The familiar shopping bag

A humdrum trip to the local market last evening, turned out quite pleasant! Thanks to a ‘conversation Piece’ incident that is likely to be narrated in casual drawing room conversations for a while.

Over the years, the household ‘chores’ list got split, with me managing the ‘indoor’ ones and my husband the ‘Outdoor’ activities. Result — Hubby seems to have developed a good deal of familiarity, even pallyness, with helpers at provision stores, vegetable & fruit sellers…..and so on. And the ‘Goodwill’ he now enjoys is evident.

My reluctant foray yesterday, was the occasional stray one. Vaguely aware of the regular ‘favourite’ vegetable vendor, I headed purposefully towards his stall. A bright smiling face and a sing-song voice greeted me! A welcome change, when one is so accustomed to engaging with disinterested vendors going about their jobs with unseeing eyes and toneless, dull voices. He spoke with the ease of familiarity and rattled off the prices and his recommendations with a cheery smile. A naturally friendly and amiable person! I thought he recognized me from my previous lone visit a couple of months back :) till…….

He whipped out a polyethylene bag to pack my purchases. I stopped him from using it and handed over a reusable carry bag instead. A rather large sturdy black bag, with colourful flowers printed on it, that can be wrapped up into a small pouch when not in use. We have been the using the same bag for a few years now. Our contribution towards a green planet.

One look at the bag and there was pleasant surprise, exclamations and loud cheer from the vendor and his assistants!They had recognised the bag as ‘belonging to my husband’ and had just concluded that I must belong to the same family! He had not recognised me from the previous trip, after all :(

And then his behaviour changed dramatically! To an even more affable one!!!!! The prices of the veggies dropped a bit, The final payment amount got rounded off on the lower side, A few ‘extra’ pieces of veggies made their way into the bag too.

He had ensured a repeat customer! A loyalty program at play!

I have met with the team at this vegetable stall on a few occasions since then. They are always smiling and energetic and go about their rather tedious and monotonous daily work with joy.

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Originally published in 2016