Ugh. This.

Soooo, we don't carry a reusable, hemp-made, greener-than-thou bag when we shop for kitchen staples at our local grocer. Horrifically, we prefer plastic and/or paper bags. (After all, they're new!) Do we feel bad? No. But at times we do feel bad about not feeling bad. Take, for example, the guilt that creeps up on us while waiting in line Whole Foods - with our canned tomatoes, massive amounts of dairy, and raw food (IT'S ALIVE!!!) nonsense - only to have our checkout guy ask us if we want to kill Planet Earth by double bagging.

Our carbon footprint(s), lazy recycling efforts, and new Hummer 2008 aside, should we buy one of these ugly bags? More to the point, will our attractive Whole Foods cashier continue to bag our items just for us? Using his stellar Tetris-like placement precision? Or, do we have to do it ourselves, then?

Also, don't the sacks get, um, ripe? No? Yes? Please advise.