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.

I have no disabilities and frequently forget to take a shopping bag.

Sanctimonious arsehole ?! Righto you campaign for free bags for disabled people but I think there are bigger fish to fry for the disabled tbh.

You are absolutely right. And I’m sure that when the charge for carrier bags came in, the idea was to ultimately get rid of plastic bags?
I worked in a shop at the time and we were told that because our bags were paper we didn’t have to charge. Now Morrisons and M&S are both charging for paper bags?
It wasn’t about using fabric bags etc, it was about plastic use.

Some shops require that as the weight has to match. If you are used to a shop that requires it then you probably think you need to do it everywhere

I said some disabled people.

Jesus wept. Apparently pointing out that some disabled people - because of their conditions - find it harder to remember to have bags and that people should stop making sweeping statements about how easy it is and people who fail to remember deserve to pay is the ‘ablist’ position.

Wrong

Remember Jane Norman bags? Now those were reusable! I'd happily pay for those.

@UnremarkableBeasts read your own post at 08:47 back and you didn’t say ‘some disabled people’. You just said ‘disabled people’.

@Goodornot recognises there are bigger fish to fry for people with disabilities. That’s about the size of it. Forgetting bags really isn’t high on the ‘things to get rightfully exercised about’ radar given endemic societal and workplace attitudes for starters.

In fact, I suspect many disabled people are likely to be among the cohort that actively remembers their own bags as that’s within their control as users - bags that have comfortable grips or are at the right height to carry, provide the right sensory experience, or can be safely packed or suspended on a wheelchair or mobility scooter.

If your grip is poor or you can’t walk far or bend, you’re less likely to purchase, or want to purchase, a paper bag that will fall to bits as soon as a drop of rain touches it, and risk your shopping being strewn all over!

I think we all accepted the charge for a plastic bag for life but to charge for paper bags is a piss take. Especially as primark and Zara have been giving out paper bags for years for free but marks want to charge 40p for one that buckles if you buy a four pint of milk. Yes we could all take our own totes etc but sometimes we forget or don’t want to be bogged down with twenty bags

If you can afford a £50 dress then you can afford a 10p bag. Complaining about the audacity to be charged 10p! You wouldn't put a new dress in a re used carrier bag?

You sound like a right twat.

You sound like a right twat.
I honestly think that some posters come on here to be vile.

Because the till doesn't recognise your bags so if you put them on the scale you have to wait for assistance before you even start scanning which can take forever.

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

They all allow you to tell them that you're using your own bag - and don't usually kick off unless you're using a massive rucksack or something.

It doesn't always work, but that's the nature of self-service checkouts - hence why they always have assistants on hand, to deal with all the issues they have.

Even so, I would have thought it much quicker to get the assistant to take a second to verify your bags before packing them as you go, rather than having to handle every item twice: once as you scan it and put it loose on the scale, and then again to put it in a bag at the end.

They told me at M&S the other day that the new paper bags are designed to be okay in the rain, I am not sure how they manage this, I'm intrigued. I was also charged 40p, not 10p. Mine was all right in some drizzle but of course any paper bag isn't going to protect its contents in a downpour although neither or most reuseables that I come across. I thought retailers have to charge for bags by law. Only plastic ones. But retailers have seen an opportunity to keep charging when they swap to paper ones.

They told me at M&S the other day that the new paper bags are designed to be okay in the rain, I am not sure how they manage this, I'm intrigued.

Wow, they've managed to subvert the laws of physics and invent paper that doesn't have the properties of paper!

I suppose they could use the same stuff that they use to make disposable coffee cups, but I rather suspect that they're coated inside by something other than just paper - which sort of defeats some of the environmental benefits.

When they say they're 'designed to be okay in the rain' (interesting that they use the word 'okay' and don't say 'designed to perfectly withstand the rain' or similar), that's one great big fob-off lie. What else would they say? "Here's a bag that isn't fit for its basic purpose - but we still expect you to pay us for it"?!

A quick 2 min job doesn't get me past my garden gate by the time I have picked up all the rubbish in my front garden what has either been blown in or thrown in.

I want my area to look litter free which is why I am a responsible adult and don't throw litter around and have also taught my kids to put litter in the bin. If only everyone would do the same and then nobody would have to go litter picking.
Where do you suppose people put these bags of litter that they have collected, when they already fill their own bins with their own litter and can't get to a rubbish tip?

Our Morrisons charge for their paper bags too and they’re useless. On the one occasion I bought one, the minimal amount of shopping packed into it didn’t reach the car park before one of the handles detached. I usually take a couple of fold away fabric shopping bags, so as to avoid the plastic ones. Just as an aside is it just me, or does anyone else think that most types of bin bags/liners you buy on a roll are not fit for purpose ? I’ve even tried the supermarket ‘heavy duty’ bags and find that they’re too flimsy for more than a few items and either rip, or the tie handle comes off when you try to tie it. Very frustrating.

Yep, this. Absolutely sick of picking up cardboard burger boxes and chocolate bar wrappers - who are these people who eat in the street and then just chuck their crap in people’s front gardens ?

And I think if a shop is selling a high ticket item like a coat it can afford 2p from its profit to give you a bag. It works both ways.

Plastic bags yes. Not paper

It isn't about not being able to afford it, they have to charge for plastic bags. I'm assuming shops dont carry paper bags big enough for the hypothetical large overcoat

Well I do find it annoying but support the environmental reasons . But more annoying is having to do self service check out for a pile of clothes that add up to a lot of £ and fold and pack yourself too! Happened to me recently took me ages! I was shopping for my elderly mum. Honestly I’d rather queue a bit longer for the human touch and customer service.

How about not being able to bend easily or wheelchair users? And before you go on about grabbers most people's don't tend to take out when going for a walk

I really wish people would read the OPs post … she is talking about M&S charging for a paper bag not a plastic one.

My local branch is no longer selling plastic ones at all . Fine. But the paper ones are more expensive. You cannot return a plastic bag for life and get a replacement either. So it doesn’t sound as though they are motivated by environmental reasons, the law or customer service just £££

It’s not the remembering the bag, it’s replacing the one you remembered before .

I mostly do but then take it home full of stuff and sometimes don’t have the opportunity to put it back in. It might still have stuff in that is going elsewhere, might be going in the wash etc.
If you don’t have some sort of system for bags ( super organised) it’s quite easy to forget to always have one just in case.

Aw geez oh! I’ve worked in M&S for 12 years and I’m sick to death of people moaning about paying for bags!! M&S charges for bags people! Let’s just remember that! If you’re gonna moan about bags just bring your own! Remember the wee sandwich bags you used to get ? The amount of people that tried to cram their shopping into a couple of those bags was hideously embarrassing.
Personally no, I don’t like the paper bags. I took it back to the business to say that the general public hate the bags and aren’t shy in telling you. The business came back to say that they were designed to hold up to 15kg and that they were reusable up to 100 times. They’re designed to withhold a little rain fall, because it rains a lot. And the price! Because of what I have mentioned above that’s what “justifies” the price of 40p.
I will now get off my soapbox about these flippin’ bags!

p.s I hope you know, that as the general public, you all freaking suck and make my soul sore!