Taking your own bags in same store -embarrassing incident

[annoyed663]

Not really sure where to put this and can’t really talk about in RL as it’s a non-issue so will look crazy but on here I’m wondering what others would do. I have anxiety so I do worry about everything! Went to B and M yesterday with the kids just to pick up cheap halloween stuff. I had my own bags with me (for the same store). Started packing and woman said it’s x for the bags (can’t remember amount) I said no they’re my bags I brought from home, she sounded unsure then to top it off my 8 year old says “mummy you picked the bags from here!” She probably saw they were the same. I got flustered and told the cashier “look you can see my bags are crumpled so they’re from home”. Lol! Next time I’ll take different bags in, not had that before and yes I know it’s a non issue before anyone likes on just wanted to share my embarrassing moment 🙈

Oh god I love this 🤣

Are you on glue? By stealing bags every time they go to the supermarket, they’re not re-using existing bags and unnecessarily adding to landfill.

My bad. I skim read and thought she was asking for opinion on whether it was a non-issue. I was just giving that opinion.

Do love taking my M&S shopping bag to the local Heron!
Treasuring them even more now M&S have replaced them with paper bags which are weak & totally useless in the rain.

Where I live everything that goes into our black bin. Must be a plastic bag, no loose rubbish. I have never in my life used so many plastic bags as I do now.

When my friend shops in Aldi/Lidl she goes to Waitrose first and buys a bag to take with her. That’s because she’s a bag snob - but at least they can’t query her on it 🙂

How is it hurting the environment? If I didn't use the carrier bags I'd still be using plastic bin bags! Probably more as well as they are not as strong as carrier bags.

Don’t bother posting then. OP quite clearly said she has anxiety and worries about everything. Did you read that and still decide to be nasty?

OP sorry but your 8 year old is hilarious! Remember this and embarrass her back when she’s a teen! Agree with others that the onus is on the shop to prove you nicked them. Different bags next time!

Re use your bags so you use fewer bags, as in reduce your usage.

Bags for life are made of thicker plastic than bin bags so take extra millennia to break down.

This information started in the seventies, plastic waste is bad for the planet, surely you can manage a few shopping bags when you leave the house?

@ClairDeLaLune @FarmGirl78 has apologised,

It's for this reason Aldi have stopped having the bags out and you have to ask for one. I have always wondered how they know when it's a fairly new bag whether or not it's yours, thankfully my Aldi bags are now so battered there's no chance! I do also take a different bag or make a big show of taking it out of my handbag!

Yes! I opened up the bags at the check out and noticed a packet of spaghetti lying at the bottom of one bag, obviously not unpacked from last time. 🤣😱

@OldTinHat my daughter keeps telling me I can't take bags from one store into another! Couldn't possibly go to Waitrose with a Lidl bag!
I've only been asked once or twice if the bags I have are mine - they look well used generally so it's never a problem - mind you a loud kid saying they were new would be embarrassing!

I've been using proper shopping bags, not plastic, for about 45 years! In fact, I think this pre-dates plastic bags as I never moved over to them!

The latest bags are from Booths, lovely and large, and are never to be mistaken for a Sainsbury's, Tesco or Waitrose bag

Usually shop in Tesco. Have a huge old Morrisons bag for life which is full of other bags from Tesco, Waitrose and M & S, dangling from the hook on the trolley.

Were they bags for life? My mum does this in the supermarket all the time without issue. But the supermarket she goes to changes the pattern on the bags quite regularly so the staff can probably tell that hers are older and must have been brought from home.

It's fine in shops where you have to specifically ask for bags at the counter, but in shops where you can pick up bags yourself, maybe they should change the patterns more often. Because they are called bags for life so you are meant to reuse them. Trouble is, you can't safely reuse them in the same shop.

They shrank them quite a bit too- can't fit a pizza anymore.

OP - I feel like you. When I'm walking into the supermarket, I make sure the bags I'm taking in are visible on the CCTV camera, in case of any later query.

What happened to string bags? They were great and you could get loads of stuff into them.

I felt very furtive yesterday when I took a carton of oat milk to the food collection point at sainsbury's... DS had left it at my house on a visit and we won't use it so I wanted to donate it. I felt like I was smuggling it in to the shop in a sainsbury's bag and was worried I didn't have a receipt for it and would be challenged!

M&S are selling them now - nice green ones. I’ve got two.

The self serve checkout at Sainsbury's kept going wrong. At about the third or fourth time I needed a staff member to sort it out I said I couldn't understand what was wrong. The assistant said it doesn't like your Lidl bag.

Did make me laugh.

I am a loving granny, and not in favour of corporal punishment, but that 8 year old would have been scorched and withered with the look I gave them, in those circumstances. Plus, later, a lecture on children being seen and not heard, unless, they had photographic, or written proof of what they were saying😳

I had a free voucher for a box of cereal at Lidl yesterday. I don't eat cereal but then decided to get a free box and put it in the box for donations to the food bank. It felt wrong somehow, donating something I hadn't paid for.

Could be worse