My latest trip to Harmon’s made my day and so let’s start from the top.

I wanted waffles. So Sunday morning I woke up early to go grab flour and other fixings. I loaded up my reusable bag and usual stashed bread bags and hopped on my bike. I rode 5 minutes to the Millcreek Harmon’s and headed straight for the bulk section. Flour. Sugar.

Plus cocoa powder and dark chocolate chips for a last minute decision to make black bean brownies (post coming soon). I also got apples and a kiwi from the fruit section.

Success! A package-less grocery trip!! But as I headed to the self checkout stands, I was filled with nervousness. The signs read “self checkout stands open at 10”. Dammit. It was like 8:30. And there I was with four bread/English muffin/ tortilla bags that had been refilled with various baking ingredients. And I wanted to go home and make waffles.

So I went to the first checkout stand and I was honestly anxious. I have always felt like a weirdo for saving all my bread bags and filling them with random bulk items. But now I had to face another human being. I tried to ease the tension by being like “I have lots of bulk items. I’ll try and make the numbers readable for ya!” And she just did a double take. I was trying to look anywhere but make eye contact.

But then she said “I have never seen anyone else do this! I use my bread bags ALLLLL the time. This makes me so happy”.

And I was floored. I have no idea why but I legit wanted to cry with happiness.

She didn’t judge me.

She praised me for trying to be waste-conscious.

She identified with me.

I left the store in basically tears of joy. She made my day and it was barely 8:36 am.

So why was I so nervous for people to see my bread bags? Why am I so self-conscious about saving plastic bags to be reused. I’m so shameful that I am so scared to use any other checkout stand but the self-checkout. But why??

If you read my post about the realities of bulk , you know that my after looks like this:

It’s a little less glamorous than perfectly matching mason jars, but still acceptable looking. However, I want to normalize the actual grocery shopping trip because this is how I want to make waste conscious shopping sexy again:

So thank you to the checkout lady at Harmon’s. You gave me not only hope that others are making a shift towards eco-conscious shopping, but also gave me an absolutely amazing shopping trip that I was initially anxious for. Not to mention, I only spent $10 and $3.50 was the dark chocolate chips ’cause indulging.

Anyone else save plastic bags for bulk??

Your full-time waste conscious grocery shopper and now full-time plant-eater,

AJ