to think M & S should have swopped a carrier bag

[scaredoflove]

I was in M & S today, I bought jeans and sweater, a sandwich and packet of crips

I put the food into my handbag and refused the tiny free lime green carrier bag as I didn't need it

The jeans and jumper were put into the biggest dark green plastic bag I have ever seen and the checkout had run out of smaller ones

So I said, just stick it them in a larger lime green food carrier...'oh no, we can't do that, you will have to pay 5p for that carrier'

So they will happily give me a free enormous plastic bag but not a smaller food bag unless I pay for it

Anyone else find that bizarre??

I went to another till and got a small dark green one in the end

and before anyone has a go....I usually have my trolley dolly with me but my car and trolley dolly got taken to the garage this morning unexpectedly

I find that I still manage to "acquire" enough plastic bads (or at least dh does ) to work as bin liners - even if I end up using M7S "clothing" plastic bags

I carry an M&S Bag for life folded up in my handbag and the boot of my car has loads of heavy duty plastic bags for my big supermarket shops.

If ever do get to the stage of running out of plastic bags for bin liners, I've decided I'm going to try not using any bin liner at all. The kitchen bin has a removable inner bucket: I can jsut take that down to the bin and tip it in and if necessary, swish out the bucket with some water and dry it off.

Most veggy waste goes in the compst bins anyway.

It has taken me a while to get used to it but I now have a couple of bags for life in my handbag and some more in my car and I rarely have to use a carrier bag. So good on you M&S for forcing me to become more 'green'.

Anyone participating in the World Earth Day black out on Saturday. I am going out for dinner but wouldn't mind eating my Thai by candle light!!

My weird one in M&S was when I had some food and some baby socks and went to the food checkout with the lot.

She said would you like a bag I said no I've got one and waved it around a bit.

She put the food through and I packed it and then put the baby socks in a huge bag.

I said "um I have a bag" quizically.

She said "oh yes but this is clothes".

Eh?

Really didn't understand that.

"Also - do the people who reuse bags now buy bin liners? How is that better?"

That is a very good question

What a jobsworth knob you came across. How bizarre and stupid.

Shop staff can be appalling, it's true. I take my own 'envirosax' bag everywhere I go, it's a very bright and stylish bag made from nylon.

Even when I wave it in their faces and repeat 'I don't need a bag thanks' it's af if they can't understand the concept, and sometimes I have to physically stop them from packing my food into a carrier.

Or they say 'Ok, that's no problem' as if granting me a favour!!!

Highly recommended, very stylish, weightless and take up zero space in your handbag:

www.reusablebags.com/store/envirosax-c-65.html?gclid=CKuGrcKJvJkCFQ9_ZgodRjZs6w

Having said that, having worked on the till in shops myself you do go onto "autopilot". I have just rememered a time when I was 16 working in smiths - when people bought newspapers they never wanted the receipt so it was a real habit to take it off the till and into the bin. Of course one day a man did want his receipt - "where's my receipt" - "um in the bin "

I suppose one does tend to take ones brain off the latch when on a checkout, understandably so...

Has anyone else noticed that they have taken away the plastic bags at the self service checkouts? They have at the one near me anyway.

My DH told me to post this lol

He works for a company that makes the 'to go' food range for M&S.

They are made for people on the go to have a quick 'on the go' lunch...

They do not come with any plastic ware...are you suppose to carry your own spoon at all times??

When he suggested that they put a spoon or fork with the meal, M&S told him no...

Has anyone noticed this and are they annoyed?

Instead they charge you about 5-10p for your spoon...

How ignorant! FFS

Been a while since I've been M&S in lunch break but they always used to have loads of plastic utensils in big baskets where I was...

And they had some the other day come to think of it (different branch).

Are they really supposed to charge for them now? I'm very surprised.... I think that will hit their trade in places like Canary Wharf (where I used to work) as most of their trade is lunches...

