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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Made to pay for a bag in the supermarket

698 replies

christmasfoodshop · 07/12/2023 12:43

Just picked up a few bits for Xmas food shop.

Had baby with me and she was tired so getting a bit irritable.

Scanned all my shopping at self checkout, ended up with a quite a lot more than I needed (as you do).

Baby crying. Paid for my shopping.

Realised I needed a bag at this point so got one and put all my stuff in there.

Go to walk out.

The shop assistant said I needed to pay for a bag. Fair enough.

She said I had to rescan it.

Baby now screaming and wriggling out my arms. Heavy bag of shopping in the other hand.

She made me wait there until she'd scanned a bag, pressed 'check-out' , selected 'pay by card' and then I had to scan. All for bloody 30p.

In hindsight, I do understand I had to pay for the bag but I was so bloody frustrated and just wanted to get out of there that I paid 30p for the bag and stormed off. Left my giant trolley in the middle of self checkout. I was at my wits end. I felt like I was at school being held back by the teacher.

It's 30 bloody pence. Let me go!!

She acted like she was earning money out of making people pay for bags.

YABU - everyone ALWAYS must pay for bags no matter what

YANBU - in the circumstance, she should have just let me go all for the sake of 30p plastic bag.

OP posts:
Malarandras · 07/12/2023 19:07

Wow the number of people making themselves thieves for the sake of 30p, how sad. Also does it occur to some of you that the shop assistant is told they must chase up customers for bags? If they don’t do what they are told they might get fired. As long as some of you get your free bag though, who cares right?

Crazycrazylady · 07/12/2023 19:14

Absolutely you sound bay shit. Poor girl probably on minimum wage having to put up with people who feel that they should not have to pay for things if it's inconvenient
My sympathy is all with the poor shop assistant .

Ladybugandflowers · 07/12/2023 19:16

YABU and massively entitled.

Peablockfeathers · 07/12/2023 19:23

Malarandras · 07/12/2023 19:07

Wow the number of people making themselves thieves for the sake of 30p, how sad. Also does it occur to some of you that the shop assistant is told they must chase up customers for bags? If they don’t do what they are told they might get fired. As long as some of you get your free bag though, who cares right?

Edited

So shop assistants are told to not approach thieves or to intervene, but they're also told they'll be fired for not following someone to the exit to make them pay for a bag?

dogvcat · 07/12/2023 19:31

Grimmz · 07/12/2023 15:36

@dogvcat I'm glad you ask and yes of course I expect to receive all manner of goods for free

I thought as much. There are too many people, like you and the OP, who think they are entitled to freebies!

WestwardHo1 · 07/12/2023 19:45

Peacheroo · 07/12/2023 18:53

You don't know you're going to the shop
You buy more than you plan to
You walk into the shop and remember your bags are in the car so think fuck it
You don't carry a handbag to put them in
You have more important things on your mind than fucking bags

Show quote history

You have one in your handbag. You have some in the car.

Otherwise you pay for them. One poster was saying she steals them. Every time.

People used to remember shopping bags until shops started handing them out for free. Then they seemed to become this human right 🙄

ilovesooty · 07/12/2023 19:52

When people casually admit to habitual petty theft I wonder how deceitful they are in other areas of their lives.

Livelifelaughter · 07/12/2023 19:52

Going against the grain...YANBU. Yes, you should pay for a bag, but also it's about discretion too, you obviously didn't put on an act to get a 30p bag, it probably created a bit of a scene. Go to Waitrose, they just wouldn't entertain this nonsense.

Tibbb · 07/12/2023 19:53

ilovesooty · 07/12/2023 19:52

When people casually admit to habitual petty theft I wonder how deceitful they are in other areas of their lives.

Biscuit
UsingChangeofName · 07/12/2023 19:58

Shame the voting wasn't activated really, but I agree with most of the posts I've read, that YABU

Neriah · 07/12/2023 20:01

Bugger this. It's the sodding law. And taking a bag that you haven't paid for is theft. And having a baby is a good excuse?

fitzwilliamdarcy · 07/12/2023 20:59

Katypp · 07/12/2023 13:54

I am constantly banging on on here about the entitlement of some mothers that is encouraged by posters on MN. This is a perfect example of it in the wild.
When new parents are put on a gilded pedestal where no-one can upset them, contradict them or call them out for ridiculous behaviour, they kind of assume they are always in the right and having a baby trumps just about everything.
You reap what you sow

This with bells on.

Pinkpinkpink15 · 07/12/2023 21:21

fulawitt · 07/12/2023 13:12

Let me pinch the baby quickly: I fancy the snoopy bag.😂
OP you are being unreasonable.

@fulawitt
i have the snoopy bag, he's my hero!! But weirdly, I PAID for it.

i love the ones N&S do with the short & shoulder length handles. Peppa Pig iswell cute!!

fulawitt · 07/12/2023 22:00

Pinkpinkpink15 · 07/12/2023 21:21

@fulawitt
i have the snoopy bag, he's my hero!! But weirdly, I PAID for it.

i love the ones N&S do with the short & shoulder length handles. Peppa Pig iswell cute!!

Show quote history

😉
Yup, paid aswell.

