"We care about the environment"

I place my groceries onto the conveyor belt at checkout at Carrefour. To my delight they were promoting these environmentally friendly cloth bags! I bought one right away, since I've always wanted to have them just stuff all my groceries into my carry-along bag to save plastic. I never did...since I thought the cashier would just look at me funny and be like "what are you doing?"...since their arms have been programmed like robots to move automatically from item, to plastic bag, item, plastic bag, cash register, money, change, thank you come again...

With a grin across my face that I can start shopping more environmentally responsible, I've got a warm fuzzy feeling in my heart. It is soon crushed as soon as I see the cashier stuff the cloth bag into the plastic bag. It was the loneliest, saddest environmental bag I've seen sitting at the bottom of its evil twin brother.

With a cocktail of Thai, English, and body language I show my dismay and confusion about her actions. She takes the bag back out, passes the milk across the scanner, and then puts it into the plastic bag! What I really want to say is "why do you think I bought this bag? So I could put it in a plastic bag and bring it home with me to hang it on my wall and look pretty!" Of course my Thai is crap, and so is her English, but manages to rub the side of the milk to show that it's wet. 'Oh my god'! I think to myself. Why are Thai people so afraid of water! When they buy bottled drinks at 7-11 they like to put them in plastic bags and use straws. Even at bars when they give you a bottle they give you a straw that's not even long enough to reach the bottom of the bottle. What's a little water gonna do to ya anyway? Water is one of the most important and essential things on this planet that gives us life! And you're gonna "protect" me from it with a malicious plastic bag! I proceed to say maybenrai shaking my hand left and right, and so she puts it into the cloth bag like the robot she is.

"Weirdo tree-hugger" she must have been thinking.
"Weirdo idiot" I was thinking. Must the human race be re-programmed one by one to stop fears of a wet hand and to get them to fear plastic bags?