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.

Having said that I don’t have to shop there do I so I should vote with my lazy feet I suppose!

Nobody is forcing you to buy anything though are they.

X post but I still doubt that’s M&Ss motivation

Yeah the paper bags are shit. Charging is one thing, selling a crap product something else. I might complain to trading standards ;)

Tbh I do just steal them when I get the chance. Self checkout is good for this. It asks me how many bags I've got and I press 0.

I can't believe people are still moaning about taking reusable bags.

I agree with you. I recently bought a dress and some yoghurts in M&S. I paid 40p for a crappy carrier bag (yes, yes, I know I should have taken my own - but I popped out at lunchtime and wasn't expecting to buy anything). It disintegrated in the rain and everything fell out of it - yoghurts burst on the pavement and the dress was wet and muddy.

So M&S can fuck off with their expensive crap bags which are not fit for purpose. Even if I hadn't paid for it, it was still crap and not fit for purpose.

I looked when I got home to see how to complain about their crap bags and my wasted yoghurts and spoilt dress, but there was no way to contact them with complaints other than by ringing them, which is tricky during working hours.

The law demands that plastic bags are charged for but not paper. I'd have returned to Marks and asked for a replacement, preferably plastic. The paper one wasn't up to its job.

If you’re going shopping take a bag; pretty basic

And what if you're not going shopping, but find yourself with a 15 minute window during a working day? Are you supposed to be Mystic Meg and know that you're going to find yourself passing M&S (or wherever) at lunch time, when you're normally nowhere near it?

Keep a bag folded up in your handbag or coat pocket for exactly such an occasion.

Sneaky charging when it’s just paper bags. The charge was brought in to reduce plastic.

You keep a bag folded away in your handbag. They don't take up much room.

the statutory charge is for plastic bags - but I read somewhere that the resources taken to produce paper bags aren't great either.
Nearly Always carry bags with me.
Love the Primark ones that you can use as gift paper - got one today, but the cat was inside before I'd unpacked it, so may not survive as wrapping paper.
One year I used it to wrap a gift for a friend who's a bit of an eco warrior - she was impressed with the recycled wrapping paper, but horrified I'd shopped in Primark (that wasn't where her gift was from)

I carry a couple of light fabric totes in an over-shoulder jute bag or in my handbag on the bus. My husband carries around a couple of sturdy fabric bags in his man-bag. We keep jute bags in the car, but travel primarily by bus or on foot locally.

M&S sell really nice large sturdy bags in the food section with Percy’s friendly little pig face. They have both short and long handles, for hand or shoulder carrying, fold up neatly and small enough to go in a handbag - those bags are ideal for clothes purchases, as they’re capacious. It’s really not hard to always have a bag with you!

I do that.

Then I use the bags when I’m out and forget to put them back in my handbag / in the car.

I see buying bags as an ADHD tax now tbh…

Fabric bags take up very little space in a handbag and add very little weight to it. I always have one or two in my bag.

People forget things, nobody's perfect. Businesses stiff them for it and say they're doing it to save the planet. That's annoying.

Keep a bag folded up in your handbag or coat pocket for exactly such an occasion.

Yes, you either do this

Or pay the 10p (!) penalty for not having one. Ten. Pee.

It's not 10p. It's anything from 40p - £1, for each bloody bag.

I regard fabric shoppers as one of those things you can’t have too many of, like bookmarks or shower caps.

Fascinating

I find this impossible. I am catastrophically useless at remembering stuff - but if I remember to take a bag, I then use it and forget to put it back in. I also use different handbags on a whim, and depending on where I'm going and what I know I need to carry (sometimes need a backpack). Plus I get distracted, so if I go to find a recyclable shopping bag, I notice that the dishwasher needs to be unloaded, then remember while I'm half way through unloading it that I haven't put the washing machine on, so I leave the dishwasher and go to the laundry, but get waylaid by my emails so never get to the laundry, then realise that I'm about to miss the bus, so leave the house in a mad rush. So something always goes wrong with my bag scheme.

I've got about 10 of those nice bags with Percy's little pig face, and they are all lying around at home, probably containing shopping I haven't unpacked from a fortnight ago.

Shops should still provide plastic bags, but just charge more for them so that people like me don't get their shopping ruined. I'd be happy to be fined for my own inability to organise myself.

BTW, I have 43 lightweight totes (DD rounded them up and counted recently). I still can't manage to have one when I need it.

@FettleOfKish I also have about 43 coats, so the coat pocket idea is a non-starter. Anyway, my coat pockets are all occupied by lost things like hats and gloves and train tickets and picture hooks. Urghhhhhhh.

I have ADHD and I still manage to have a reusable bag about my person or in my car most times I need it.

I manage this by stuffing every pocket full and my car boot too 😅because I'm crap at remembering to replace them.

Paper bags are awful for the environment, because of the amount of chemicals leached or just plain dumped into waterways during manufacturing. For that reason I have zero problem with companies charging for them.