Green Prophet

Living in Jerusalem’s city center is an occasionally harrowing, occasionally exhilirating experience. Towards the middle of the spectrum (with “harrowing” being defined, roughly, as beer bottles shattering against the side of the building at 3am) is the state of grocery shopping in the center of town, or rather, the lack thereof.Getting to the nearest grocery requires preparations similar to that of a camping trip: 1) sneakers - check. 2) weather-appropriate gear - check. 3) Positive attitude - most of the time. And you’d better be in shape.But leaving the store is even more of an adventure than getting there. After realizing–too late–that maybe you didn’t really need that extra bottle of juice, it’s time to slog home with all the plastic bags. And as anyone who has carried lots of plastic bags knows, those handles really dig into your skin.

But apparently going to the Supersol, an otherwise freakishly expensive store, now has its rewards: for three shekel a pop, you can get your own canvas bag (nicely reinforced on the inside with a supporting flap) instead of using an endless number of painful plastic bags. And of course, these bags–which are appropriately named “Green Bags”–are green indeed. It’s not often that “greening” and convenience are so perfectly wedded as in this particular case. And maybe from now on, we can leave the derisively named “granny cart” at home, too.

Maybe Supersol got a clue from the artists at Mahane Yehuda.