People still buying bags when shopping

[Auburngal]

It's 8.5 years since the bag charges were introduced in England (Oct 4 2015) and longer for other parts of the UK. My friend's DS was born on that day and she has pointed out he was born on the same day bag charges were introduced in England and people are shocked.

Why do people still not come shopping without bags? See the same faces most days at work buying bags. "Left the bags in the car" - pack at the car then!

If people buy on average 10 bags at 30p each per week at supermarkets, shops like B&M, Poundland - that's £156 a year. People don't look at the price as a whole they think "its only 30p".

Then see people down my road using brand new carrier bags for rubbish. Bin bags are cheaper (per unit), bigger and able to tie them up properly.

Then my work is opposite a few other shops - see customers buy two items and buy a bag from us when they have room in another shop's bag they just purchased from. What's that about?

The number of times I have bought bags is in single figures. For example - buying a coat - none of the bags I had were big enough. Brought 2 bags with me and one broke - it wasn't the retailer's bag in question. So couldn't get the replacement free.

Please stop buying bags. Fold one up inside your handbag. I am ok with those who bought more than they intend and don't have room in their own bags they have brought with them.

Taking your own bags is a simple way to help with CoL.

What replacement free?

The reason they're called bags for life is that when one ultimately wears out you take it back to the same retailer and they replace it for free (ad infinitum), then in theory dispose of your old one responsibly.

Get a life, op

I'm sure you have cars, or use public transport, as my friend does?

Sorry, I wasn't aware that people don't have cars in the UK That's normally how people get their shopping home here, although people living near a supermarket often do walk.

For me it's an ADHD tax. I have just as many reusable bags in my bag hoarde. In any case, reusable bags have to be used hundreds of times to save any energy or resources. It's more environmentally friendly to use the biodegradable disposable bags they sell at the likes of the co-op.

Nope. The Bag for Life scheme ended years ago. The name stuck. Clever scheme to wean people off single use carriers.

i think it was Tesco that started it, with the promise that if you buy a carrier bag, you never need to buy a replacement when it breaks.

For at least 4 years now, certainly well before COVID, you don't get a "new for old" bag. You can recycle it but that's your lot!

Reducing plastic carrier bag dependency in UK is a massive Eco success story. It shows what can be achieved if the right steps are in place with supermarkets cooperating. The next challenge has to be single use plastics that are so damn unnecessary - why have broccoli in shrink wrap next to a big crate of unwrapped broccoli. Or cellophane wrapped carrots and parsnips next to loose. Grrr drives me mad.

Having carrier bags in the house is handy for other things too.....carrying muddy shoes, taking lunch to work, using it as a seat on a wet bench, to put used laundry in on holiday....the list is endless.

I like to have them. So when I go shopping, I buy them to put my shopping in, and then re-use as ai see fit.

I can't get worked up over whether other people keep buying bags tbh. But I vowed not to buy any more when they introduced the charge, not because we're particularly affected by COL or care much abiut plastic use, but I just begrudge paying it. I've bought loads of reusable nylon fold up bags and I carry one in a small handbag and another in my changing bag. If I'm planning a shopping trip I'll bring more with me, but I don't tend to buy that much in person these days as I get groceries delivered (without bags - I load them directly from the crates into big IKEA bags). I have ADHD and I have no problems remembering to bring them, they just live in the same bags that I always bring out with me.

You can still get replacement bags. Probably some retailers don’t tell their staff this.

Seen people juggle their shopping and drop something about a few minutes walk from the supermarket

Too forgetful to bring a bag? Too tight to buy a bag? Karma.

A few months back I was putting some delivery out. On the packaging of the individual packs ‘now in plastic free packaging’ Yet the case was wrapped in plastic 🙄🤦

Plastic does keep things longer.

@IloveAslan no I don't have a car. It's bus or train for me.
Although I am curious how you think my purchases get from shop to bus without me carrying them 🤔
Actually my supermarket shop I usually do as home delivery because I can't physically carry it all. It's my other shopping that I will need bags for - clothes, shoes, books etc. Purchases I want to be kept dry if it rains. So paper or fabric isn't always appropriate.

@abominablesnowman because customers get the arse with us if not offered

I always say do you 'Need' a bag today? It makes most people think especially as the car park is outside the door !

Sometimes I do forget my bags and buy some (I think I have a gold mine full of bags under the stairs)! However, I would prefer it if they stopped putting the charge and responsibility onto the consumer and they stop the supermarkets using so much packaging.

I just don’t pay for the bags 🤷‍♀️ nither do a majority of other people

I never carry a handbag, I pay with my phone for everything (haven't even looked at my card in well over a year) and just put my phone and keys in my zipped coat pocket when out.

When I am with my baby I have to carry a changing bag but I just use a small rucksack, I hated carrying about the big bulky one, felt like an overly eager year 7 on their first day at big school.

The green bio degradable bags the Co-op sell that can be used for food waste must blow your mind.

I forget them. I fully intend to bring them and it pisses me off when I don't, but I forget them probably 50% of the time. And I always think I should keep some in the boot, but I forget to put them back in there when I get home, too. (I don't really understand how people remember their bags every time... )

I don't carry a handbag unless I'm going out for the day, I just take keys, card wallet and phone in my pocket.

If I am going to the shops it is to buy things or I wouldn't be going so I have shopping bags in the car or if on foot my trusty Seasalt jute bag. I always take my jute bag when going round the shopping mall, I don't think I have ever not bought anything. Surely if you are going to the supermarket you must know you are buying grocery which will need transporting.

What is carrying a handbag got to do with anything, you can't fit groceries or clothes you might buy in a handbag unless it is absolutely huge.

I was just answering a previous poster who asked how people can go out without a handbag. I actually do take bags shopping with me as they live in the car.

The amount of things in the supermarket with unnecessary packaging irritates me more than people who buy bags. One supermarket (I think it's Morrisons) puts a long sticker around bananas. No one needs a label on a bunch of bananas. It might be recyclable but it's still a waste.

God mind your own business, feel like going to buy 100 bags for life now.

Completely agree, @IAmAnIdiot123 I think the rationale is they don't want people to split banana bunches so enforce a specific amount by bundling them with a label. A bit better than putting them in a plastic bag, which is even more heinous, and I refuse to buy on principle, but still wasteful when the majority of supermarkets sell bananas loose.

I didn't mean your post in particular @IAmAnIdiot123 , it just generally seemed to be that people that don't carry handbags don't use shopping bags when they are completely separate things for different uses.