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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to ask you all please, if you hate plastic bags, get your own reusable ones!

71 replies

mythical · 07/07/2011 21:31

i'm a CS in a high street shop that charges for carrier bags and has been doing so for 4 years.

the amount of grief i get from customers is unreal, i'm just wondering why!
Whenever i go shopping i take my own bags, and if i forget, i will buy some or accept the free ones they have.

I always get the - "why do you charge for bags?" - most explanations are discarded instantly with a huff.
"i don't want to buy plastic bags!" - fair enough! but if you care about landfill it doesn't make sense to then request 10 little free bags and stuff your weekly shop in there..

Oh and just quickly! if i'm asking if you would like me to pack for you it doesn't mean i think you are incompetent at packing, i'm just offering my help! (and because we have to)

Sorry! rant over - had a string of grumpy customers today and i'm normally a very cheery happy person!

OP posts:

NickNacks · 07/07/2011 21:57

OK thanks for the tip

However if i do refuse your offer of help to pack because you never do it properly that doesn't mean you need to whizz everything through at 100mph so it gets piled up and crushed to make the point that i should have said yes to your offer.

Ta muchly.

NickNacks · 07/07/2011 21:57

ARGH do

mercibucket · 07/07/2011 22:02

the reason why I get arsey (I don't really but I feel it inside and if you even dared say anything about saving the planet lord help you ) is because it is a simple way for the company to pass the buck from them to me. I have to pay for their plastic bag so I can load up their massively overpackaged products into it, which I have taken out of their open fridges and freezers (v env unfriendly) etc etc. But that all becomes my responsibility because of some stupid plastic bag - like that is going to save the planet. It is a stupid decoy ploy on the part of the major supermarkets and I refuse to be sucked into going along with it
I exempt m and s from this (although I note you get a thick plastic bag if you buy their clothes but have to pay for their food bags -what's the difference there then?) as they are doing other env friendly stuff

Original poster

mythical · 07/07/2011 22:03

i personally don't whizz anything through and none of my colleagues do.. we get told off for that. i don't mind people packing their own shopping, it makes my job easier, but i do mind the "yes dear i think i'll MANAGE to pack my OWN shopping"

it is m&s i'm talking about..

OP posts:

mercibucket · 07/07/2011 22:07

if it's m and s then you are being entirely reasonable and your customers are being arses
staff there are always lovely

doublechocchip · 07/07/2011 22:08

mythical I feel your pain, and I only give them one sandwhich bag. I dont mind them getting irate about paying for a bag but only if they bring their own ones, I have had some truly horrible customers over the 5p, some of the girls I know carry some 5ps in their pockets and offer to buy a bag for them if they are gettting too angry, pisses them off no end!

TheseThingsAreGoodThings · 07/07/2011 22:10

I'm with mercibucket on this one.

With all the waste that is generated in the supply chain, I resent that I am told that not using a plastic bag is going to somehow save the planet

HidinginaHardHat · 07/07/2011 22:10

Do you guys get trained in how to pack bags because no fucker round here can do the job properly so I do it myself.

There is a reason why I put things on the conveyor in the manner I do. Frozen things together. Raw meat together. Fruit and veg together...

Don't lump it all in one bag.

mercibucket · 07/07/2011 22:16

it's always the young ones who ignore 'the system' and chuck it all in together - the older 'mum types' are very good at following the obvious plan in my conveyor belt system
incidentally my new top tip for shopping is to take some of those plastic trugg container things round the supermarket in the trolley - great for heavy stuff

herecomesthsun · 07/07/2011 22:19

I have had some very rude service at M and S especially the right old cow when I was 38 weeks pregnant who made a fuss because I had a basket worth of stuff - about 6 items! - in a small trolley - because I was heavily pregnant and couldn't carry a basket very well. I had to take the bloody items out of the bloody trolley and put them in a bloody basket and still she was all catsbum mouth. there was no other shopper in line for her flippin till. Unless you consider my enormous stomach another person in line.

I them produced a so-called For Life M and S bag. It had a tear in it and Christ the fuss she made about giving me a new one.

Shop at Waitrose. Better food. Better value. Nicer staff. (They all came to congratulate me when the baby was born at our local store) They deliver to your door. For nothing. And they don't charge for their flipping bags (which we re-use anyway).

Disclaimer, personal view, I have never worked for Waitrose.

TheseThingsAreGoodThings · 07/07/2011 22:19

My DTs love fruit, and given half the chance would never eat anything else. So when we are out in town and we go to M and S for lunch I want two small sandwich bags: one for the sandwiches and one for hiding the fruit in so they can't see it.

