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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:
NoTouch · 08/12/2023 07:53

Ortila · 08/12/2023 02:05

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.

Show quote history

Of course noone should insert themselves into a situation where they are at risk of harm, but there was no risk of harm (very different from your "easy target" spin) so the staff member did the job they are paid to do.

Whether you or anyone else agrees with the charge or not is irrelevant, there was a charge for the bag.

Rosebel · 08/12/2023 08:09

I don't understand. Was OP using a trolley which sne then left when paying for the bag? Or was she juggling a bag of shopping and a baby?
Either way it's unreasonable. And it's hardly surprising to have to pay for a bag. I notice lots, of local supermarkets now keep them by the till so you have to ask. Presumably to stop CF walking off without paying.
I think everyone should have to work in retail or hospitality for six months or so. I think there would be a lot of less moany customers once they realise what a shit job it is.

twilightmoon3 · 08/12/2023 08:44

With the new AI no scan scab shops the problem is solved you will be automatically charged for everything you take with no need for human intervention.

ButterCupPie · 08/12/2023 10:08

zingally · 07/12/2023 16:37

I get that you are frazzled and irritable. I remember that baby stage well, when sometimes it just felt like everything, and everyone, is against you.

But I say this with kindness. This is entirely a you problem. The "pay for a bag" thing has been in existence since long pre-baby.
If they gave a free bag to everyone with a sob story, we'd all be doing it.

But, I'm sure, hand on heart, that no-one here could say that they've never thought "fuck it" and taken a bag without paying. I know I have. You just got a bit of a jobsworth this time.

I hate that word 'jobsworth'. So condescending. You mean someone doing their job, that they are paid to do.

Muchof · 08/12/2023 10:20

Shopping bags have been chargeable for more years than I can remember. Having a baby doesn’t allow you to steal. YABVU.

PianPianPiano · 08/12/2023 12:09

Ortila · 08/12/2023 02:05

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.

Show quote history

But just like with everything shops sell, nobody is making you buy them. Shops are free to charge whatever they like for their goods, and that includes bags. And not agreeing with the price or the fact you have to pay for them does not give anybody the right to just take something and walk out without paying for it.

melj1213 · 08/12/2023 12:31

CasaAmarela · 07/12/2023 14:52

Agree - the shop assistant could have turned a blind eye. It's not like they would personally be pulled up on it. Also agree that OP shouldn't have made a fuss when called out though. People are acting as if she stole a box of steaks, not a 30p carrier bag. Classic MN hysteria.

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You clearly don't work in retail if you think the staff member won't be personally pulled up for not doing a part of their job.

The staff member is not going to be fired for a single occasion where they haven't stopped one person walking out without a bag but if it happens too frequently, or they are seen to be actively ignoring blatant theft without even a cursory "Excuse me, you need to pay for that" to say they at least tried to get the customer to pay (regardless of the value of the item or whether the customer complied) then they can and will be pulled up into the office and disciplined.

Managers don't expect staff to wrestle customers to the floor to pay for a 30p bag but they do expect them to at least make an effort to stop theft. If they ask someone to pay for something and they don't then they're not going to chase them out of the shop but it will be noted down. If the same person repeatedly comes in and repeatedly refuses to pay for small items like bags then they're not going to get the police called but security might have a quiet word and/or they will be spoken to by a manager and told that if it happens again then they will be formally banned from the store. Whilst it's "only 30p", my store has thousands of customers every day, if even just 50 customers a day take a single bag without paying that's £15 a day, if that happens every day thats £420 a month and £5,040 a year. Thats £5k loss on "just bags" before you've even accounted for "real" theft.

People go on about "confronting" customers or making a scene - you can ask people (of any size, shape, colour, creed or reputation) to pay for something without making it a big performance, being rude or drawing lots of attention to yourselves. A simple "Did you stil want the bags as I notice they haven't been scanned yet" or as the staff member hands the items over they wait a second to make sure they're scanned and if the customer doesn't go to scan them then they just say "You need to scan the barcode on the bottom left before you put them on the scale or they'll set the machine off" or as someone is walking away from a machine, "Excuse me, it looks like that transaction hasn't actually completed, can you come back to the machine please?"

I work in a supermarket and I have represented colleagues who work on self scan/checkouts in disciplinary meetings where not challenging customers for not paying for bags has been part of the "charge" - for example I had one colleague who was pulled up on a disciplinary charge because on one shift there were three £100+ walk offs (IE when customers leave without paying when they have put their items through the checkout) in the span of the first hour of their shift that they could have stopped if they had been doing their job, instead they were too busy chatting/not paying attention to notice until it was too late to do anything. The managers looked back over the CCTV for that colleague's entire shift as part of the investigation and noticed that along with the walk offs there were also multiple occasions where people didn't pay for bags that they also didn't prevent. This was brought up in the disciplinary hearing as evidence that the walk offs weren't just bad luck on the colleague's part but was indicative of the colleague routinely not doing their job as they had already been spoken to and retrained regarding the same issue previously. They were not fired but they were put on a final warning due to the fact it was not the first occasion they had been spoken to about the same issue.

Beryls · 08/12/2023 12:32

People on here are so funny, yesterday there was a post where a woman's card didn't scan and she walked away with about £90 worth of shopping. So many people were saying she shouldn't go back to the shop and should 'Pay it forward' and 'Give it to food bank'.

Now this poster thought she could have been let off 30p for a crappy plastic bag that she forgot to scan and she's being hauled over the coals for even dreaming of it.

Shame you had to pay it OP, the local food bank could really have used that bag.

