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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:
ManateeFair · 07/12/2023 13:11

Unbego · 07/12/2023 13:05

Yanbu. I always take them if I need them and I never pay.

Take a couple extra next time to make up for it. 30p a bag is a pisstake and she didn't need to do that.

Do fuck off

muddyford · 07/12/2023 13:11

YABU. We've all been paying for bags for ages now.

FastBlueHedgehog · 07/12/2023 13:11

You did shoplift it, but got caught and were asked to pay. It's not like paying for bags is a new policy.

x88mph · 07/12/2023 13:11

YABU to expect not to pay but I also remember how hard I found it to function in public with a screaming baby. If I'd have been at the checkout next to you and realised what was happening, I would've offered to scan it with my shopping.

StrictlyComeSnoozing · 07/12/2023 13:12

You acted like a dick and she was just doing her job.

ShortColdandGrey · 07/12/2023 13:12

This is the second threat about having to pay for a carrier bag in the past week. Where the hell have you all been? We have had to pay for them for years. You are not exempt because you had a baby in your arms 😆

fulawitt · 07/12/2023 13:12

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

FoxyLocksie · 07/12/2023 13:12

There seems to be no voting button.

Yes, YABU.

BeverForget · 07/12/2023 13:13

YABU - the rules are the rules.

Tinkerbyebye · 07/12/2023 13:13

YABU. A screaming baby is no excuse, don’t want to pay, take your own bags

this has been in place years

LauderSyme · 07/12/2023 13:14

christmasfoodshop · 07/12/2023 13:01

For those who keep saying I shoplifted, I paid for the bag

Only because you were made to pay! And think it was so terribly unreasonable that you started a thread about it!

Peak self-justification.

EvilElsa · 07/12/2023 13:14

YABU.
You knew you had to pay for a bag but attempted to take one anyway -it wasn't a misunderstanding. You wouldn't have picked up a chocolate bar and thought fuck it, the baby is screaming and I can't be arsed to pay. It's a item you need to buy, same as anything else.
It's not anyone else's fault that your baby was upset, nobody caused it. Storming off in a huff leaving a trolley wasn't so much a statement as embarrassing.

willingtolearn · 07/12/2023 13:15

You are being totally unreasonable.

It doesn't matter that it was 30p - it was a product that you have to pay for and so you needed to pay for it, no different to any other item you had purchased.

All the other things you mention are totally irrelevant.

Fold up the bag and put it in your pocket/coat/handbag/baby changing bag for next time.

ShoesoftheWorld · 07/12/2023 13:15

People misuse the word 'entitled' a lot. This OP is a perfect example of the correct definition.

Unbego · 07/12/2023 13:15

MaryMcCarthy · 07/12/2023 13:06

What do you do with them after you've used them? Chuck them in the bin?

Do you not see how the 30p incentivises re-use? Successfully, as well.

Show quote history

No, I do use them again (always did even before supermarkets hit on this money making wheeze) and when they reach critical mass in the drawer I put them into the bag recycling crate. But if I'm out and don't have any/enough on me and I'm not driving I'll take any I need to get my stuff home. We pay enough for shopping in the UK. We pay enough for everything in the UK.

I'm not sure that the charge does incentivise re-use. Millions more of the stronger reusable bags have been sold since the bag charge came in - the number of single use bags has dropped but that's because most shops don't have them. They have the reusable ones instead and shops are selling way more of them than they did before. They're probably producing even more again because a lot of people, like me, don't pay for them.

HaudYerWheeshtYaWeeBellend · 07/12/2023 13:16

I've only read the OP however im
it sure why you think being a parent entitles you to steal 🤔

Doubleespresso33 · 07/12/2023 13:16

Becles · 07/12/2023 12:45

It's a legal requirement. She can't just say off you trot without paying for an item of employer's property.

Keep a bag in your handbag and coat pockets.

Edited

Of course she can lots of shops do this 😅 as iv said before this isn’t the hill to die on. Iv never paid for a carrier bag and couldn’t care less. She was obviously struggling they could have let her just go

AngelontopoftheTree · 07/12/2023 13:17

You haven't enabled voting, but just want to say YABU!

WhycantIkeepthisbloodyplantalive · 07/12/2023 13:17

But it's not free. Would you let your kids walk out with a fredo chocolate bar that costs 20p and just say I'm stressed, it's only 20p?! It's now an item that costs money whether you agree with it or not, there's no of ands or buts, you are annoyed that they wouldn't let you steal.

JFDIYOLO · 07/12/2023 13:17

You tried to nick a bag.

Her actual job is to ensure people pay for what they take.

YABU

Toottooot · 07/12/2023 13:18

Nae luck min.

PGmicstand · 07/12/2023 13:18

SkySecret · 07/12/2023 13:03

For those who keep saying I shoplifted, I paid for the bag

Yeah…. only after you tried to walk out with it and some poor retail assistant had to stop you! How embarrassing 😩

Precisely.

Natsku · 07/12/2023 13:18

I understand that its easy to get stressed out and forget simple things when your baby is crying and you're just trying to finish what you're doing and get out of there but the shop worker wasn't in the wrong for insisting you pay, she possibly could get into trouble if a supervisor saw her let you take one for free.
Usually though when I forget a bag and grab one after paying I go to pay for the bag and the worker tells me not to bother. Maybe because I show that I expect to pay for it rather than expect not to pay for it? Or maybe they're just less strict about it where I am.

TortoisePlayingMinecraft · 07/12/2023 13:18

I can understand your frustration. It seems petty to be so strident about something that was given away free not so long ago. Shops are very particular when it comes to legislation though. If I don't have enough bags I just throw stuff in the boot unbagged and deal with it when I get home. Hope your day is getting better now.

LondonLass91 · 07/12/2023 13:18

In Waitrose last week with a screaming toddler, the lady at the self checkout scanned all my things for me, gave me a bag for free (when I realised i had forgotten mine at the very end) and gave a lolly to my little girl. I bloody love Waitrose. Anyway OP, I'm mainly with you on this one, she could have turned a blind eye (but agree that she was just doing her job really).