Cheese - Fail 1
My first plastic-free experiment was a big ol' bust.
I headed to the Calgary Co-op on 16th Avenue with my re-usable container, re-hearsing my request in my head.
When I got up to the cheese counter, the deli-lady and I had an exchange something like this:
Me: Can I just buy cheese in my container instead of wrapping it in plastic?
Her: You want it in your container?
Me: Yeah, just in my container.
Her: Yeah, I think we can do that.
SUCCESS, right?!? But what unfolded?
First, she put on a fresh pair of plastic gloves. Then she cut off my hunk of cheese. It was the right size, it would have fit right in my container... Then she took a little plastic square to put under the cheese so she could weigh it on the scale. Ok, things weren't shaping up so well. Then she put it IN A PLASTIC BAG!!
When she brought me my fresh bag of bulk cheese, we had a little conversation like this:
Me: I was wanting it without the plastic bag.
Her: Oh, we have to put it in a bag so we can stick the price sticker to it.
Me: Can't you just stick it on my container?
Her: Um, I think we need to put it in a bag just in case, so no one thinks you stole it.
Sigh. And so I left using what was likely more plastic packaging than if I had just bought a block of cheese.
A slightly demoralizing first attempt for my new project. The real kicker was that this cheese was more expensive than the pre-wrapped variaties as well. Let's hope it's at least decent quality.
Of course I will be trying this again, maybe somewhere easier next time just to give myself a better chance for success. I might try to swing by the Crossroads Market cheese shop. I suspect they are used to all types of requests since they get more of the farmer's market type customer there.
This challenge may be harder than I thought it would be!
I headed to the Calgary Co-op on 16th Avenue with my re-usable container, re-hearsing my request in my head.
When I got up to the cheese counter, the deli-lady and I had an exchange something like this:
Me: Can I just buy cheese in my container instead of wrapping it in plastic?
Her: You want it in your container?
Me: Yeah, just in my container.
Her: Yeah, I think we can do that.
SUCCESS, right?!? But what unfolded?
First, she put on a fresh pair of plastic gloves. Then she cut off my hunk of cheese. It was the right size, it would have fit right in my container... Then she took a little plastic square to put under the cheese so she could weigh it on the scale. Ok, things weren't shaping up so well. Then she put it IN A PLASTIC BAG!!
When she brought me my fresh bag of bulk cheese, we had a little conversation like this:
Me: I was wanting it without the plastic bag.
Her: Oh, we have to put it in a bag so we can stick the price sticker to it.
Me: Can't you just stick it on my container?
Her: Um, I think we need to put it in a bag just in case, so no one thinks you stole it.
Sigh. And so I left using what was likely more plastic packaging than if I had just bought a block of cheese.
A slightly demoralizing first attempt for my new project. The real kicker was that this cheese was more expensive than the pre-wrapped variaties as well. Let's hope it's at least decent quality.
Of course I will be trying this again, maybe somewhere easier next time just to give myself a better chance for success. I might try to swing by the Crossroads Market cheese shop. I suspect they are used to all types of requests since they get more of the farmer's market type customer there.
This challenge may be harder than I thought it would be!
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