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?

I can't get that worked up about it. I.keep a proper shopping bag folded up in my handbag so if I do need something on the way home from work I can get it home without a paper bag disintegrating in the rain.

I love how some people will jump on every opportunity to be a smug twat. It’s a bag ffs. You always remember one. Well down. 👏🏻

Because then people won’t bother to bring their own, and we need to reduce single-use items. Paper bags still have a carbon footprint in their production and distribution.

It's not being a "smug twat". It's not remembering either - my wee fold up shopping bag is permanently in my handbag so I don't have to actively remember to take it, that's just where it is. And I have got into the habit of folding it up and putting it back in my bag when I get home.

If you don't want to do that then fine, but then you can't moan about being asked to pay for a paper/plastic bag.

It really annoys me this money grabbing initiative that all shops seem to do. The tax on bags was brought in as a government tax to reduce plastic. It did not go to the retailer it went to government and worked, now the majority of people bring their own bags and food shops no longer have throw away plastic bags. Now clothes retailers are starting to charge for paper bags for clothes!! Who brings their bag for life bags when clothes shopping? Plus this money is not a tax it is a retailer charging you for clothes and then the paper bag to hold them in. Complete piss take

I never pay for the paper bag in M&S, I just take one on the odd occasion I’m without a bag. Like others have said, they’re not better than a re-usable plastic bag in a number of ways. They go straight in the recycling when I get home, never re-use them.

It is a very simple equation. They charge, fewer people use the bags, they produce fewer bags (and potentially charge more?), fewer people use the bags...

in what way is that not a win for the environment?

“Who brings their bag for life bags when clothes shopping?”

I always take a couple of the fold up bags in my handbag when I go clothes shopping, so yes people do take their own bags.

Shop charges for product. Shock-horror!

The stores are simply taking advantage of the fact that people do not know how much these bags 'should' be, and will be prepared to pay anything if they've forgotten to bring a bag.

nope. The first law of economics is that the price of something is that which people are prepared to pay. (not really, but mostly true)

Paper bags are expensive to produce, use a LOT of resources and, depending on how they are printed/treated/coatings, can be a faff to recycle. Paper can generally be recycled 8-9 times (the fibres break up too much after that and fall through the filters)

Most of us here are parents. How did you teach your children things? repetition. And then eventually the lesson sits. Once you realise that over a year you have forked out 25 quid (around a bag a week - this is the internet, YMMV) you may remember to put bags in all pockets, handbags, glovecompartments.

I agree.
Charging for a paper bag will increase profits. Not hugely, but every little helps.

If I give my custom to a shop the least they can do is give me a paper bag to carry my purchases.

That's how shops work. There wouldn't be shops if they didn't make profit. If people want to pay what they "should" cost, they can buy their own bag factory.

It's a con. Even the 5p charge acted as a deterrent; usage dropped hugely after it came in. And I'd like the old style 5p bags back; they folded up tiny to reuse and were excellent bin liners. Modern bags for life just aren't as flexible.

And I say this as someone who was refusing bags and carrying around her own long before the ban.

All these simps siding with the big businesses. “Ooh I always remember my bag 🤓”

Me too. I think some are older than my DC!

I know right? How dare businesses try to make a profit.

Yeah you’re right. If there’s one thing the likes of Tesco and M&S are short on, it’s profits.

I agree with the high price of paper bags. 50p is annoying enough to make you remember to take your reusable bags with you when you go shopping! Instead of sticking to single-use products and thinking it's fine because they're recyclable, we should be using reusable products wherever possible.

You can grow your own shopping bags if you don't want to buy them.

"simp"? piffle

I have been aware of environmental issues about over consumption, depletion of resources and the coming water crisis since i was a young teenager in the 70s.

Luckily for me i live in a country where it has been normal practice for DECADES to bring your own bags, collapsible boxes etc to the supermarket for your shopping. It is fine to think "stuff the planet I WANT A FREE BAG" but, in the words of the ads, then you're part of the problem.

If more of us wanted to be part of the solution, "reduce, reuse and recycle" needs to be more of A Thing.

You know what the point of running a business is, right?

YANBU, but remember the metal basket things are free still.

I usually take my fabric bags which fold up very small, but if I had to pay 50p for a paper bag I'd be annoyed, particularly if it had the store's name on it! Now they charge for bags they should not expect people to walk about advertising for them ,the grabbing bastards!

The only way to actually motivate people to bring a bag is to have a high cost to purchase one imo. When they started at 5p it was totally pointless.

I thought everyone has a shelf, basket or whatever near the front door where ‘essentials I must not forget to take with me when I go out’ are kept…