to be fed up with Tesco's 'no bag' deliveries

[whatdoiknowanyway]

I don't like using supermarket plastic bags and when we shop ourselves, always take my own bag with me. So, Tesco delivery - tick the box saying 'no bags please'.

I initially complained a couple of weeks ago when I got 9 bags - including two wrapped around one box of eggs. Tesco expressed surprise, agreed it was excessive and said that the home shopping branch would be asked to improve training etc. They also gave me a £10 voucher which I wasn't looking for but was appreciated.

This week for a much smaller delivery I got 11 bags. It wasn't the number of bags so much as the ridiculous things in them.
1 containing 1.5 litre bottle of Comfort.
1 containing 2 pint plastic bottle of milk.
1 containing 3 loose parsnips (instead of usual small, clear, plastic veg bag)
1 containing 1 leek & 1 bunch of grapes (already in own plastic bag plus I had noted on my order 'please do not put grapes in additional plastic bag')
1 containing 8 loose mushrooms (instead of usual small, clear, plastic veg bag or paper mushroom bag)
1 containing 15 bananas (Tesco had already agreed that bananas did not need a bag & my order instructions asks that bananas are not put in plastic bag)
1 containing 6 pears and 2 tomatoes (instead of usual small, clear, plastic veg bag)
1 containing a swede (already wrapped in plastic)
1 containing 2 packets of bacon
2 wrapped around a 0.5 litre bottle of olive oil.

The response from the home shopping manager has been that I can always hand the bags back to the driver. I know I can but the inefficiency still irritates me.

I know it's a little thing to be cross about but AIBU to think that if a major retailer takes a 'green' position and boasts about reducing bag usage then they ought to practice what they preach?

[Squitten]

YANBU

We use Sainsburys home delivery and I'm always amazed at the amount of bags that are used, especially because they keep putting one item in a bag. I'm also really rubbish at remembering to give them back so I currently have about 5 million carrier bags sitting in my cupboard...

[onepieceoflollipop]

I agree with you, but from general observations at the checkout more people like to be "generous" with bags. e.g. some people wrap each packet of meat separately, use a bag for one fruit, etc etc. I generally go to the shop and don't put big items (anything bigger than 1 litre/cereal box size) in bags at all.

So I imagine they are catering for what Most customers possibly want/expect.

Yes you can return the bags, but imo they don't like to hang around while you rush to tip the contents out on to the hall floor.

[GingerCursedEeeee]

YANBU, we have the same thing with Sainsburys although they don't even offer a no bag delivery option, we have about ten thousand orange carrier bags and NEVER remember to give them to the delivery man! I assume the reason for single items in a bag might be that rather than one person packing your whole order, there is a person per section IYSWIM? Not that that makes it any better! :)

[Kingy74]

I'm glad its not just me who gets wound up about that!

I used to shop with Tesco's and also ticked the 'no bags' box, only to find exactly the same issue as you did. I didn't have the nouse to complain, I just swapped to Ocado (cue comments about my middle-class-ness) :)

Ocado do deliver in bags, but far less than Tesco did, plus they are biodegradable, so I feel a bit better when I eventually put them in the bin (my council recycles placcy bags now anyway). You can give them back to the driver, but you are right, its a right palaver trying to get everything out of the bags really quickly in order to do that.

So in short, YANBU, its just another example of Tesco's saying one thing but doing another.

[ragged]

This is one of the reasons I can't make myself do online supermarket shopping.

[Acinonyx]

YANBU - it is bizarre and annoying.

[mamadiva]

One of my friend's does the shopping in ASDA for online customers, he said he always uses plastic bags as he is given 3 orders at a time and finds it easier to keep track of what is going to whom.

On the flip side he also said that if he is on deliveries people won't let him through the front door but expect him to wait around whilst they unpack then take the bags away or he has to wait around for them to unload the crates when he only has 15 minutes allocated to get to the next slot.

I don't think they should allow the option of no bags for this reason unless they reduce the workload as they don't have time to be standing about waiting on people all day.

[mamadiva]

Although do agree that there is not any need for item per bag, I have had this and has puzzled me.

[PandaNot]

I stopped using Tesco delivery for 'green' reasons when I found out my shopping was coming from a store 20 miles away - there's a Tesco 1.5 miles away from our house but for some reason our shopping doesn't come from there

[Honeydragon]

YANBU

My Tesco sends 0 bags after the staff complained it defeated the point and that they could not recycle the returned bags as it was a facility in store for "customers only".

[BANGerskite]

It's all about cross contamination I think. They have to separate the none-food from the food and the cooked from the raw and the potentially leaky from everything else.

That would explain the bacon, oil, comfort and milk.

Not sure about the 8 mushrooms though. Maybe the store had run out of little clear bags?

Our Tesco order is usually really good from wrapping. We tend to get meat in carrier bags but everything else - including loose peppers etc are usually just that, loose.

Sounds like you got a jobsworth packer?

[Joolyjoolyjoo]

I usually get a bagless delivery, but often have one or two bags in it. I give them back to the driver- I'm sure I was told they recycle/ reuse them??? Sometimes if I'm not quick enough to give them back to the driver I keep them and use them as binbags.

[BANGerskite]

You following me Skeleton?

[KaraStarbuckThrace]

YANBU - that is hardly a bagless delivery!

I have had similar problems with Tesco. But the thing is, if you had gone for Bag delvery you would probably have had 27 bags and not 9!!

[VenusInfers]

Erm, why is everyone trying to tip out their bags in 3 seconds to give them back? How about taking things nice and slowly and handing over the bags the following week?

[mangoandlime]

Grapes should go into another bag, to limit the possibility of any of the blighters falling out and someone falling on it. 'elf & safety.

[mangoandlime]

I think your shopper too your instructions a little too literally. The Comfort, I can see why it's on its own, but the oil, bacon & milk could easily have been packed into the same bag.

[earwicga]

YABBU - especially as there is no point to Tesco carriers anymore. If they have anything more than a mushroom in them they rip and cannot be reused as bin liners etc.. I forgot my bags last trip and the bags didn't even make it out of the troley in one piece let alone into the house.

[earwicga]

Ugh - should be YANBU obviously.

[Fernie3]

How do you get the shopping if there are no bags? Do you get it all into a pile on the hall floor then out it away when the delivery driver is gone or do you make him wait by the door while you carry it to the kitchen? I have toyed with the idea of goung " bagless" but worry about the unpacking!

[Bathsheba]

Mine come bagless and essentially thats what I get, with maybe 1 bag for the replacements if there are any to keep them apart in case the driver has to take any away.

He brings them into my kitchen in crates, I literally dump everything on the worksurface/draining board/tabe while he does his paperwork, and then he takes the empty crates away while I then put away the rest calmly in my own time...

[BANGerskite]

They bring it to the door or into your kitchen in plastic crates. You then decant the crates onto your worktops and put it all away once the driver is gone.

[NettieSnowBalls]

YANBU but i think Ocado have it right. Shopping bags that can be reused and they ask for them every week so they always get them back.

Tesco grr, bags grr, cheap and nasty, grr. Surely cheap nasty bags that are not fit for purpose are worse than slightly more expensive biodegradeable ones that can be used for more than 5 minutes at a time.

[earwicga]

Exactly Nettie - if I ever have to use Tesco bags again I will double bag all the shopping. How is that remotely environmental?