel to drive the truck 15-40 miles each way. Usually while they were letting it warm up (or cool off in the summer) for 15-20 minutes.
#46
Sophomoric Member
I don't drive an SUV, but I have in the past and probably will even when I bike shop for the most part, driven large car to store for one or 2 items.. BUT I drive by the entrance to the Meijer Parking lot on my way home from my 42 mile away clinic (it's between the highway exit and the house), so it's not really absurd to just make the extra stop. I drive a Subaru Impreza because I work in the medical world and have to get into work no matter what the weather.. so the smallest AWD vehicle I can drive.... if I need something for dinner or because we ran out and I can stop and pull in, park, get one item and then finish the drive home, it makes sense to do... I am not going to get home and turn around and bike back because that would put me crossing a 5 lane road at rush hour most likely just to get back to the store I already drove by. Will I plan to do most shopping trips with the trike, yes.. but they will be when traffic is lighter too.
Meijer stores have bike racks under the canopies in their stores. They are starting to add protected walkways through their parking lots. And a friend tells me that the Meijer greeters will call a cab for you and page you when it arrives.
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#47
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I have to give a shout out to Meijer while we're at it. Here in Lansing, all the Meijer stores have covered bus stops right by the front door. They also serve as transfer points for the suburban buses. Competitors like Walmart and Kroger don't even allow buses in the parking lot.
Meijer stores have bike racks under the canopies in their stores. They are starting to add protected walkways through their parking lots. And a friend tells me that the Meijer greeters will call a cab for you and page you when it arrives.
Meijer stores have bike racks under the canopies in their stores. They are starting to add protected walkways through their parking lots. And a friend tells me that the Meijer greeters will call a cab for you and page you when it arrives.
Aaron
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Webshots is bailing out, if you find any of my posts with corrupt picture files and want to see them corrected please let me know. :(
ISO: A late 1980's Giant Iguana MTB frameset (or complete bike) 23" Red with yellow graphics.
"Cycling should be a way of life, not a hobby.
RIDE, YOU FOOL, RIDE!"_Nicodemus
"Steel: nearly a thousand years of metallurgical development
Aluminum: barely a hundred
Which one would you rather have under your butt at 30mph?"_krazygluon
#48
Prefers Cicero
I don't drive an SUV, but I have in the past and probably will even when I bike shop for the most part, driven large car to store for one or 2 items.. BUT I drive by the entrance to the Meijer Parking lot on my way home from my 42 mile away clinic (it's between the highway exit and the house), so it's not really absurd to just make the extra stop. I drive a Subaru Impreza because I work in the medical world and have to get into work no matter what the weather.. so the smallest AWD vehicle I can drive.... if I need something for dinner or because we ran out and I can stop and pull in, park, get one item and then finish the drive home, it makes sense to do... I am not going to get home and turn around and bike back because that would put me crossing a 5 lane road at rush hour most likely just to get back to the store I already drove by. Will I plan to do most shopping trips with the trike, yes.. but they will be when traffic is lighter too.
#49
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I work in dialysis at 2 clinics- one in inner city Detroit (3 days) and one local (2 days), my plan is to start bike commuting to the local one eventually... it's about 6 miles each way. There are a lot of reasons to not leave the further away clinic, though there are days I think about it and one day, the right opportunity will occur and I will probably leave.
#50
Prefers Cicero
I work in dialysis at 2 clinics- one in inner city Detroit (3 days) and one local (2 days), my plan is to start bike commuting to the local one eventually... it's about 6 miles each way. There are a lot of reasons to not leave the further away clinic, though there are days I think about it and one day, the right opportunity will occur and I will probably leave.