The reason they give you a bag for clothes is that if you reuse a bag you risk dirtying/staining your clothes. I mean, I wouldn't want to put a dress in a plastic bag which I've previously carried, meat, bleach, etc in. Would you? But they are usually happy to let you put clothing into another 'clean' shopping bag, ie if you had already bought something in another clothing shop or something.

Ineed lots of bags for dog poo, so if I don't get free carriers I have to buy them. I don't think I should have to buy dog poo bags when I spend well over £5k pa on groceries so I always ask for lots of bags and explain why - it is nothing to do with environmental issues and everything to do with saving themselves money.

I take all my own bags now but it means that I don't have them for the 101 things I used to use them for and I have to buy pedal bin liners.

That's just it sadmarg - I would. I did want to put the socks in the same bag as the food. I didn't realise I was breaking an unwritten rule about what needs a "fresh" bag and what can go in a "reused" bag.

Here in Ireland we have had to pay for placcy bags for years now - at 22 cent a bag you soon get into the habit of recycling them. Its been a fantastic success, plastic bag consumption has gone down over 90 % and everyone carries cloth bags, recycles plastic bags, or pays up! And of course we still use bin bags, but the grand total of plastic bag use is reduced massively, which is a good thing surely?

Agree with glastocat. It's been a great success in Ireland. M&S seem to be copying the model used here and should be applauded. Don't know why the british government don't act and enforce it everywhere.

glastocat is that all plastic bags or just food ones?

Its all plastic bags. Also, can I point out that paper bags are pretty rubbish in a wet climate like Ireland or the UK. They have a nasty habit of disintregating . Cloth bags are far superior, and once you have invested in a few you can keep them handy for whenever needed. When they brought in the new plastic bag rules here most shops were delighted to hand out a free cloth bag, or charged a nominal fee - I think the plain Lidl ones were 39c. I still have loads which I re-use daily.

Sounds like a good plan to me.

I think that there would be a lot of opposition to it though.

But what about all the plastic packaging all over the food in the first place?

It's all related to our shopping habits though. People want to shop at supermarkets where things are sourced and delivered in bulk. The average consumer is not used to, and will not, buy goods that look damaged or foxed.

They surround it in packaging so that it arrives on the shelves in a state that means the appearance driven consumer will happily buy it.

Last week in the shop the pizza I liked only had one left - the box was slightly torn. The plastic was intact, it was obviously fine, but it had been left as no-one wanted a "damaged" one. I am guilty of it myself with fruit n veg...

If we want them to have less packaged food we have to, en masse, be prepared to buy it. Which might mean accepting that things sometimes get a little foxed in transport etc.

Think yourselves lucky you've got an m&s - my local one shut last week - damn recession!

BoffinMum what about it? Thats another problem surely? Using fewer plastic bags is a good start though.

Well I was just thinking even in a sueprmarket situation it's relatively easy to choose individuals fruits and vegetables and put them in paper bags for weighing; have waxed cardboard cartons for yoghurt and milk; wrap bread in a piece of waxed paper; serve cheese and cooked meats in waxed paper with a picture on the front; offer things like sugar in paper packages, and so on. I am baffled as to why everything has to be smothered in plastic the whole time.

Boffin is it because it's cheap, durable and impermeable? A lot of foods are packaged with inert gases to prolong shelf life I think?

eg crsips are packaged with an inert gas and the bags pumped up to stop the crisps getting crushed. yes it's a total waste but unfortunately the consumer demands their crisps uncrushed.

we would need to go back to a high street shop grocer/greengrocer/butcher etc to return to more traditional packaging techniques probably.

People are also used to seeing what they're buying so as to choose the "best" one - which is fine on the deli counters etc but the ham etc on the pre-packed counters is usually packed so you can see it.

Remember the business with brown milk bottles? Where they reckoned the vit c didn't degrade so much on the doorstep with a darkened bottle but people wouldn't buy it for visual reasons. Or maybe that is a myth