NoTouch · 07/12/2023 22:22

BoredofBlonde · 07/12/2023 16:44

The "normal" kind of help when you see someone stressed, crying baby and with a heavy bag of shopping??! You know, "can we carry something to the car for you"? Common courtesy. And dont bother saying that isnt what they are there for/understaffed/ whatever, I am merely answering your question - I have no idea of staffing levels, just a bit of thoughtfulness wouldn't have done amiss.

Definitely not the help she decided on after seeing all the above and thinking the priority was to get 30p off an obviously stressed mum who has PAID for her stuff so isnt purposely thinking "I know, on my way out I'll thieve a bag for life"

Just a thought 🙄

Show quote history

It is her job to monitor people using the self service tills and make sure they pay for bags as it is a legal requirement and the store could face fines if they do not enforce the charge when shoppers attempt to steal bags.

There are cameras on the tills, supervisors watch the floor. She could have been reprimanded for not noticing/doing it, perhaps she has been reprimanded in the past for it. You are expecting someone on NWM to risk their job so someone doesn't have to spend 1 min paying for something they were trying to steal.

She might be lovely, the most helpful person you could meet, she might hate doing it, but she has to. Just be grateful you don't work in a job where you don't have the choice or that puts you in a similar position of having to approach irate customers who can't accept they were wrong and let you sort it out with them graciously.

IDontLoveTheWayYouLie · 07/12/2023 22:30

Really weird that people think it's okay as long as it isn't a lot of money.

There's another post today about a woman not paying for any of her shopping and people are saying 'don't worry about it as long as you give to charity'. Madness.

Whether it's 30p or £30,000, it's stealing if you haven't paid for it.

Ykn · 07/12/2023 23:21

Yes, you'll go to jail for 10 years for not having paid for a 30p bag.

Although the way things are it's pretty plausible.

justanothermanicmonday1 · 07/12/2023 23:31

Oh for god sake jt was just a bag.

I'd be pissed off too Op🤣

twilightmoon3 · 08/12/2023 00:49

You can see why village stocks were popular in the olden days to punish the miscreants and the unwary and witches. The wizards were the good guys of course.

Ortila · 08/12/2023 02:05

NoTouch · 07/12/2023 22:22

It is her job to monitor people using the self service tills and make sure they pay for bags as it is a legal requirement and the store could face fines if they do not enforce the charge when shoppers attempt to steal bags.

There are cameras on the tills, supervisors watch the floor. She could have been reprimanded for not noticing/doing it, perhaps she has been reprimanded in the past for it. You are expecting someone on NWM to risk their job so someone doesn't have to spend 1 min paying for something they were trying to steal.

She might be lovely, the most helpful person you could meet, she might hate doing it, but she has to. Just be grateful you don't work in a job where you don't have the choice or that puts you in a similar position of having to approach irate customers who can't accept they were wrong and let you sort it out with them graciously.

Show quote history

This is such horseshit hahaha 🤣

There is total theft going on in supermarkets across the UK. Gangs are raiding shops and walking off with hundreds of ££s worth of stock and staff are specifically instructed not to do anything about it - rightly, because they'd be putting themselves at risk.

No one anywhere is required to insert themselves into any kind of situation for the sake of a plastic bag. This supermarket worker chose to do so because OP is an easy target for a charge that the supermarket invents from thin air because it's an easy way of making money in the guise of saving the planet.

There's no way that a bag is worth 30p or 50p or even £1.50 which is what some places are charging now. Ten of them cost less than 1p to produce and shops don't have to charge for any of the current lot as none of them are single use, but because our muppet fucking government introduced the deranged concept of legislating around plastic fucking bags instead of actually putting legislation in place about the insane amount of single use plastic across the distribution chain, retailers are using that as a green light to charge any price they feel they can get away with as long as they cack on about the environment every now and then.

ithinkthatmaybeimdreaming · 08/12/2023 02:31

YABU. Why do you think you are entitled to something for free just because you have a screaming baby 🤔

Where I live they keep the bags behind the counter, and you have to ask for one, so everyone pays.

ithinkthatmaybeimdreaming · 08/12/2023 02:38

Also, where I live you haven't been able to get a plastic bag from a shop for ages, they are paper - plastic isn't allowed.

SD1978 · 08/12/2023 03:46

She only did her job! You being disorganised and buying more than you'd intended, is t her problem. I get that you were frazzled, but you k ow you have to pay for the bag and chose not to.

twilightmoon3 · 08/12/2023 05:47

I'm in your brigade sis come the revolution that is if the stasi snitches don't dob us into Big Brother having failed the carrier bag good citizen test.

CellophaneFlower · 08/12/2023 07:30

Livelifelaughter · 07/12/2023 19:52

Going against the grain...YANBU. Yes, you should pay for a bag, but also it's about discretion too, you obviously didn't put on an act to get a 30p bag, it probably created a bit of a scene. Go to Waitrose, they just wouldn't entertain this nonsense.

She either purposely didn't scan the bag, or selected that she didn't need/had her own bag at the start of checkout. Whether she had her baby with her or not is irrelevant.

Personally I don't see not paying for a bag as a huge deal - it's the fact she expected to be given a free pass once caught.