MrsBennetsPoorNerves · 08/12/2023 13:07

Beryls · 08/12/2023 12:32

People on here are so funny, yesterday there was a post where a woman's card didn't scan and she walked away with about £90 worth of shopping. So many people were saying she shouldn't go back to the shop and should 'Pay it forward' and 'Give it to food bank'.

Now this poster thought she could have been let off 30p for a crappy plastic bag that she forgot to scan and she's being hauled over the coals for even dreaming of it.

Shame you had to pay it OP, the local food bank could really have used that bag.

I never really understand posts like this.

Some people on this thread are fine with the fact that the OP intended to steal the bag. I'm sure that some of those individuals would also be fine with the other poster who stole £90 worth of shopping.

I'm pretty certain that the people who think the OP was wrong to try and steal a bag would not be telling the other poster that she was fine to steal a whole food shop.Hmm

MN isn't a single entity, it is a collection of people with different views and different moral standards. There isn't anything particularly odd about the fact that different people have different responses and that different posters comment on different threads.

Flippityflippidy · 08/12/2023 13:17

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 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

Can I add to your list?

You leave the house carrying just a baby, no changing bag or handbag and not actually knowing where you're going?
You fill a trolley up with more than you intended, but only realise you'll need a bag after you've scanned everything?
You think fuck it, I have a baby, I shouldn't have to pay for a bag so I'll just steal one?
You then jump onto MN to tell the world how disgusting it is that a store assistant dare call you out for just helping yourself
You then storm off leaving your 'giant trolley' abandoned in the middle of checkouts for someone else to deal with and everyone else to trip over?

And here you are thinking we should feel sorry for this entitled mum.

Right ho.

Gnomegnomegnome · 08/12/2023 13:38

People are such utter twats (not you @christmasfoodshop).

Shit happens, we make poor judgements. It doesn’t make op a bad person, it doesn’t make her a criminal. Post after post parroting repeated comments like stupid twats makes you really quite dull.

Peacheroo · 08/12/2023 16:08

@Flippityflippidy that's a list of reasons why someone may not have a bag in response to another poster saying it's not that difficult to remember a bag. Sometimes it is and that's a list of reasons why. None of which are relevant to the OPs issue but do answer the question as to why someone may not. But I'm sure you knew that...

Charlize43 · 08/12/2023 16:35

I don't really understand why some people have children... It certainly isn't an excuse to start shoplifting or to expect a free pass.

I was shopping with a bad tempered, wingey friend yesterday and I still had to pay for a carrier bag!

Flippityflippidy · 08/12/2023 17:27

Gnomegnomegnome · 08/12/2023 13:38

People are such utter twats (not you @christmasfoodshop).

Shit happens, we make poor judgements. It doesn’t make op a bad person, it doesn’t make her a criminal. Post after post parroting repeated comments like stupid twats makes you really quite dull.

Yes, we all make crappy judgments sometimes. OP's poor judgment on this occasion could have potentially made her a criminal though - in terms of the law, it doesn't matter whether it was a 30p bag or a 30k car - whether you love or loathe the plastic bag charge, it's still theft if you take one without intending to pay for it.

And a moment of poor judgment like this would make most of us crawl under a stone and hang our heads in shame for a bit. But this one decided to rant on MN about how unfairly she'd been treated and throw a strop at someone just doing their day's work. That's pretty much my criteria for a bad person met today.

Bakingbread · 08/12/2023 17:45

YABU

Wonderfulstuff · 08/12/2023 17:48

Couldn't you have put it in the pram? I really miss my huge pram basket.

BarelyCoping123 · 08/12/2023 17:52

I've no idea why you think you shouldn't have needed to pay for the bag OP. I see loads of frazzled parents, I am one myself, I've never expected a free bag or anything else

Livelifelaughter · 08/12/2023 17:54

This is really an absolutely crazy thread...OP didn't deliberately steal a bag, she's not a criminal, shoplifter, or bad person nor someone who should question why she had children. She basically was in a very stressy situation with her young child and was asking if maybe the shop staff member could exercise some discretion....heck I have been told not to bother paying for a bag at times when I have realised although my stuff fits in one bag it's too heavy and I have asked for a second.
And actually the law does make a distinction between 30p and £30,000 - the whole legal system would grind to a halt if we prosecuted for 30p...
By contrast hardly anyone on another post think it's wrong not to pay £90 back to a shop after finding the transaction has gone through, with bizzare suggestions to pay the sum to a charity...
OP don't beat yourself up if you are reading some of the responses on here.

Livelifelaughter · 08/12/2023 17:55

Sorry..."transaction has not gone through"

lambwool · 08/12/2023 18:01

I don't think you're being that unreasonable- you've shown you understand it's a requirement but it definitely would be nice if people could assess the circumstance and just be human sometimes.
I get it because I have a 3 month old and my whole body goes into panic mode when he's screaming. People on this thread are harsh

Pepsi2001 · 08/12/2023 18:03

You are totally unreasonable but you already know that!!! What's if everyone did that.

lambwool · 08/12/2023 18:07

People on this thread acting like their earnings are affected by the 30p

Livelifelaughter · 08/12/2023 18:09

@lambwool I actually think it's turning into something really nasty. Jesus, I don't have children but would have a lot of sympathy for someone in OPs position. Some very black and white views on here.

LawfulSearch · 08/12/2023 18:11

You are being unreasonable. People are dealing with far worse than a crying child but not getting in a strop about 30p. Wise up.

EveryOtherNameTaken · 08/12/2023 18:14

Bags haven't been free for how long???

You were frazzled but that doesn't entitle you not to buy.

Next time scan it first.