I am furious at retailer hiding plastic bags

[fari2014]

I am not sure if I can name the discount retailer. I have always found it odd that many branches of this retailer I shop in always have no plastic bags for sale. They always pushing their £1 bags. This happened in all 4 of their branches I shop in. Now I have discovered stores hide the plastic bags and tell customers plastic bags sold out to push £1 bags as all stores have a target of £1 bags they have to sell.

I have brought £1 bags myself sometimes as I have forgotten my bags. I am furious, it's bad enough they put the price of plastic bags up to 30p recently but to hide them in the cost of living and punish shoppers who may have forgotten their bags is disgusting. I threatened to complain to head office and the sales assistant told me head office staff encourage it. Apparently head office said they have to hit the target by any means necessary. Has anyone else experienced this? Can I name the retailer here?

alternatively hold on to your rubbish until you find to a bin to dispose of it

What wet/dirty things would you carry around with you? I’m sure there could be alternatives to single use plastic bags.

Humans take ages to opt in to changes. Saving our oceans will take a good while and a lot of inconvenience to your general shopper. Getting a convenient plastic bag at the till is learnt behaviour.

They could give single use compostable ones. The type that decompose after a use. Aren't they made from cellulose? I think they are edible.

Plastic just shouldn't be a choice at all, even for bags for life. Hessian or cotton maybe is a good alternative.

Yeah they do it here too.

Yeah just drive around with a car full of bags OP. That's how to save the planet.

I get you fwiw. This whole bag thing has become a massive pita not to mention a money making exercise. If you drive to the shop and spend more than you've planned it's fine but if you walk there and give up more of your hard earned then they charge you extra to carry it home.

I always steal a bunch when I go through self service checkouts. I know I'm far from alone as I see other people do so too. All the figures put out by retailers about reduced bag sales ... I'd be interested to know how many bags they're still producing.

A lot of these green initiatives are poorly thought through imo. Eg LED lights might save 0.01% of global carbon output but they disrupt vision for pedestrians and cyclists and stop birds from sleeping so they die quicker than they would otherwise, taking plastic lids off pots of food means it spoils quicker so there's more waste etc.

But if anyone expresses a negative viewpoint about it they're some kind of entitled planet destroying satan, which I guess is handy, because while we're all at each others' throats giving off about "plastic tat" we will completely fail to demand better from the corporations that pump literal shit into our rivers and seas and the diamond and gold houses that only exist at all because children scrabble in chemically decimated hellscapes owned by murderers to collect the bare scraps of minerals we deem precious and so it will all continue. Forever, probably.

I live where plastic bags have been banned, it was a PITA but you get used to it. I have a tiny fold up one that fits in my handbag, or take a couple with me if I know I'm going out (because I don't want to buy one, which you can). You get used to it, and even though I thought it was dumb I now think it was a good idea. Less plastic bags in landfills for a minor inconvenience (if you haven't planned or been organised enough). It's not even a big deal now.

Totally this. Get over it.

Furious! Disgusting! Disappointed! Just remember a shopping bag when you’re going shopping. Possibly a paper one to breathe into.

@itswednesdayy

alternatively hold on to your rubbish until you find to a bin to dispose of it

kitchen bins?!?!

welly boots, kids outdoor gear, muddy trainers, kayaking kit... all kinds of things.

things for other kids to take home.

carier bags were not single use.

I'm happy to take shopping bags, use bags for life etc etc, but carrier bags had uses that we now need to buy bags for, so it's not as simple as banning things

Tbh I find it rather backwards that the UK still has plastic bags. It's not hard to carry bags, you can get tiny fold up ones that fit in a purse.

Football boots. Swimming stuff. Wet dirty clothes. To start with.

I'm sure you'll figure something out, I have

Good for you.

I just use a plastic bag.

We haven't had plastic bags for a good couple of years where I work.

If you think staff are being deliberately deceptive, ask for manager next time.

Have to say, I'd rather not use plastic bags myself, so always have at least a small reusable one on me, and if going to town centre, take more - just pick them up alongside your keys and phone. DH makes sure there's always a couple of bags in the car, so that's a good habit as well if you use car for town shopping.

Just use the bags for life for swimming kits etc or those drawstring plasticky bags you used to get

I understand it's only a minor thing and everyone is still polluting etc

Those ocean saver dissolvable things for cleaning products are good too

You can reuse single use plastic carrier bags. My walking boots are in the boot of the car in a white Sainsbury’s bag with the old logo, it’s ancient. There’s no need for new single use bags for carrying around wet/dirty stuff – just use what already exists in the world.

Exactly, they all hang out in your cupboards

And their £1 bags are shit! I’ve had a few and each one has split…

I stand by what I say. I always keep a small foldable one in my handbag and several cotton ones in another bag. I don’t drive so use and old fashioned shopping trolley so good for the environment. Carrying spare bags around in the car is not bad for the environment especially if they are linen or bags for life it is just being organised.

Don’t these go into your kit/gym bag?

I guessed from your first post that this was going to be about Poundland.

I live in Ireland and Poundland is called Dealz here but I also shop there a lot, they stopped stocking plastic bags around 2 years ago...it can be irritating when you forget your bags but I just accept that I should be better at bringing my own bags.

Sometimes I convince myself I don't need a bag and walk out of the shop with stuff sticking out of every pocket and my arms piled high, dropping stuff every 100m for the entire 10 minute walk home.

I knew it was going to be Poundland.... utter bastards!! There's never any plastic bags in ours.

Also feel it's due a name change as there's nothing in there that costs £1 anymore.

The plastic bags are 30p and reusable. I rather get 3 bags for 90p then pay £1 for their strong bag.

As for it's Poundlands right to refuse selling plastic bags, that's poor customer service. It's a discount retailer who shouldn't be doing this. They will loose many customers if they completely stopped selling plastic bags. It's poor customer service to hide plastic bags and tell customers they don't have any. Poundland should instead abolish their targets on selling £1 bags.

As for people saying how hard is it to take bags with you. We as humans sometimes do forget to take bags and sometimes we don't take enough bags and I rather pay for reusable plastic bag then their £1 bags which are also plastic, just a bit stronger.

Anyhow, I am making an official complaint to head office as many people have replied that their Poundland stores dont sell any either which means they are hiding them as well. It's not right forcing people to pay for a £1 plastic bag rather then a 30p bag. Will update once I get a reply from head office.

What exactly is an official complaint? I mean as opposed to a normal complaint. I've often wondered why people use this phrase ( bit off topic I realise)

No. They go in my plastic bag