It drives me nuts that this simple request is met with sighs and huffs. If I had bought two sandwiches and the fruit in 4 singles transactions then the planet is ok. But apparently as I bought them in a single transaction, my asking for two bags is going to destroy the planet.

Jellykat · 07/07/2011 22:21

I always refuse help (politely i add) because i have my ways of doing it, same as HardHat.

I don't mind paying for bags, but at Tescos where there free still, i use theirs and then take them to local independent shops to reuse. Tescos can afford it!

worraliberty · 07/07/2011 22:22

To be honest if I forget my carrier bags I don't want to be lectured by a till assistant about the environment...or charged to carry my shopping home.

Ironically, the flimsy free ones are fine if you have a car parked outside...but not all of us do

MonkeysInShoes · 07/07/2011 22:23

I'm a bit confused, shouldn't your title say 'hate paying for plastic bags....'?

I always have a bootfull of reusable bags. That's where they live, my reusables, in the boot. If I ever remember to actually take them out of the boot it'll be a fucking miracle.

I don't mind paying in m&s, I only ever get one bags worth of shopping . I reuse carrier bags at home anyway (don't buy binliners)

DuelingFanjo · 07/07/2011 22:26

Do you work for TKMax? I once witnessed a woman leave all her shopping becuase she refused to pay 5p for a bag. She flounced off saying 'you've just lost a LOT of money'. Silly cow!

IAmNoAngel · 07/07/2011 22:33

If the supermarkets really cared about the environment, they would provide strong paper bags instead of crappy thin plastic ones.

Original poster

mythical · 07/07/2011 22:36

hiding
to be fair i think it's common sense, if i pack, i would do it in a way that even if you are not packing your own bags, i'm doing it as you want me to do it - i.e. "are you okay with these in the same bag?" but that's how I do it, and most of the people in our store are quite sensible with the packing.

I don't like to start a conversation about the environment and all that. all the examples were replies to "would you like a bag?" yes? great, here you go. no? - great, you've got your own. if you haven't got your own, if you're fine with carrying it, fine by me. but if you don't want to pay, don't want to carry and don't have your own, what exactly am i to do?

i usually try and be helpful - for example if someone has some food shopping and a pack of socks i will give them a free clothes bag, wrap their socks in a sandwich bag so they can use that bag for food shopping if they would like to. and i don't mind giving out a reasonable amount of little bags! especially if you only have a few small items!

as i said i don't mind the fact that people ask about the bags and why we charge for them, but i do get some people that are very apprehensive towards the cost of the bags, start "lecturing" me that it's ridiculous and all that.

merci - i've just turned 22

OP posts:

exoticfruits · 07/07/2011 22:40

I always take my own now-it took a while to remember to take them out of the car but it becomes a habit.I think they should be charged for.

worraliberty · 07/07/2011 22:43

and i don't mind giving out a reasonable amount of little bags! especially if you only have a few small items!

That's awfully good of you not to mind

Original poster

mythical · 07/07/2011 22:45

that was a reply to the posters that said they were met with huffs and puffs when they requested little bags, i do apologize if i have worded it in a bad way, english isn't my first language.

OP posts:

worraliberty · 07/07/2011 22:47

Really, in my opinion they should just give the bloody bags out...stop lecturing people on the enironment (considering how much waste they produce) and stop charging.

If you forget your bag you forget your bag...big whoop.

Imo it's just an excuse to charge customers for something else.

ZacharyQuack · 07/07/2011 22:49

So why are clothes bags and a reasonable amount of little bags ok, but free plastic carrier bags are not? Is it not all plastic?

joric · 07/07/2011 22:54

Agree with merci re. Passing the buck after overpackaging everything in M+S especially- double standards- that's probably why poor people on till get grief. Having said that, thick M+S 5p bags can be reused unlike wafer thin ones from elsewhere. I like the massive reusable black ones from there as You can get nearly everything in just 2 of them.
Either way, no need to be vile to anyone- was in John L in cafe behind customer from hell- no smiles-no please- no thank you - just waved hand at stuff - shoved card in servers face- v posh, rich and absolutely no manners. Awful.

Original poster

mythical · 07/07/2011 22:55

honestly? i think they should either charge for all of them or for none.
but what i'm trying to say is that it's a decision they made as a store; i can't give out bags for free so how could i help?

OP posts:

worraliberty · 07/07/2011 22:58

I dunno...live with it. It's all part of working with the wonderful public

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