whats the plot

so i went to visit my parents over this past break… while leaving, i had 2 small bottles of cologne and a stick of deodorant in my bag. at the airport, they of course saw these in my bag, and the man took them out. he said, “you can only have these with you if you have them in a transparent ziplock bag.” i am like, “uh.. i don’t have one.” he’s like “sorry, then you can’t take them unless you check your bag in.” so i asked him, “do you have any bags?” – and he replied, “sorry, we don’t provide bags.” so i lost 2 very nice small bottles of cologne (the alternative was to miss my flight because i was already running late)…

but the thing is – i don’t get it… what difference does it make whether they are in a transparent ziplock bag or not? if the fear is the liquid spilling over stuff, can’t someone just as easily take them out of the ziplock bag and spill the contents all over their stuff? and, if the case is that they examine these liquids separately anyway (which they do), what does the ziplock bag enable that is not enabled without it? and if its so important, why not provide people with it (some airports do this as i found out while i was coming back at the end of the trip, but that did me no good…) i fail to see the wisdom behind these policies… maybe someone can enlighten me?