The recession played out at my grocery store
Sign of Recession #1:
You know how when you buy meat at the grocery store, if comes wrapped in plastic on some sort of styrofoam tray?
Well, in Japan, garbage is sorted into various annoying categories, forcing you break up your garbage by category and throw out a little every morning. No one is really sure where Styrofoam fits in. Also, you must use local municipality approved garbage bags which are for sale (not for cheap) at approved stores.
So, people just throw the trays away at the grocery store. In the area where you bag your groceries, the store provides little plastic sacks to wrap meat and things against leakage. People put the meat directly into those little bags and throw away all the other trappings.
Sounds like a silly system, so the grocery stores in an attempt to combat this problem, have instituted a policy, which I see as…
Sign of Recession #2:
They just removed all garbage receptacles from the store. Actually, closed the receptacles up with lids made from the cardboard crates that the store’s goods come in. The receptacles are still there, taunting you.
Wow. Genius.
In response to this, consumers have adapted their behavior.
Sign of Recession #3:
Since my local grocery store is located in a 4-story complex of stores, people throw the trays away in the garbage cans in public areas. Rest areas with benches, bathrooms, etc.
Nice.
I guess.
You know how when you buy meat at the grocery store, if comes wrapped in plastic on some sort of styrofoam tray?
Well, in Japan, garbage is sorted into various annoying categories, forcing you break up your garbage by category and throw out a little every morning. No one is really sure where Styrofoam fits in. Also, you must use local municipality approved garbage bags which are for sale (not for cheap) at approved stores.
So, people just throw the trays away at the grocery store. In the area where you bag your groceries, the store provides little plastic sacks to wrap meat and things against leakage. People put the meat directly into those little bags and throw away all the other trappings.
Sounds like a silly system, so the grocery stores in an attempt to combat this problem, have instituted a policy, which I see as…
Sign of Recession #2:
They just removed all garbage receptacles from the store. Actually, closed the receptacles up with lids made from the cardboard crates that the store’s goods come in. The receptacles are still there, taunting you.
Wow. Genius.
In response to this, consumers have adapted their behavior.
Sign of Recession #3:
Since my local grocery store is located in a 4-story complex of stores, people throw the trays away in the garbage cans in public areas. Rest areas with benches, bathrooms, etc.
Nice.
I guess.