timmythology

Is there a trick to getting a bunch of bananas home with bruising them? I have a front basket, and usually use a timbuk2 bag for groceries. I am just tiered of bruised bananas when I get home.

How do other guys deal with bag checks? Two of the stores I go into requires back packs to be checked, so require me to give them my bag, which of course has my grocery list and wallet. It just gets irritating to have to check my bag, and watch others who don't. Especially when the bags are the same size. For instance my wife will take a bunch of bags, and her big ass purse, but at the same store she is not required to check the bag.

I have avoided the one store, but it is hard to avoid the school store.

Any solutions for my dilemma of bruised bananas?

Artkansas 

That's why I switched over to SunLite Grocery Getter panniers. The panniers are classified as shopping bags by the store and each one holds about a paper bag of groceries.

To keep delicate things like a loaf of bread or some bananas from getting mangled, I put them on top, and usually put a throwaway paper separating them from the other groceries.

wphamilton

I'd take a cheap backpack and leave it on the bike before I'd give the good one to the grocery guys. Or maybe carry a purse like the girls, with the bag rolled up inside. Would they dare risk discrimination, just because a guy is carrying a purse? Maybe, but I'll bet that you could bluff them.

But if you're shopping there all the time, you really don't need to be treated like a criminal. Unless you've shoplifted in which case you deserve it, but I doubt that. What I would do is roll it up tight, with the straps wrapped around it, put it in the bottom rack of the cart and roll in like it was the most natural thing in the world. It's not a threat to slip something inside that way. Dressed like a grown up person of course - I wouldn't try a bluff in cut-offs and t shirt like I sometimes wear, or baggy drooping shorts etc, because right or wrong kids with bags are the main problem they're dealing with. Then if someone makes a scene I'd discuss it reasonably with a manager, giving them the chance to save my business.

For the bananas, if they're on top of my backpack, along with the bread or eggs if I bought any, I've never had them bruise. Or in a plastic bag hanging from the handlebars.

cooker

Tell them it's a purse and that you will check it when everybody else checks their purse.

wipekitty

I also use a Timbuk2 bag (size large) and have faced similar problems...

I'm usually leaned forward while riding, with the bag strapped flat against my back. One strategy is to lay the bag flat, put all the heavy stuff on the part that goes against your back, then put the crushable things on top of those. If you gently close up the bag and carefully place it against your back, the crushable things will stay in position and make it okay (though you might have to walk out leaned over).

Another strategy which works well with a messenger bag is just to put things like that in a separate plastic bag and then hook them onto the messenger bag so that they stay in place, but aren't actually inside. There are five million ways to use all the hooks and straps on there - you can even clip stuff to the front of you.

For what it's worth, the bag-checkers don't gender discriminate...and it is annoying because ladies with some name-brand leathery junk don't have to check their bags, while I do because mine is waterproof and practical. I usually make sure I'm wearing pants with pockets when going someplace with bag check, and make a big spectacle of taking out my phone, keys, wallet, list, etc. I've also stopped going to those places after work - I REALLY was not happy when they made me leave my bag with my $2000 work laptop unattended by the door (the no-bags policy was new, or I wouldn't have gone there.)

Roody

I've had good luck just putting the backpack in a cart before I go into the store. For some reason it doesn't register in the brain as "backpack" unless it's being worn on the back. This does not work at Sam's Club, but does work at conventional supermarkets. If I do have to check it, I ask them to leave it in a secure place and I remove cash and other valuables. Technically they should give you an itemized receipt because they assume full responsibility in case of loss, theft or damage.

For the bananas, I take one of the free newspapers or circulars and wrap the bananas. I put them in their own plastic bag and tie them to the handlebar or to the outside of my backpack. This is not a "green" solution, but there's nothing green about bananas other than the color.

Ekdog

Why not use a reusable cloth bag?

Roody

I should. I have a million of them. . They don't tie quite as nicely to the bars.

Ekdog

I always keep a mini rucksack in my bar bag in case I forget the cloth bags.

Mochila plegable Pocket Bag NEWFEEL - Maletas, bolsas y mochilas Salud y aventura...

timmythology

Ok I'll start with the little bags that fold up for the bananas, since that is much more important.

I have tried the purse bluff and since it did not work, I just stopped going. So I sent ahead and ordered the timbuk2, but the small one and will use it as a purse.

thanks for the suggestions

dprayvd

You could try some plastic grocery bags as ersatz air bladders.

Roody

It's really a shame. Other than the environmental downside, those little plastic shopping bags are one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century.

hmm...I guess you could say the same thing about cars.

Ekdog

https://www.facebook.com/PlasticPollution?fref=ts

https://www.facebook.com/MyPlasticfreeLife?fref=ts

Plastic bag bans are spreading in the United States : TreeHugger

I follow some people on FB and Twitter who are trying to do something about the terrible blight of single-use plastic. Once you get used to living without plastic shopping bags and bottled water--the two things that are doing a large part of the damage to the environment--it's easy.

Edited to add: Here's a link to an article that proposes an interesting solution to the plastics problem: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...n_5213132.html

Machka 

It sounds to me like you've got two completely separate issues:

1) You're putting your bananas in a place on your bicycle where they are getting bruised. SOLUTION: Handlebar bag

2) You're having to check a bag at the grocery store, which I agree is very annoying. SOLUTION: Fold-up backpack ... and put your grocery list and wallet in your pocket.

These two items (the blue and the purple items) are a duffel bag and a backpack. Both are quite a decent size and both are quite durable. These photos give you some idea of how small they fold down when packed away. You could get one of each. You could carry them into the store and no one would even notice.

TiBikeGuy

This would prevent the bananas from bruising...the downside is that you would have finished eating them by the time you get home.

wahoonc

Obviously you need a Banana Safe...

Not sure what to tell you about the bag thing. I use reusable shopping bags, and can't recall having ever been asked to check a bag at the counter.

Aaron