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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to resent having to ask for carrier bags now in Tesco?

231 replies

Ewemoo · 08/08/2008 21:13

Our local Tesco has stopped supplying carrier bags at the checkouts and you now have to ask for them. The problem is I can't help but ask for the bags in a really grumpy and pissed off way. Why should I have to ask for bags like I've committed a heinous crime by failing to bring my own. I understand the idea behind it and I do my bit by recycling all my carrier bags. Why don't Tesco do their bit by reducing plastic packaging instead? I know that truthfully I abu but for some reason it really really annoys me.

OP posts:
nappyaddict · 13/08/2008 14:23

how did you put the rubbish out for the dustbin people to collect if there was no bags? i imagining people just leaving their rubbish on the pavement

Lucifera · 13/08/2008 14:25

We put the bins out. The dustmen (modern-day translation: refuse collectors) picked them up and tipped the contents into the dustcart.

nappyaddict · 13/08/2008 15:48

oh yes i think i remember what the bins were like now. we used to have them before wheely bins came about. we didn't use them though cos they were too small to fit all our rubbish in and always ended up with extra bags. what would you do in that situation with no bin bags?

expatinscotland · 13/08/2008 15:51

Then get this.

Kitty, I lived without a car for YEARS. We only have one now because we live in the sticks and even now I don't have it if DH has to work an odd shift.

I don't see the reason why you need carrier bags if you don't drive.

What do you think people did before they even had those bags at all in the not to distant past?

nappyaddict · 13/08/2008 16:01

that's really cheap for lakeland.

3andnomore · 13/08/2008 16:12

expat...kitty said that she had tried a trolley, but the way she has to take to the shops is to bumpy...so, that trolley that you linked to, would probably not fare any better.....maybe they should make All-Terrain trolleys...

tbh though...I find, if I have to carry bags, then those foldable clothbags are much nicer to my hands then Plasticbags, that dig into my palms....

stillstanding · 13/08/2008 16:21

I support M&S's policy of charging people for bags. Think it is an excellent idea - and one that we are very much behind the times on. Other countries have been doing this for years.

Fact is that 99% of people (including myself ) only really get on board when it affects them personally. If you have to pay for a bag you are likely to try harder to remember to bring it next time. Simple as.

Am also very supportive of penalties for not recycling (and again I say this as someone who has not been exemplary in her recycling habits to date). Why should you NOT be penalised for not recycling?

expatinscotland · 13/08/2008 16:22

3and, I take that trundle on picnics and it spends most of its time off the pavement on all sorts of terrain.

does just fine.

3andnomore · 13/08/2008 16:28

sounds good...saying that my Ikea trolley was fine on sand and grass and pavement so far...so, is pretty much all terrain, I suppose...I was just saying that Kitty felt her Trolley didn't cope well with the terrain....

expatinscotland · 13/08/2008 16:29

so the IKEA one is good, too?

good to know!

that lakeland one's gone all sorts of places.

expatinscotland · 13/08/2008 16:29

so the IKEA one is good, too?

good to know!

that lakeland one's gone all sorts of places.

3andnomore · 13/08/2008 16:35

yes...and it looks really nice, too
Well, I think so...they had 3 designs...2 brightly coloured flowery ones, one in blue/torquoise (sp?) and the one I have is black with a white flowerdesign....and cheap they are, too

expatinscotland · 13/08/2008 16:36

my old regular trolley finally bit the dust.

i'll need to make an IKEA run .

3andnomore · 13/08/2008 16:44

if you scroll right down you can see teh trolley that I have got

kittycats · 14/08/2008 09:26

You are still not understanding me, if i finish work early or if one of my kids phones me at work to say nothing for tea,cat eaten what was for tea(which happens alot lately) etc i have to go to supermarket on my way home from work.(i walk past it) i cant take a trolly to work every day just in case.Also sometimes while in the supermarket picking up something for tea if ive not got much time to shop the rest of the week i think i might as well get food for rest of week which i cant if i dont have bags etc.
I dont always know what days im going to be not working as i can get called into work at short notice and asked to work late.
A lot of the time its spur of the moment shopping cause its the only way i can fit it in to my week.
Car drivers can just put the shopping in the boot of their car's and drive away(a work college does this when she has forgotten bags) people who walk have to have bags!

mamadiva · 14/08/2008 09:42

I don't drive and I can't use carrier bags they are so uncomfortable to carry and you need twice the amount of them as you do cloth bags. I'm not one for trendy handbags I must say so I use the big boots bag for out and about and little fold up bags from Claires, they are no bigger than a mobile phone so are easy to carry around and they clip onto your keys or zipper on bag. No excuse not to carry as far as I'm concerned.

Don't think I'd be brave enough to walk around with a trolley although I'd love to say I would but I know I couldn't.

Bumdiddley · 14/08/2008 09:51

kittycats - me too. Dh and I are not going to wander around with bags in a bag or on the pram.

The pram is full of spare clothes/ wipes and other crap you lug around when you're potty training.

And, hell, dh is never going to haul around the bags for life hemp jobbies the supermarkets give out.

I also resent being preached at by car drivers

3andnomore · 14/08/2008 09:54

mamadiva, if you have a funky trolley, then there is no bravery about it
Admittedly, where I live a lot of people that aren't in retiring age use trolleys....possibly due to the fact, that it is a smallish low income town, and a lot of people don't have cars but have big families, and so many shops are in walking distance for pretty much everyone.

Kitty, there are definately plenty of smallfolding bags that you could stuff for those spur of the moment events in a biggish handbag that you then carry around anyway....and honestly, they do carry much better then those awful plasticbags

mamadiva · 14/08/2008 10:02

Bumdiddley it's not just car drivers preaching... It's me too I don't drive and the shops are 2 miles from me, my DS is 2YO and I go to work but I still chuck a few of those little bags in. They really are better to use much comfier and hold alot more, so you don't need as many.

3andnomore am debating the idea of the trolley but still LOL no one here uses them so would stand out. Have only lived here for 2 years as it is never mind making myself more 'strange' to this small town LOL .

I onw 4 carrier bags and they are Tesco bags for life and I've had them for almost a year now I think I only bought them because I ran out of space in my big bags and didn't want to use those other god awful bags!!! I have bought mpre reusables now thouh.

mamadiva · 14/08/2008 10:04

Also re bin bags does anyone know of you have to use them? I was thinking of ditching them and just putting stuff staright into the big bin outside as it gets cleaned every time it gets emptied anyway.

ruddynorah · 14/08/2008 10:08

it hasn't been a nightmare in the m&s i work in. i guess it comes down to how well the idea has been explained to you so you feel comfortable dealing with customers about it. rather like when the refund policy was changed from infinity to 90 days

3andnomore · 14/08/2008 10:10

mamadiva, not sure if you have to use them...but what we did at one point was, to jusst use one of those huge wheeliebin bags in teh wheeliebing directly and just chuck our rubbish straight into it....so, at least it was then 1 bag instead of 4 or 5.....not sure if you would consider that...or you might already be dong that....

thinking about it, I don't think you have to use it.....

Bumdiddley · 14/08/2008 10:10

mamadive - I would think so. Bin men are unlikely to want to scoop out the stuck on crap from the bottom of your bin and you might get an FPN

Is it a wheelie bin?

Anyway, I'm also annoyed about how plastic bags seem to be eco demon de jour....

3andnomore · 14/08/2008 10:12

what is wrong with clothbags...what is "embaressing" about using them.....it's a perfect case of social conditioning, I think....because, people are just not used seeing it over here...but....I think that is about to change

Bumdiddley · 14/08/2008 10:16

I meant mamadiva not dive