I was at the Wellcome supermarket after having lunch to buy snacks and drinks for work. An old hunched back old man was behind in line at the counter with his left hand holding his cane and his right holding two 200ml cartons of milk which were on sale at $10 for two. The upper-middle age couple in front of me was buying a lot of things (by Hong Kong standard, most of us don't have car to haul our grocery) and they were certainly trying to get the best deals.

While bagging the grocery, the bagger (not very common in Hong Kong) told the couple that they could save a little more if they bring their own bags. The bagger meant well but the reaction from the woman probably made her think about saying that ever again. The woman was horrible, she started yapping and yakking at the poor bagger, saying things like, "Do I need you to tell me that? If I had brought bags would you be bagging my stuff in plastic bags? You think I'm crazy? You idiot. I am buying stuff here and you are not giving me plastic bags!..." The poor bagger was trying to tell her she didn't mean it that way, but the woman just kept on yapping.

The manager cooly told the bagger to help another staff at another counter, and the couple headed out of supermarket with the woman still complaining. The woman was still yapping away like a "eight grandma" (八婆) waiting at the traffic light just outside of Wellcome. The man asked her, "Do you have to be so noisy at the store?"

I am not sure if this kind of behaviour is related to the economy and inflation, but it made me realize why Hong Kong supermarkets' attempts at limiting use of plastic bags have failed. People just simply don't get it. A lot of people think that supermarkets are taking more things from consumers by trying to discourage plastic bags. Most of them think, "What the heck? Everything cost so much now and you [supermarket, stores, etc] are not even providing me with plastic bags?!" People feel as if a right is being taken away from them when stores such as supermarkets start some schemes to lower plastic bag consumption.

A friend who works at one of the biggest supermarket chains here told me that their stores lost revenue when they tried to promote to lower plastic bag consumption. At the end, the program