Who knew there was shopping basket security

[Familyshopper]

Is it me or has this shopping basket etiquette always been in place 🤷‍♀️

I went shopping for a few bits on a local supermarket but as usual I forgot my bags but instead of wasting money & plastic I decided against buying a bag & didn’t fancy juggling my shopping to the car so I took a basket to my car, a security guard came charging after me telling me I wasn’t allowed to remove the basket, I told him I’m taking my shopping to my car & I would be returning it straight away.

I mean seriously I don’t want another plastic bag in the house let alone a big metal basket aibu to think this rule is crazy or is it an unspoken rule that I’ve never been informed of

@Familyshopper

😂😂 or maybe I’m just not the sort to steal anything & am too busy to give it any thought unlike some people who think they have some form of intelligence

Ugh. You're not coming across in a very nice way. That attitude is gross. @familyshopper

I visited a company once and I saw that they used shopping trolleys to pick the goods for orders in their warehouse.

They had cleverly put tape over the supermarket names to disguise them but you could see that the ones with blue handles came from Tescos and the ones with green handles from Asda etc.

I did wonder if they crept out at night to get them or if they were just public-spirited and cleaned canals at weekends, who knows?

when I forget my bag, it happens, I pick up an empty cardboard veg box, the little ones are just right. Sometimes the last couple of peppers, cukes etc have to be placed in a fresh full box, but it’s no bother. And the box never falls over in the car!
I have one of those picnic baskets though, I’ll be dusting it off.

Ugh. You're not coming across in a very nice way. That attitude is gross. @familyshopper**

Isn't it just. And apparently everyone except her is minded to thieve.

@BumbleFlump

Fuss that’s such a good idea! Years ago in France, it was ok to use your shopping basket/bag as a basket then empty it at the checkout and refill after paying...shame we can’t do that in the UK, there’s so much suspicion from shop staff nowadays, they’d just think you were stealing 🙄

You can in Sainsburys - just use the scan and pay.

I accidentally stole a basket from co op a couple of years ago.
Genuine head in the clouds moment, paid at self service, walked out with basket and just put it in boot of car
Got home and was horrified! Took it back the same day with an embarrassed face and apologised.
They said I was the only person to have ever returned one to them!
Apparently basket theft is a thing!

This has literally always been a thing, it is why all the basket stations are only inside the shop whereas trolley stations are in the carpark. You aren't supposed to leave the shop with the basket.

Fuss that’s such a good idea! Years ago in France, it was ok to use your shopping basket/bag as a basket then empty it at the checkout and refill after paying...shame we can’t do that in the UK, there’s so much suspicion from shop staff nowadays, they’d just think you were stealing 🙄

I think supermarkets do allow this, it's only theft if you try to leave without paying for goods.

Most shops have fruit/veg boxes available to put your shopping into, most of them are easy to hold, I use these when I forget my bags. They go in the cardboard recycling at home so the council gets some extra money for them.

@Cadent

Fuss that’s such a good idea! Years ago in France, it was ok to use your shopping basket/bag as a basket then empty it at the checkout and refill after paying...shame we can’t do that in the UK, there’s so much suspicion from shop staff nowadays, they’d just think you were stealing 🙄

I think supermarkets do allow this, it's only theft if you try to leave without paying for goods.

You can do this if you use Scan and shop. I do in Waitrose Sainers and Tesco.

50p? bloody hell will remember to take my bags to morrisons

Why would they want to touch my bag I was holding it and he was holding the spray it isn’t rocket science

@Familyshopper

😂😂 or maybe I’m just not the sort to steal anything & am too busy to give it any thought unlike some people who think they have some form of intelligence

Too busy to given it any thought yourself, but not busy enough to avoid wasting time asking other people to do your thinking for you.

Why would anyone pretend to want to save the environment what a very strange theory I didn’t say it was anyone’s problem it’s hardly the end of the world that someone has such a busy life that they forget to bring a bag maybe you should try it

Who said I want other people to think for me I do not require this nor do I require anyone to put words into my mouth thank you very much

@Cadent

Ugh. You're not coming across in a very nice way. That attitude is gross. @familyshopper**

Isn't it just. And apparently everyone except her is minded to thieve.

😂😂 and to suggest people would want their backsides wiping is so so pleasant 🙄🙄 #potkettle

I work for a large convenience retail chain, baskets are £45 each when we have to buy them. It is rude to take something which has value, and which you don't pay to use without asking for permission first.

It is only a recent 'thing' not 'always been a thing'.

I have, in the past walked out of a store with my shopping basket due to too much chatting and not enough awareness of what I was doing. No-one came after us. I also have a couple of the old plastic supermarket baskets, I think they were put in the trolley to take to the car and accidentally loaded. It happened a few times (elderly and forgetful friend), I returned most of them but then the store closed down, leaving me with the most recently acquired ones.

Trolleys, yes, they have been fixed with various things for a while, wheels not going over/through etc. You can't leave some shops without going through checkout unless security releases you or you abandon the trolley and leave due to nothing being in stock.

I was chatting with my friend who works in a supermarket about this thread and she said that the way it works for them is that the baskets are left at the checkout and every half hour someone collects them and takes them all out the back to spray them down with disinfectant and wipe the handles before returning them to the stack where customers can pick them up. Customers are not allowed past the tills with them because they invariably dump them back where they got them. Unsanitised. And even if they ask people to return them to the checkouts they have to walk against the flow of people leaving which is even more risk for Covid.

The trolleys are different because they are kept outside and are simply sprayed down in the bays and left to dry.

I once walked out of Iceland with one of their baskets hooked over my arm, and didn't notice until I was in the next shop. So Iceland is a good place to shop op🤣

...it’s hardly the end of the world that someone has such a busy life that they forget to bring a bag maybe you should try it

Try what? Try forgetting my shopping bags? Why would I want to try to forget my shopping bags? So I can start a thread on Mumsnet about a member of supermarket staff not sanitising my bag for me like my servant, or that I wasn't allowed to break store rules and leave with a shopping basket because I'm so, so intelligent, busy, virtuous and important? You sound utterly charmless.

I went into Iceland before Christmas and they wouldn't let me take the trolley to my car unless I either left a £5 deposit, my mobile phone or my bank card!

1 they're really expensive to replace

2 people load them up and run off with them

3 we shopkeepers find people that use their own basket or shopping bag in place of a basket as suspicious behaviour. Please don't do it

They're all security tagged round here.

Get a trolley or use bags for life.

Just because you weren't going to steal the basket, doesn't mean that loads of other people don't.