Granola Tales – Paper or Plastic?

I spend a lot of time in natural food stores. I’m often surprised by what I see there. This is not what I expect from a “health food” store.

Whole Foods has a bulletin board where they post the comment slips that customers submit. While waiting for the restroom, I read the board. Apparently, Whole Foods has recently stopped offering paper bags (just plastic, now).

The lack of paper bags has upset quite a few people! Despite the flyers that tell the customer that the recycled plastic is more environmentally friendly than paper (trees and all…), the customer just doesn’t care. There are comments proclaiming the environmental differences to be slight, since plastic is bad, after all.

There are more comments about this issue, than anything other. Some use many exclamation points!!!!! Two complain that it’s “a crime” or “shameful” to offer bulk baked goods in plastic bags, rather than paper. Finally, several suggest that they will go elsewhere to shop; where they will get the paper bags that they love.

I’m simply amazed by this. The prices at Whole Foods are pretty high. Why would you even shop there unless you really believed in the environmental/natural food mission and products? Yet, here are people ready to abandon Whole Foods for doing the right thing and inconveniencing them. Naturally…