Is it just me or is charging 50p for a paper bag at M&S food outrageous?

[sequin2000]

I know I should have brought a bag and I usually do. If the option was a plastic bag I would have struggled with the shopping in my arms to the car, but I thought as it was paper it wasn't so bad. What I didn't expect was to be charged 50p. M&S say the bag can be used 100 times. Is there anyone out there who has reused an M&S paper bag? AIBU in thinking most people don't realise they cost 50p, that the assistants should make this clear and that M&S are profiting from this government policy?

Take one with you.

Recyclable is neither here nor there - it should be reduce and reuse and only then recycle. Your paper bag has used loads of resources in producing it and that carries environmental impact.

The 60p is an incentive to reuse as much as you can and remember your own bag next time.

I agree with this. Why don’t they stop making the plastic bags and normalise paper ones.

The first time I was charged for a paper bag I was gobsmacked, but they all seem to be doing it now.

@sequin2000 - Completely agree! Although I haven’t paid for an M&S one, I paid 30p for a Boots paper bag (I think it was 30p!)
It was raining outside and by the time i’d got back to the car, the bag had ripped! It was totally useless
People stating ‘bring your own bags’ isn’t helpful… some days, I have 1000 things to think of and genuinely just forget, I have 5 bags in the car as well!

When I go abroad, I rarely buy souvenir type tat. I do however like to buy a bag for life from a supermarket. Currently rocking a Billa one. Judith Chalmers to play me.

They should have a pile of cardboard boxes for customers by the tills- I’m sure all supermarkets used to have this.

Wanting to avoid that stupid blueberries union jack is a bigger incentive to bring a shopping bag from home.

This is not just any paper carrier bag, this is an M&S paper carrier bag!!

It feels like you are doubling down when you are wrong. You got caught out and are in that 5% Carry a small fold up one in your handbag.

Speaking as someone who pops into M&S every weekend for a treat dinner, if you can afford to shop there, you can handle 50p for a bag. I keep bags in my car and bag, it’s not that hard.

I have an M&S paper bag languishing in my corner of doom (the messy pile of crap beside the sofa). DP asked me about 2 weeks ago if I wanted him to throw it in the recycling. ‘Oh no’ says I, ‘I am going to reuse it.’ But somehow … nah!

Awful things. So awkward to get into my handbag. I’m not great at origami. I prefer to scrunch up a plastic bag and manhandle it into my bag.

Didn’t notice it was 50p either.

My most middle class first world problem is that the design of the self checkout screens in M&S and Waitrose is similar-but-different enough that in Waitrose I always end up accidentally pressing “1” for the number of bags I have used because it is in the same place as “0” on the M&S screen.

Then I have to call an assistant over to cancel the £1 charge for a bag I haven’t got.

They're actually really good paper bags, I've reused them loads. What you need is one of those fabric bags that roll up inside themselves and close with a cord into a tiny bundle, I got mine from m&s and JL years ago. I have one in my handbag all the time, it means you're never without a bag for unexpected purchases.

I always carry one of those nylon shopper bags that fold up into a little pouch. However on a recent trip to M&S I picked up a white linen skirt. It fitted in with my groceries just fine, but being white I didn’t want it in among eg loose baking potatoes, and there was nothing to wrap it in besides a bag which I am sure cost 80p. (Scotland) I put it in that bag, inside my shopping bag I brought with me in my handbag, and felt grumpy.

That's outrageous! The whole point of charging was because plastic bags aren't recyclable.
Everything has gone too far now( grumpy old woman!)

It's purely a money-making scam. I remember one retailer who gave out free paper bags for as long as I can remember... as soon as the plastic bag charge came in, guess what they switched to? It was then plainly obvious to me that the charge had less to do with saving the planet and EVERYTHING to do with businesses lining their own pockets. Just wish they'd be honest about it!

I did this too!!

at my local M&S they’re 60p not 50p in the food hall. But the ones in the clothing section are cheaper. If I’ve forgotten a bag I go and buy a bag from the clothing bit….think they were 30p last time I got one so half the price!

Just take a bag. I have a small bag that folds up in to a little pouch that I keep in my handbang for unexpected shopping moments.

Everyone seems to have forgotten we were once trying to save the trees!
Admittedly we stupidly went to plastic instead but surely we still shouldn’t be chopping down trees to make endless free paper bags?! Not to mention the production, lorries getting them to the shops.. 50p isn’t enough
.

50p for a big paper bag? Bargain! Chop the handles off and you have the cheapest, most popular, cat toy entertainment system ever! We don't have an M&S near us and I rarely buy anything from Primark, but bought something from there quite recently and bought a large paper bag on purpose as a present for my foster cats! I was the best foster mum ever! 😂

You're supposed to find it outrageous. So that next time you remember your reusable bag!

I have one of those, they are brilliant. I think mine is a waitrose one, cost £1. much more durable and it can be washed in the machine if it gets grubby.

I also agree with the poster who buys reusable bags for life in foreign supermarkets. We have bags from all france, spain and portugal bought years ago.

I bought a pair of boots from M&S and they popped them in paper carrier bag.
Unfortunately it started to rain Which rendered the bag absolutely useless.

Recycling paper is better than single-use plastic, but if you look at the product’s journey from recycling bin through to a recycling centre, a paper mill, a bag factory, warehouse and finally the store, that still comes at a cost to the environment in terms of transport, huge water use and power, machinery and packaging to the store. Charging for the bag is therefore set at a level to put you off using one unless you really need to.