5p at Florist for a bag. AIBU?

[macarmahouse]

I bought my mother a planter of flowers for £50 and paid with all the cash I had. I asked for something to cover it as my mum was in my car as I’d ferried her to an appointment. She said it’s too big for paper but I can give you a bag?

I said ooh great thanks! She said, 5 pence please? Oh I don’t have anymore change, ruffling through my handbag for some. She stood there holding the bag. So I said oh sorry I don’t have the 5p. Then she put the bag away and handed me the flowers.

I was a little bit taken aback but I do see it from her point of view. BTW I used to work in retail and we gave backs out willy nilly. I guess it is better for the environment.

AIBU to expect her to have said oh don’t worry, here you go, have the bag for nothing. £50 isn’t an insignificant amount to spend.

Should of got your card out to pay that would of annoyed her even more 😂

The florist did nothing wrong. It’s annoying when we do things which we know are our own fault really, but we initially try to blame on others. Lesson learned to carry some small change, or carry a reusable bag folded up in your pocket.
Your mum will love the flowers regardless of whether she’s already caught a glimpse of them or not :)

"Should of got your card out to pay that would of annoyed her even more 😂"

But not half as annoying as "should of"

Does anyone ever read the fecking thread ? three times I've linked the law

Did you read the fecking thread? That is the guidance for England. OP is in Wales

@littlecandle. What a surprise you work in retail. I worked in retail for 3 months (5 years ago) between professional jobs as a filler and met plenty of jaded people like you. It was a big firm and yes. We gave plenty of bags out if someone didn’t have the 5p.

PlainSpeakingStraightTalking Ironically, for someone who complained that others haven't read the thread you clearly haven't done so as you've ignored FrancisCrawford's post explaining that the rules are different in Wales. From the guidance they linked to:

" Who has to charge for bags? The rules governing the charge do not include exemptions for any types of business. All people who
sell goods in the course of trade or business are covered by the charges"

Further on:

"Since then, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England have brought in similar approaches of charging shoppers 5p per carrier bag used, though in England this only applies to plastic carrier bags, and only
to businesses with over 250 employees."

Off topic - although no more than the original diversion - why are people so aghast at the possibility of people from Wales working in London? Whenever I go to meetings in my head office people seem to think I've undertaken some momentous trek, even those who have themselves travelled from The North or Deepest Darkest Cornwall seem amazed I've rocked up at Canary Wharf without a visa, rather than getting one direct, electrified so fast speed, train.

Wales is a fairly big region you know - obviously you aren't going to get many people from Anglesey making the daily commute but it's only about 90mins from Chepstow to Paddington so entirely plausible that OP has her home in Wales but works in London several times a week.

@oceanneveragain

Thank you! I constantly get comments “Ooooo how long did that take you?”
“Oh Wales that’s so far”
Your post is spot on

Nope my train is 1h 50m and I work near Paddington so my commute can be just about the same as some people coming from the home counties at rush hour

If you parked by a florist the day before Mother's Day, I'm guessing your mum isn't stupid. Plastic is plastic and the florist was right to charge bit she could have covered some with paper.
YABU to spend £50 on a planter imo!

It’s annoying, and I’d have been kicking myself for forgetting a bag (or an extra 5p), but I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect the florist to give you a free bag just because you spent a lot of money.

Especially if the Welsh law says all bags have to be charged for.

Also I do think it would have been pretty obvious to your mum what you were doing, even with a bag, if you were parked near the florist.

Plastic bags are really dangerous in the sea to whales and turtles, they are swallowing thousands of them. Anything that gets us to think about our bag usage is a good thing. Even if I end up with all sorts shoved in my handbag sometimes because I've forgotten a bag.

Ahh ok.

I would have been miffed at her not giving you the bag YANBU

Tsk tsk alsohuman

It's 5p. It's overreaching aim is to protect the environment. I would pay it if I really needed a bag and had not brought one.

macarmahouse I am not jaded. I enjoy my job, apart from arseholes who think that I can just bypass the law and hand out carrier bags for free. I am so glad that your 3 months of retail work gave you such insight. Clearly you weren't cut out for it. Not everyone is. One of the requirements of working in retail is to know the law regarding certain things - one of those things is the selling of carrier bags.

You also mention that you worked for a big company. They generally don't have carrier bag counts, but I work for a small company, and we have to account for every bag, so I can't just give bags out willy-nilly because someone is too tight to fork out for a bag that they want but don't want to pay for.

Not buying a planter would protect the environment a whole lot more than not using a bag. If someone has a reason for needing a planter, it’s a bit odd to mess the whole thing up by not giving them a bag.

Eh makingmammaries ??

YABU

it’s the law in wales that you pay for a carrier bag (and pp harping on about English law doesn’t seem to grasp that Wales isn’t in England and has a different law on this!). You didn’t pay, so you didn’t get a carrier bag. That’s not even remotely surprising or worthy of mention. “Person doesn’t get something they didn’t pay for” shocker!

I’m sure your mum will pretend she didn’t know that when you stopped outside a florist the day before mother’s day you were getting her flowers, and will act all surprised tomorrow.

I think this is a win for the 5p levy. You didn't buy a bag whose sole purpose was to cover a plant, which would be in a boot, for a car trip. One less pointless bit of plastic floating about.

Job done.

We’re meant to be cutting down on single use plastics. Didn’t you get the memo?