Should this be under 'Chat'?

I well remember the purplish/ blue tough paper packets, expertly folded by the grocer after measuring out currants, rice, sugar etc with a metal scoop...and bulk butter expertly shaped with wooden paddles kept in a stone jar of cold water.
There was always a bentwood chair to sit on and you were asked what thickness you wanted your bacon cut
Those were the days of Coopers in Church Street Liverpool and Whites Creamery in the covered arcades off Lord Street Southport.
Refined shopping experiences, sadly missed.

I do wonder how it would impact on the time taken to shop.
It only takes a second to pick up a box of cereal, it will take a bit longer to weigh and fill a container.

It wouldn't kill us, but climate change will!

There could be buttons to press for certain weights, 250g/500g etc and a price sticker dispensed that customers stick on the container, however imagine the bacteria on the buttons
There us also a problem for people who nip in after work. Do they have to cart huge containers around besides their handbag and what about customers who don't use or have a car or older people who can't lug rigid containers around?
It's a non-starter IMO.

us is

I wonder why toothpaste is sold in boxes. Also most sprays (hair spray, deodorant etc) come with lids when there doesn't seem to be a reason why.
We live in an over packaged world it seems.

I use a hair treatment that has three different applicators, only one of which I use, so each month I waste two plastic applicators [well, even more in that I could reuse the one I do use]. Plus the fact it comes in a large shrink wrapped box. And an atrophy treatment; again I can wash and reuse the applicator over and over again. I bought a soap bar recently but am not very impressed with it. Liquid soap in plastic containers annoys me, too.

OMG!! The bacteria on the buttons

People do realise, surely, that if you strive for a bacteria free existence you get felled by the first one that sneaks through your guard..

For heaven's sake, let's keep a sense of proportion in this discussion...

Exactly Maisie, there is an old saying,

"A man has to eat a peck of dirt before he dies".

I'm just old enough to remember weighing out goods for customers. My first job was in a grocery store.

I remember the blue bags very well, they usually contained sugar and if the bag was left anywhere damp, the bottom inch or two of sugar would go rock hard.

My Mum had a toffee hammer and used to bash the hard sugar inside a clean tea-towel.

And talking about tea-towels, the other thing Mum did was wrap one around newly washed lettuce (from the allotment gardens up the road).
Then she'd go out into the back yard and whirl the towel round and round to force the water out with centrifugal force.

Later this became my job for a while but I was an unfocussed sort of wretch and frequently flung lettuce leaves all over the yard and into next-door's garden.

I agree Maizie don't think it is any different to picking up any item which might be handled by others and if you really are so worried take wipes with you, they don't weigh much.

I assume we can no longer get refills for the soap pump because there is no demand.

Does anyone else remember blocks of salt? We used to carve them for fun.