Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To complain to Tesco about the amount of bags they use?

66 replies

BagsBagsandMoreBags · 08/08/2019 20:51

Usually shop in store but I am without a car this week and have had to do my, I think 3rd, online shop.

I spent about £60.00 and yet again received an absolute mountain of bags. I usually fit my weekly shop into about 4 bags. Tonights shop came in 13 bags. There was literally one thing in some of them. One bag for a pack of anti bac wipes, another for a bag of cat food.

AIBU to complain? Aren't we supposed to be reducing the amount of plastic we use? Maybe I'm just being naive about the process for packing these things but surely this is ridiculous in the current climate? A whole bag for one thing?!

OP posts:
Original poster
BagsBagsandMoreBags · 08/08/2019 22:28

Yes I think we all get it that I could select no bags at check out (which I would do from now on if they weren't already going bagless).

It's not really the point though, its still a ridiculous amount of bags!

OP posts:
PinaC · 08/08/2019 22:30

Tesco here have been bagless for months (London)
Which is fun with big orders !!!

user1471530109 · 08/08/2019 22:31

@flingingmelons I never knew that!

Snugglepumpkin · 08/08/2019 22:40

I always get my shopping delivered having chosen the bagless delivery & yet every week my approx £40 worth of shopping turns up with a minimum of 8 plastic bags (2 each wrapped around each milk bottle plus random other things in bags)

I complained & they just said I have the option to return bags to the driver.

Chocolatedaim · 08/08/2019 22:45

PinaC I’m in NE London and mine don’t go bagless until end of August 🤷🏻‍♀️ I don’t mind I despise plastic bags, it’s just the convenience of having something transport the items in from the buildings front door, to my flat front door.

cantfindname · 08/08/2019 22:54

All bagless here. Had a delivery a couple of hours ago and the only thing in a bag was chicken which I guess was because of the risk of cross contamination.

glasshalfsomething · 08/08/2019 23:01

Hate to say it, but if the use of plastic concerns you, it’s probably best to ditch the anti-bac wipes. They do no good environmentally either.

Anoni · 09/08/2019 00:00

There is reasons why bags are used so much and I'll list them all, some are changing though with only red bags and one other that has slipped my mind remaining.

  1. Cleaning products must go in a red bag, this is to stop the product leaking over food and not only your food and items but everyone elses in the cart they use to pick.
  1. Meat goes in a red bag too, stops the blood and juices going everywhere.
  1. I always used to wrap the milk in a plastic bag regardless of what the customer said. Why? Because I've targets and if the milk split or burst and went everywhere, if it was in a bag it would be a bit quicker to just bin and then get another bottle rather then having to spend ages of my time cleaning up, which wasn't included in my allowed pick rate.
  1. Ease, when we have around 250 orders that average about 60 items per order, with 25 of us on a good day, more like 15 in store normally, sometimes packers will just bung the stuff into bags, so we didn't have to organise it, we filled the bag and just kept doing that.
Fragalino · 09/08/2019 00:10

Yabu for focusing on the bags everything they sell is is wrapped in plastic the bags are the least of it the clever thing to make is buy and feel we are doing something n

Pipandmum · 09/08/2019 00:10

@Aridane pickers do actually walk around my Tesco for online shops - I see them all the time!
I understand the cross contamination thing but I get electric toothbrush in one bag, roll of bin bags in one bag, kitchen sponges in one bag... or, I get lots of weird things in the same bag and they ALWAYS crush the bread! And occasionally a bunch of stuff not in bags at all.
I do use the bags for other things but I’m glad they’re going bag free. However a driver said they will only be allowed a few minutes more for each delivery so he’s not looking forward to it!

Anoni · 09/08/2019 00:31

@Aridane most picks are done in store, tesco doesn't have that many dark sites for dot com

sweeneytoddsrazor · 09/08/2019 00:36

Pickers also have a pick rate. I.e the number of items they have to pick an hour. They haven't got time to fanny around sorting it into neatly packed bags of all similar products.

raisinsraisinsraisins · 09/08/2019 00:46

I’m dreading it going to bagless deliveries. The blue crates are filthy and not cleaned between uses even if things are leaked, and I don’t want all my fresh food and cleaning products muddled together. I think it can be a health and safety risk.

Also, I don’t want the delivery driver to have to walk through my house to the kitchen on my hallway carpet when it’s been raining, but seems ridiculous to have to empty the crates item but item by my front door.

GreenTulips · 09/08/2019 00:58

Why are you buying anti bac wipes? They aren’t good for the environment

What aren’t you questioning the bananas in plastic bags or the fruit in plastic trays or the leeks in plastic trays with a plastic lid?

Or this plastic discs inside tomato ketchup or shampoo?

What about the plastic jelly or yogurt pots?

Stores have twisted this round to be a customer issue rather than a store issue

Fatasfooook · 09/08/2019 01:01

Click the option for no bags. Simples

Lucafritz · 09/08/2019 01:11

Go bagless when mine arrives each week i just take the crate off them take it into the kitchen dump it all out onto the floor and repeat with the other crates Hmm obviously delicate stuff like eggs and fruit i remove and put on the side but you don't need to remove each item one at a time from the crate like a PP said even with a small shop you'd be there all day! Common sense people we're all grown ups not children

BlackberryBeret · 09/08/2019 01:26

I really wouldn't worry about it. It's a failed government policy introduced without proper thought. There are much bigger plastic bag problems than this.

order-order.com/2019/08/07/governments-plastic-bag-spin-rubbished-fact-checkers/

PumpkinP · 09/08/2019 01:34

Tesco here have been bagless for months (London)
Which is fun with big orders !!!

I’m in south east London and we still have bags had a shop a few days ago. Got a note to say it will be stopping soon.

Aridane · 09/08/2019 06:37

pip / anon - I mistakenly assumed it was the same as Ocado who don’t do it in store but from a warehouse

Lllot5 · 09/08/2019 06:41

Ok so we’ve established click on the option for no bags. When it comes unpack the stuff that is in the red ones and give them back to the driver.

M0RVEN · 09/08/2019 06:41

YABU

You had the option to choose no bags and you didn’t take it.

Also you use anti anti bac wipes, drive a car and have a pet cat. Not very environmentally friendly.

flingingmelon · 09/08/2019 06:42

@user1471530109

I know! It's amazing, dunno if the other supermarkets do it too but it makes me feel so much better about my shop knowing this stuff will go back.

Apparently the reason you can't recycle it with the punnets themselves is that it flutters off the conveyor belts in normal recycling facilities - but plastic bags get processed differently and it's not an issue in that system.

User463729 · 09/08/2019 06:44

But some of it just made no sense. There were separate bags for my anti bac wipes and toilet roll and cat food (just dry kibble)?! It just seems an OTT system

Sainsbury's do this too - I think it's because those things could be seen as contaminants and have to be kept separate from food. You can opt out of having bags at all.

origamiunicorn · 09/08/2019 06:54

I think they have to separate certain things like cleaning products, meats etc. It’s not through choice.
I get that bt why do they wrap things singularly? Each bag with one pack of chicken or fish in when they could fit at least 3 in there. It's laziness, such a waste.

Lucafritz · 09/08/2019 06:57

I do all my shopping with Asda and my cleaning products etc get put in a separate crate by themselves away from the food same with meat veg etc all in its own catogorized crate. Clearly asda are miles above the rest with the reduction of plastic bags