The Potential of Plastic

This week I had one of the most random conversations one can ever have in a textile shop. I had another very productive :) football meeting with Mira in Hakaniemi. Mira had some footballs at her office that I needed to send in the post but we didn't have a bag big enough to pick them up.

Not to worry, we'll go to the Swedish shop Hemtex and buy a big plastic bag! They sell everything from blankets and bedsheets to big pillows, so they'll have a bag that's big enough and it will cost like 15c. Perfect.

I thought my question was going to be weird - now who would purchase only a plastic bag - so I asked it kind of shyly. Turned out compared to the answer, my question made perfect sense. They couldn't sell me a plastic bag because of safety regulations.

I had to repeat myself a couple of times to make sure I'd heard right. "But if I would buy a really big pillow, then you would give me a big plastic bag?" "Yes, with the product of course, but if you're not buying anything, I can't give you one because of - " "SAFETY REGULATIONS, I get it".

The salespeople were two sweet young women who obviously just abided to company rules, so I didn't want to insist any more. We left wondering whether anyone had ever tried to kill themselves with a Hemtex plastic bag (maybe, someone with a really big head) or if it's these times we're living, the times of the war against terrorism. But if it's possible to prepare a plastic explosive using bags, surely every old lady buying Christmas curtains at Hemtex is a potential terrorist.

In Finland we always joke about how the Swedish society tries to protect its people from everything. They might want to rethink about their company strategies in Finland, where people prefer to kill themselves with firearms or by jumping under a train.