to be really irritated with teh smugness of this woman?

[JackBauerKilledTheEasterBunny]

Was in well known booksellers and bought a large whiteboard thing that was halfway between A4 and A3 size.
-Do you want a bag?' Says the cashier lady.
-Yes please If I can, I don't have one big enough
-Well, all I have are black sacks, do you want that?
-Well, I really wanted something to hang off the buggy, hang on

-I suppose it will fit like that
-So you didn't need a bag then, don't you ever think about the environment?

Grrr, I would have reused a bag but I didn't want to have to shove it down the side of DD2 (was too wide to fit underneath), even less os if it was in a black sack.
Then, as we were outside trying to see i I could fit it anywhere else, I saw her handing shopping in a large bag to another customer!

yanbu

can't stand being lectured

i bet you would have recycled it

Actually i think she was rude rather than smug. It's not up to her to comment on whether you think about the environment. Cheeky mare
So no YANBU

I would have used it loads! I very rarely take bags but I didn't have any big enough to take this.
It's not as if I was buying magazines, I was in there yesterday buying a magazine and the same woman (I doubt she rememebered me) tried ot put leaflets with my magazines so I hadned them back and put them in the bottom of the buggy.
She just seemed really pleased to prove that I didn't really need a bag...although DD2 headbutted it for the next 30 minutes....

Cheeky mare.

I had this in M and S.

Unless people live entirely ethical, blameless lives, they have no business getting snotty at other people who they perceive as not being green enough. The plastic bag issue has been seized and embraced by a certain type of pious individual, who then gets rather high on their horse about it, and yet they don't question the areas of their consumption that cause far more detriment to the environment.

Case in point - I was reading posts on a local forum, where someone is trying to start a plastic bag free campaign in our area. This is a laudable enough endeavor, but her reasoning was that it's far easier to re-use plastic bags than to give up flying, which she feels is a really essential part of life. As if the two even compare.

So, no YANBU unreasonable, and woman in bookshop should mind her own business.

YANBU - rude person though...poor you

I think she was really rude. It is not in her place to lecture on on the environment. She is there to serve you, ask if you want a bag, give you one if you want one and not if you don't. Not give her opinion on the decision.
YANBU

YANBU - it is inappropriate to speak like this to a customer. I would send an e-mail to the shop's manager and also mention you've posted on a public forum.

was it Waterstone's ?

Not waterstones, WHS.
What annoyed me more was if she had said 'Are you sure you need a bag, that wouldn't have annoyed me at all.

DH has pointed out that I don't know if the other bag I saw would have fitted my thing, or if she got new stock, but still, last comment was uncalled for I think.

"Don't you ever mind your own business?" would have been my retort back to her.
Cheeky bitch. YANBU.
Complain to the shop manager.
We let rude shop assistants get away with far too much in thsi country.

Oh to be there after the fact
I have to go past again tomorrow so I might pop in and have a word about their plastic bag policy!

It makes me so that customers are being preached to by the businesses which buy, brand and provide the bloody plastic bags in the first place!

I got pissed off when I was lectured to by a greengrocer in Bridport. Given that he made his living in part through selling flown-in beans from Kenya it seemed a little hypocritical. (To add insult to injury, the only reason I hadn't got a reusable bag with me was because we were on a holiday and I'd used my entire collection on the extra bits of holiday packing that didn't fit in our suitcases.)
People really think they are saving the world by not using plastic bags, even if they don't do anything else whatever.

But some shops don't understand that sometimes I want plastic bags! I always like to have one in case DD's get muddy or have an accident as they are bigger than a nappy sack and can fit whole outfits in.
I keep 4 in teh car for muddy buggy wheels to go in.
I keep a few in teh hosue for muddy boots to be trasnported in.
But when they wear through and I go to get some more I get such hassle now!

YANBU - rude cowbag

You could have made a whole in the black sack to hook over the handle...

hole

I could but I figured they were desperate for bags or soemthing. And if it was a cheapy one it would have split anyway.
I didn't want a black bag, I wanted a nice one with proper handles!

I used to work in WHS. One day we ran out of large bags so my colleage went next door to get some from Woolies. We got really told off for that, apparently we should have used black bags instead!

WHS are silly anyway, they charge 1p for their bags. Unlike M&S where it's a bit of a pain to spend the extra 5p for a bag, it actually makes it easier as everything in WHS is -.99 anyway!