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AIBU?

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Original poster

To have not noticed about the 5p carrier bag charge?

400 replies

Snoozebox · 15/09/2015 19:30

I feel it was sprung upon us! When was it officially agreed by government?

I was in Tesco today and saw the signs that from sometime next month it will be enforced.

Don't get me wrong, I agree with the charge and have heard about it being discussed for years, but I didn't know it had been made mandatory! The cashier looked at me pityingly when I queried it and said it has been all over This Morning the media for weeks. Have I been too distracted by Jeremy Corbyn's lovely visage to notice this?

OP posts:
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ALassUnparalleled · 03/10/2015 10:03

I will read the whole thread but for the moment I'm getting irritated by Juju's total and complete failure to get the point of this.

It's not big deal. We have had it in Scotland for a while. You take your own bags with you. Sometimes you forget and have to buy one.

Dowser · 03/10/2015 10:07

I can't see how this is going to help the environment one iota. I'm sure I'm not the only one who reuses plastic bags for household waste.

So will have to buy other plastic bags for that.

I remember when to maxx used to charge for bags. Every time I bought something I used to grumble that if I left the shop with the clothing over my arm and it was raining and it fell into a puddle what happened when I took it back because the item didn't fit. Eventually they reversed their policy and wrapped up the items. I visit Wales quite a lot and you hand over the clothing at the till and then just push it back at you. It just seems rude, uncaring and sloppy service to me. Especially if you've just bought a £100 dress.

Some independent shops wrapped the purchase in tissue paper which was a bit better.

Well it's down to people power at the end of the day. Everyone go on a shopping strike for two weeks they will soon sort it ;-)

ALassUnparalleled · 03/10/2015 10:09

MrsDeVere your post says all that needs to be said

^But if I get caught out its my own fault.

These bags are a menace. They litter the world. The choke our rivers and oceans and poison our wildlife^

I was in London this week and was surprised I was being given bags.

The charge in Scotland applies to all bags so Pret charges for its paper bags and the paper carriers you get in up market clothes shops are also chargeable.

ALassUnparalleled · 03/10/2015 10:15

Especially if you've just bought a £100 dress.
Right so 5p for a bag will break the bank? what a nonsense argument .

So will have to buy other plastic bags for that.

We have long life bags, canvas shopper bags and those fold up nylon ones which are years old.

Ohbollockstothem · 03/10/2015 10:21

Apologies if it's already been asked but what would happen if at the supermarket everybody just puts their shopping straight back into their trolley to pack at their car

Security would have a real problem working out who had paid and who had just nicked it

Dowser · 03/10/2015 10:22

If we want to stop all this plastic...why don't we campaign for McDonald's to stop putting useless plastic crap in their happy meal cartons.

It's annoyed me for years. How many plastic bags would you get out of one piece of useless crap....3? Maybe?

Think of the factories that make this useless crap spewing out poisonous chemicals in china? India?

We don't want it. We don't need it. Get rid.

Reduce the prices of their over priced food.

Dowser · 03/10/2015 10:24

Exactly oh bollocks. Thieves are going to have a field day. They must be rubbing their hands with glee.

Wrapping or bagging goods probably started as part of the service and to deter thieves. So now no service and more shoplifting and higher prices passed down to us.

Dowser · 03/10/2015 10:27

No a lass.it isn't that. It's all part of the service.

You buy something. You pass over your hard earned cash and that item is just pushed back at you and it's happened many times. It's just rude.

You are not served properly till the goods you've paid for have been wrapped up and handed back to you.

ALassUnparalleled · 03/10/2015 10:27

Apologies if it's already been asked but what would happen if at the supermarket everybody just puts their shopping straight back into their trolley to pack at their car

Why? There's no reason for not doing that. You put the paid items back in the trolley and then leave the shop and pack them in your car. To add additional unpaid items you'd have to go back in with your trolley of paid items. I don't think it would be at all difficult for security to spot someone doing that.

Sirzy · 03/10/2015 10:31

Because no thief has ever put something into a carrier bag to steal it have they?

ALassUnparalleled · 03/10/2015 10:36

Are you in Scotland or Wales Dowser I'm in Scotland and am not encountering any of this apparent rudeness.

When buying clothes I have been asked if I want a bag (for which a whole 5p is charged) Sometimes I do. It depends on the shop and what I am buying. Something expensive from an upmarket shop probably better to be tissue wrapped in their own bags ; pyjamas from M&S doesn't matter.

So far as stealing most clothes are tagged. The point about putting paid for grocery back into the trolley encouraging stealing is nonsense too.

Ohbollockstothem · 03/10/2015 11:19

Sirzy of course they have , don't be ridiculous . I was merely pointing out that if everybody did it , it would be nearby impossible to pick out people who who just made for the door

ALassUnparalleled · 03/10/2015 11:34

Why would it be impossible ?

The layout of supermarkets is designed that you go through the tills section and leave. Do you really think it is beyond the wit of supermarket security not to spot there are people attempting to by-pass the tills?

Ohbollockstothem · 03/10/2015 11:55

you go in and out of the same doors in our supermarket so it would be quite easy

But we digress

ALassUnparalleled · 03/10/2015 12:00

As in my supermarket too. You seriously think security won't notice customers skipping the till section and going straight out?

You are inventing non-issues. What an enormous fuss you and a small minority of others are making. The system is working well in Scotland.

Ohbollockstothem · 03/10/2015 12:08

So happy it works well in Scotland

if everyone did it then security wouldn't keep up

In some supermarkets it's quite possible to look like you have come past the till area

I'm bored now

ALassUnparalleled · 03/10/2015 12:10

if everyone did it then security wouldn't keep up

That's actually the silliest argument you've come up with.

alltouchedout · 03/10/2015 12:30

I'm surprised that people weren't aware of this happening, because I've seen a lot about it in the media and the Tesco close to me has had signs up for a while. We do our big shop in Aldi anyway so I'm used to not having 'free' (as if they're really free, supermarkets just charge you more elsewhere to cover the cost) bags already.

It's a brilliant idea and opponents just need to think about why it's being introduced. Surely the impact on the environment is more important than the minor inconvenience of taking a shopping bag out and about if you don't want to pay for new ones every time? You can get reusable bags that zip up into tiny little pouches so it's hardly a problem to carry them around.

TheStripyGruffalo · 03/10/2015 12:31

I have my bags in a drawer by the door to grab on the way out, when I've been shopping for the last few weeks I've saved the bags and put them inside each other. Next week I will have the pleasure of taking Morrisons bags to Waitrose and Tesco bags to Sainsburys Grin

LisbethSalandersLaptop · 03/10/2015 12:37

not even sure what the fuss is - having been paying 5p in Wales for years.
Supermarket food is incredibly cheap.

MrsDeVere · 03/10/2015 13:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

stepmad · 03/10/2015 13:22

Fine to charge always thought it odd that marks and Spencer charged if you brought food yet upstairs they would put a pair of so J's in a a big free carrier bag

TheStripyGruffalo · 03/10/2015 13:32

I think it is shops with over 250 employees, something like that anyway.

TheStripyGruffalo · 03/10/2015 13:32

How are shops with the self scanning tills going to manage it? We scan and pack all of our own shopping into bags, some are carrier bags that we have used again so how are they going to police it?

MadeMan · 03/10/2015 13:36

Does this carrier bag charge apply to the blue and white stripey bags the off licences hand out for people to take their 2 litre of R White's home in?