Since ALDI was my next stop after an excursion to the local Walmart Neighborhood Market, I wore my Fresh & Easy REFUGEE t-shirt.  After I used the self-service checkout and bagged my goods in my reusable bag (once more, the planet-raping Baby Boomer was the only one who brought his own), a store employee asked if I knew of any Fresh & Easy stores that were still open.  I broke the bad news that every one had closed and we both reminisced about shopping there.  When I said I was going to ALDI next, she, too, professed her devotion to the Haus of Albrecht.  The t-shirt has even rekindled memories from everyone in line behind me at ALDI, as well as at the bagging table.

Such is life.  The trailblazer is sometimes the first to die, but often the longest remembered.

We need some Orchard Supply Hardware REFUGEE shirts! 

Our nearest Fresh and Easy became a Safeway.  Not what anyone wanted.  I wish ALDI would hurry up and execute their plan for expansion into the Bay Area.  There are about to be lots of empty OSH stores coming up for lease.

As for BYOB, any time I'm at the 99c or other dollar type stores, the average customer doesn't bring reusable bags.  During the brief period I was giving Walmart Neighborhood a chance, virtually no one brought bags.  Practically every time I'm at a regular supermarket, the people paying with vouchers or other assistance methods do not have bags.   There is a pattern here.

I have noticed this lack of responsibility among a certain segment of the community since the bag ban was implemented a few years ago.  They are most assuredly the same group that flicks lit cigarette butts out of their car windows and into dry roadside brush.  In every aspect of their lives, there is zero regard for the greater good.  They don't even realize that the yearly cost of paying for bags would probably get them an extra gram of their crystalline sustenance.

Yes, I've generalized.  There are some exceptions of course, but they are very few and far between.

Joe, I mentioned your refugee shirt to someone and they'd like to know where you got it.  I wasn't able to find anything on line.  Can you share the information here?

 Here's the picture and the link to it on Amazon.

Thanks Joe.  I'll pass along the information.