To have refused to do this? (supermarket related)

[LittleRedHenGirl]

Just been to do a huge shop at a local supermarket. Big trolley stacked full.

Got to the till, unpacked it all onto the conveyor belt and the woman at the till asked if I'd like bags. "Yes please" I said, so she handed me one carrier bag. For nearly £200 worth of shopping.

I said "Could I have some more bags please?" and she said that she could only give them out one at a time and that I had to fill one bag before she could give me another. I said that no, this wouldn't work for me as I like to pack frozen stuff together, cold stuff together, tins together etc. She said it still had to be one bag at a time. I said fine, I'd leave it all there then and not buy it, and she reluctantly gave me a load of carriers, whilst saying that in years of working on tills everyone had always filled up their bags one at a time, and it was very unusual for someone to want to pack things in groups.

I don't know about anyone else but I don't want raw chicken shoved in with the bread, and bleach with the bananas!!

Oh, and before anyone says I should have my own bags, I do normally have my own but they are in my car boot, and DH and I have swapped cars for today, hence the need for carriers.

WIBU to want to pack as I did?

YANBU - surely it was obvious you would need more than one bag with that amount of shopping, and surely its more of a waste of time for her to stop and dole out another bag every so often (don't they still monitor scanning speed for operators in a lot of shops?)

We don't give out boxes as we recycle them immediately in store

When the 5p rule comes in I expect our customers will get even ruder. Most don't care at all about the environment.

YANBU.

She is talking rubbish, I worked a summer on the checkouts years ago and loads of people packed several bags at a time.

I would have done the same as you.

brdgl insane? Get a grip..... Like it's the checkouts that make the 'rules'...

Which supermarket chain is it, OP?
Because it seems a very odd policy, I've certainly never heard of such a thing.

Although I may be out of touch as I'm in Wales so we pay for ours.

I don't fill carrier bags. By the time I have a bottle couple of tins and a couple of pounds of potatoes in one, it's heavy enough for me. Anyway, I'm saving up carrier bags for next year.

Frankly, I think we'll still receive free carrier bags. At the moment we walk around advertising supermarkets everywhere. They'll have that mass advertising taken away from them if we have to pay for carrier bags.

What was the store? Be interesting to know who has this policy.

anyonefortennis, I genuinely presumed it was because of deliveries coming shrink wrapped these days.

Given everyone now has a paper waste recycling collection it's highly unlikely the boxes wouldn't get recycled - why not let customers use them for transport?

YANBU
I would have left the whole lot of shopping on the conveyor belt and walked away
I hate the carrier bag police and would happily pay 1p per bag just to pack my shopping how I want to and not to plead for a bag every couple of minutes

I pack several bags (for life) at a time. I also load onto the conveyor how I'd like to bag it. And every time, the cashier manages to mess up my neatly organised piles.

So I get milk, peaches, tins, and raw meat all sent down together. No idea why they like to ruin my organisation

Yanbu.

YANBU OP. I hate it when the cashiers treat carrier bags like they're made of gold or diamond dust. Yes, I should have reusables, for whatever reason I don't. Give me some bags, I'm paying a bloody fortune for this stuff!!!

Also, for the poster who said about boxes in Sainsbury's, I agree used to be so useful. The reason they don't anymore, according to the customer services manager I asked about this, is because whole boxes are a hazard so they have to flatten them out of customers way now in case we trip over them!!!

I'm another one happy to pay for plastic bags, (or paper if they offered them), we use them at time for bins and cat litter.

I bet it was sainsburys wasn't it OP?!

Oh I don't know happy, you have to pay for lidl/aldi bags and they are pretty clearly branded. Difference is they are decent quality while tesco bags rip if you put a tomato in them.

That does seen a ridiculous rule. I also like to pack like that.

I work in a major chain that already has the 5p bag charge, and most customers are gracious about it, but some are very rude, like its my fault I charge them

I always ask if they need any bags as we charge for them, and when they say yes I say is a 5p bag ok, how many would you like? As then it's clear we charge. I still get the odd sarcastic comment!

She is talking nonsense.

Many years ago I worked in a major supermarket. All staff were trained in bag packing as part of checkout training and customer service.

It appears this is no longer the case.

Giving out a handful (say 5 or 10) at the start, when it is obvious that you will need a reasonable number, seems the most sensible option. Especially as an arse like that will probably growl at you when you ask for another bag every 10 seconds as you fill them up and interrupt her flow. Even when being charged for them (like here), most supermarkets will ask how many and give you that at the start.

I usually have my reusable bags, but occasionally forget (especially M&S city centre on office lunchbreaks) - generally, they are happier to give me exactly what I ask for initially, and more if I then need them, than doing one at a time as we go.

And yes, the art of the packer has almost been lost!

(I keep one particular reusable bag for my raw meat, I was using one for years from a French supermarket to it was easy to distinguish, but I had to change it recently and ended up buying a new plastic one from another shop to be clearly different - the rest are used for everything interchangeably).

YANBU. Silly woman.

yanbu! Which shop was that?/ I'd complain.

I once had a row in Asda about bags.

Without warning (I happened to be in there two days on the trot) they decided there were to be no bags. At all. They were allowed to give me a maximum to two. I had more than two bags worth and I am pretty certain there were no bags for life to purchase. Literally no available bags: bring your own or tough. I requested more bags. They said no. I asked why. "It's for the environment". Can I get a bag for life then? No, you can't. It was crazy.

I complained to customer services on principle; same response.

Two weeks later bags were once again available.

Like the op, I too have tons of bags in my car but for whatever reason I didn't have bags that day.

D'you know, this thread has made me feel so much better.

I honestly thought I was the only massively anal person in the world who grouped stuff on the conveyor in the way I want to pack them. DP is always taking the piss!

Oh, and YANBU - although I always keep both car stocked with bags. I'm in Wales though and taking our own bags is ingrained in us these days.

I don't think it's fair to insult the cashier when she was probably simply following orders.

That's why I use the machines so that I can decide how heavy a bag can be before I can't manage it and what goes with what.

That and not having to listen to the cashier's opinions of last night's television.

Yanbu at all.
I try to group on the conveyor but then the general stuff (ie the not chilled or squishy etc) I distribute between several bags so that I can actually carry them

Btw I am still doing the Chaos thing with my divider!

It was ridiculous. Was it Tesco. They must be the king of petty rules and awkward staff though I've never heard of this particular rule.