or should they have just given us a bag?

[Catsize]

So, naice farm shop in a garden centre...

I buy two large homemade(ish) cottage pies and wave my partner in the direction of the till with the cottage pies and my credit card whilst I wait with the ferry double buggy and sleeping children.

She pays for the stuff and is then asked if she would like a bag as the till person forgot to ask.

"Yes please"
"Well, I'll have to charge you 5p"
"But I only have this credit card"
''I still have to charge you 5p"

So, rather than my partner just carrying the things back to us lot and putting them in the probably slightly unhygienic basket bit under the double buggy, the card is proffered and 5p put on a card.

MN jury, this was for a paper bag!!

I think that till person was bu for charging and partner was bu for putting 5p on a credit card, but I was wondering if a) you agree and b) whether we have broken a MN record for smallest credit card transaction ever...

But it's the law, isn't it?

The shop was - they don't have to charge for paper bags and they forgot to ask at the initial transaction

And you are so bothered by such a minor issue that you started a thread

Your partner wanted a bag and she paid for it.
The shop doesn't legally have to charge for paper bags because they are paper and probably to small to be legally forced to charge but they can charge whatever they like for their bags as it costs them money to
Buy them in.

They also shouldn't be using your credit card.

It is the law but it would have cost them about 18p to conduct the transaction

It will almost certainly have cost the farm shop more than 5p for handling the transaction. Loads of places would have charged you £1.50 on top of that for a card handling charge, so 5p wasn't too bad really.

In Scotland paper bags aren't exempt

I don't think you have to pay for paper bags, do you?

It's not treacle. It doesn't cover paper bags and I doubt a farm shop is big enough to be covered by that anyway.

That said they are still within their right to charge and your partner could easily have just said no and carried them!

That is the shop being a farm
Shop is too small to legally charge (you have to employ a certain number of people before the carrier bag charge becomes a legal requirement),

Ah are you in England? In Scotland we get charged for paper ones too

It's only plastic bags that cost 5p.

They have to charge for paper bags where I live. Are paper bags exempt in other parts of the UK?

Only large shops have to legally charge for bags so they would be exempt.

I think they should have just given you a bag, it is a bit miserly not to for a small shop that would presumably like repeat custom.

I think OP is happy with the charge itself, but not happy she was asked after having done the main transaction so there were two separate transactions.

YABU. It's 5p. That's the law. Don't like it, don't get a bag.

It isn't the law for small shops though.

Yanbu it's a paper bag, they shod not be charging.

Also in Scotland there aren't exemptions linked to the size of the business. England seems to have a watered down version of the bag charges

It's England, so no charge for paper bags. And not sure of the raw meat exemption as there was raw meat in there but it. Had been made into cottage pie so not sure. Am veggie and clueless. Still, was a paper bag.

And garden centre is one of those massive Wyevale efforts with a zillion concessions in.

Was just about 5p on a credit card from all sides. My accountant might get a giggle if he spots it I guess. Will probably look like a mistake on the shop's part!

Yanbu it's a paper bag, they should be charging for them.