Cloth Bags: Helping the Environment While Helping Shoplifters?

Lately, we've all been trying to do what we can to try and help the environment. So what if we waited until we were told the world is on the verge of destruction before we really started caring? Now we use energy efficient light bulbs, we turn off the water when we brush our teeth, and one of the most popular ways of "going green" is the use of re-usable cloth/hemp/recycled materials bags in grocery stores. Instead of the wasteful plastic grocery bags we used to use (which are starting be to outlawed), we now bring in our own bag to tote our groceries in. This way we're not overflowing the landfills with these plastic bags which are not biodegradable, and we save energy by not producing plastic bags. It really is an easy way to help out, and many times the grocery store will take a few cents off of your total if you use these bags!

I myself have several bags for several different stores, and I try to keep them in my car, otherwise I forget them and end up having to bring my purchases home in a one-use bag. They really are nice to have, and there aren't as many plastic bags balled-up on the floor of my car. However, while I'm shopping, I can't help but to think how easy it would be for somebody to come in the store with one of these bags and shoplift. Instead of using a basket I actually put the items I intend to buy inside my shopping bag. What if it was a busy day and I just walked out of the store with a bag full of items I didn't pay for? How easy would that be for somebody to either pretend they're just browsing and leave with small items hidden in their reusable bag, or to act as if they've already been rung up? This is against my nature personally, but we all know in the end, we end up paying for the dishonest people in the world. I predict that the loss prevention teams at these stores will be tightening things up quite a bit once they figure this out. I see more places checking receipts at the doors, and putting security tags (that cause the alarm to go off when leaving the store) will be put on more items. Also, more stores may have reusable bags that are net-like, in order to make it more difficult to hide items in the bags. Who knows what they'll resort to, but I'm sure they'll figure out some way to make suspects out of people just trying to be more efficient.

I'm definitely not trying to encourage criminal activity, but I'm just pointing out a crime waiting to happen. If you ARE somebody who takes advantage of re-usable bags in such a way, I think you're a loser.

Recycle!