In the store, I got curious when I saw the plastic bucket with many colorful rubber bands around it. I was intrigued where they were coming from and what purpose they served in the meat section. I talked to the two ladies at the counter who shared that they [sales people] usually receive plastic bags with one rubber band around it to keep the bags together. This one lady collects the rubber bands instead of discarding them and uses them for various purposes. For example, she said rubber bands help calculators to stick their together when they get old and about to break. Another purpose she shared with me was using the plastic bands to bind cash, which is a more common usage.

This solution does not answer a particular need, however, it shows creativity to use every day items, such as rubber bands.

The lesson for me was that people can find different ways to use a simple thing like a rubber band. Even though it was not a primary object (i.e. it came as a 'package' for plastic bags), some sales people saved rubber bands for future use sometimes not even knowing what they would need them for. Once I saw these rubber bands and talked to the women who were saving them, I started noticing that quite a few sales people have similar pattern of behavior - saving rubber bands and using them differently. When I talked to multiple (four) people saying it is cool to see how they use the bands, women were smiling mentioning that this is a usual thing and there is nothing special about it. This shows how people often take these small acts of 'innovation' for granted even though someone actually had to come up with it.