Bread

On Tuesday I ran out of toilet tissue and logged onto everybody’s default shipping service to buy some more. But before I could click “Order Now,” a little voice in my head, the one that’s been reading all the articles about how this company is a menace to society, whispered, “Find an alternative.” So I did. They exist. The one I chose promises “sustainability” and “locally owned” facilities. It was going to cost more, but I was willing to bear it.

In addition to the tissue I ordered some bread, the bougie sprouted grain kind that stores stock in the freezer. I wanted a single loaf, but the site required a minimum of two. Fine. Bearing the cost. I got a notification at checkout that, as a frozen item, it would ship separately from the rest of my order. Whatever. Sustainability.

The two loaves were delivered on Saturday in a box big enough to ship an aquarium and just as heavy. Inside were two large ice packs and a spiral of inflated padding protecting a second box. The loaves were in that box. Two loaves of bread shipped in a package so big and heavy I had to make a second trip to the mailroom for the mail, when I could have had the single loaf of that same bread by walking 10 minutes to a grocery store and carrying it home with no extra packaging.

And that wasn’t even the dumbest thing I did last week.