Speaking about all this, so when you guys goto a local mom & pop shop, or even a 7/11, or grocery shopping, or whatever, do you bring reusable shopping bags with you?

I always did in Khon Kaen. Had a bunch of small bags which were great for beer, small things for dinner that night, and just small trips to the mom & pop shops around. Then for groceries at the mall, had my duffel bag which worked great. It even caught on in my community, and after a while a bunch of the locals were using reusable bags too. A couple of the shops there even gave me free bags a couple times, because they knew I liked them.

Damn, do I ever miss living in a community like that. This Canada shit with self serve checkouts is at warehouse sized grocery stores owned by multi nationals is pretty mundane.