My Japanese friend held a garage sale just before moving back to Japan. I helped her tally the prices in American money. One customer bought many items, so I asked Megumi if she had any plastic bags to give out. She showed me a brown grocery sack full of them, but what a surprise! Instead of wadded bags stuffed higgledy-piggledy (like at my house), Megumi had taken each bag by the bottom and the handles and smoothed it to a thin, upright column. Then she had laid the brown paper sack on its side and placed each plastic bag inside, with the handles up. When I looked in the paper sack, I saw neat rows of handles. All I had to do was pull a set of handles and out slid a bag, ready for service!