M and S charging for carriers

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AIBU to find it cheeky of m&s to charge 10p for a paper carrier bag when I've just spent £50 on a dress? Especially as I got caught in the rain and it disintegrated.
I can understand why you would charge for a plastic bag, but this is ridiculous.

It’s probably to preempt the fucking scales repeatedly deciding the existence of the bag renders it an ‘unexpected item in the bagging area’.

It must be great to be so organised that you always have a tote with you no matter the situation.

I often do, but there are times I end up in a shop unplanned without my coat or handbag, or I’ve changed my handbag and not put one in as I wasn’t planning on shopping.

I don’t begrudge paying for one if I don’t have one at all, but the paper ones are a nightmare if it’s raining.

I once had cans of hairspray/ deodorant rolling down the pavement into the road as my boots paper bag lasted about 5 minutes in a downpour 🤣

At the weekend a woman was moaning to me that the shop was trying to make money by selling bags.....People seem to be abit slow to catch on after 10 years that the whole point of charging you is so that you won't want to pay and will bring your own and re use your bags Iver and over....which helps the environment. Just alot of lazy entitled folk out there. I've seen people spend £500 often in the store I worked in and I'd still happily charge them bags.

It bugs me too but at least you weren't in Waitrose, they charge £1.00

They charge £1 for a very sturdy and reusable bag with reinforced handles.

M&S charge for paper bags

It must be great to be so organised that you always have a tote with you no matter the situation.

I am really not a super-organised person. But when I leave the house I have my bag/purse with me, and a wee fabric fold up tote in my bag.

It's being charged for mc donalds bags now that's piss take.
I said no once to try it and they literally hand you each item

Good for you.

maybe, just maybe, things you think are simple or easy just aren’t simple or easy for others.

Yes I’m aware of that which is the point I was making! If you read my post again you will note that I said the original idea was about eliminating plastic and that I do carry my own - but if I’m caught without a bag, I object to paying for a PAPER bag.

@Luckyduc Do you really need to be so rude over paper bags?!

The shop does not care about the environment - if they did, there are SO many aspects of their business model that they could change to far greater effect than charging for bags.

Shops now charge for bags (even beyond what is legally required) because they can. M&S charging you 40p for a paper bag in the food hall is nothing to do with the environment and everything about profit.

I do carry my own bags for collecting food shopping but I agree with OP. If you are buying some clothing you don't want to put it in a bag where you've had your onions and tomatoes rolling about the day before. Not nice. Paper is sustainable...companies are just jumping on the bandwagon and hoping we don't complain.

So if you can't be the "organised" person who carries a bag, you accept that you pay for one.

I mainly have my own bags with me but agree it’s very strange to charge 30 or 40p for a very weak paper bag for what can be heavy groceries. I sometimes find myself having filled the bags I’ve taken on other shopping and then am left with no choice but to limit what I buy from them. (no car)

What about the disproportionate effect on disabled people who find it far more difficult to remember to have a bag?

Or does that not matter? It’s their own fault they aren’t organised enough to ensure they have a bag on them at all times just in case.

Then they pay for the bag. It isn't disability discrimination.

This isn't a new thing. Most countries have charged for bags long before we ever did.

So you think all the people who do remember reusable bags should subsidise your paper bag so you can have it for free? There’s no reason why shops should give paper bags for free. In fact I think they shouldn’t, it’s a step backwards.

What clothes shops use plastic bags?

They are all paper are t they? I noticed Zara have started charging too for very poor quality bags that always tear before I reach the car.

So the latter then.

lovely.

They do pay for the bag. Repeatedly. It won’t make them remember. It just costs them more.

And they get to listen to sanctimonious arseholes going on about how it’s so easy and they should just remember.

It isn't disability discrimination. If you find it more difficult to remember to have money with you, you can't expect to be given goods when you go shopping. If you have a tendency to lose things like bus passes, there is no requirement that your local council provide free buses.

Everyone saying to carry around a fabric tote, do you really have a bag in your pocket big enough to fit a large coat? I would have several bags that I carry around but none that big.

I didn’t use the word discrimination. I was commenting on the fact that some disabled people are more affected by this.

But why should you have any empathy. Just keep repeating how easy it is and feeling smug.

@LiquoriceAllsorts2 I think if you can afford to Impulse buy a large coat you can afford to pay for a bag for it

By law they’re only chargeable if they’re plastic, which has worked really well imo. I do think that some retailers are taking advantage by charging for paper bags, but easily avoided by taking your own!

@UnremarkableBeasts what an ableist statement: disabled people as one group lumped together who collectively find it more difficult to remember? Are we all just one lumpen group? Does Disability universally affect people in the same way? Do we take sugar?

This is the sort of pseudo-ally attitude that prevents real progress with the issues that matter.

Many of us are disabled - we may have problems with other things, but not with memory or executive function and we still remember our bags.

Granted, both memory and executive function can be disabling or comprise part of an individual’s disabilities, and make shopping difficult, but as PP on this thread have shown, forgetting bags is not unique to people with disabilities!

And as @Goodornot just said - the charge doesn’t single out any one person or group, it applies to everyone who does not bring a bag of their own. So it doesn’t breach the Equality Act 2010.