Re-using carrier bags at shops : Your experiences ?

[frecklyspeckly]

I am just wondering really. I have been trying to re-use bags as much as possible but it's rather hard. At my supermarket I find they throw the shopping down the belt so fast it actually all piles up and the assistant/ other shoppers glare at me pitifully / impatiently as i flap around with my tatty ole bags. Seems to take much longer than peeling new plastic ones off the holder. (Which I try not to do) . Makes me feel like I am bringing the whole shop to a standstill! Plus they hardly ever add green clubcardpoint unless I ask for them. Yesterday lady came out of her cubicle to add up how many bags I had re - used, in case i was telling porkies. There were clearly six.I had told her that, but oh no, she stood and glared at them like I had asked her to work out a trickly long division question!!! Plus whilst I was frantically trying to pack she had wrapped a lot of things like fish into more smaller plastic. Fish, in plastic, then in a plastic bag, then into my re-usable bags!! got me mad and i wondered if anyone else doesnt feel very helped out by the supermarkets when they try and re - use bags?

ABsolutely, it drives me bonkers. I try to go a week without a single plastic bag and fail because shop assistants love them so much! Even with online shopping with no bags (as tonight) we got 4 plastic ones. Better than the 25 I used to have.
I have to be really quick and say hi, I've got my own bag or they glare at you when you want to take things out again (which I do, just to make the point). I also say in an annoyingly perky voice 'just doing my bit for the environment'! My onya bag usually gets lots of attention and comments, I love it!

You want to get a baggy for your bags - Sainsburys sell them - they are cotton bags with a whole in the bottom, you hang them on your trolley then you pull out one carrier at a time and they don't get all squished. As far as inconveniencing other shoppers, ignore them, if they are so wasteful.

I get really narked when they pack prepacked potatos into another bag without asking because you don't! They tried to pack a 12 pack of loo rolls for me the other day - FFS - it's in a PLASTIC BAG WITH A HANDLE ALREADY

I find my local shops are very pro bring your own bags. They always ask before giving you a bag, even if you look like you obviously haven't got one with you. I have a few 'bags for life' that I keep in the car and am getting better at remembering to use them! I also buy loose vegetables, eg today I bought one parsnip and two courgettes, and nobody tried to put them into bags for me.

They are rubbish.
I bought cotton bags 15 odd years ago in Germany and have used them ever since. Rarely see anyone else using their own bags.
Shop assistants often ask "are you sure?" or look at me with a quizical "really?" when I give them back plastic bags and dump my shopping in the pram basket.
Co-op are the only ones who seem to be actively doing anything about it - their carrier bags have been degradeable in 18 months or something for a while now. And they have nice sensibly priced cotton bags for sale.

I always take my own bags. If I leave them in the car I just put the stuff back in the trolley and lob it into the bags in the boot.
Have some big 40p reuseables from Tescos. They have been going strong for months now.
I must confess to HAVING to use one at the weekend as I was in someone elses car and I felt very guilty

I get a sad kick out of packing my stuff at the checkout in to a rival's shop's plastic bags.

I try to remember to take them and at my local Sainsbury the staff always seem pleased when I re-use. I have never had any bad vibes from staff or customers about re-using, even when I once took Sainsbury bags to Waitrose.

God I'm sad

have not found it a problem at all, i take about half a dozen big jute bags, am going to treat myself to some lovely organic cotton string ones..... never been a rpbolem, always get green clubcard points. before they get the bags out., i say, i don;t need any bags thank you... never a problem at any of hte supermarkets or local shops i go to. if i forget my reusable bags, and have to use plastic, i recycle the plastic ones

Never experienced anything negative. In fact they seem pleased.

Use a BIG rucksack instead, much quicker but must be very organised about the order of your shopping to avoid certain items getting squashed.

I use rigid-ish canvas bags with wooden handles - once shopping is on belt I line up the bags open in the trolley so the food goes straight from till into trolley, if that makes sense

if not buying much I say I don;t need a bag and chuck it all in the pram basket

aldi and lidl welcome you reusing bags.. always have done

Well Frecklyspeckly, I live in Ireland where you get glared at if you ask for new bags. Everyone stops what they're doing to look at you, searching for other confirmatory signs of your slovenly disorganized nature. So cant sympathise with that, OTOH the bit where your stuff is flung out towards you so fast you couldnt even catch it if you stood there with a big net, that happens here too. I have my own deeply irritating way of dealing with that. I just take my time packing. I carefully separate refridgerator stuff from baby stuff from eat in the car stuff (ahem.) And everyone waits and watches. And only when the last bag is packed to my satisfaction, do I then hand over my bank card. Cos they cant really kick you out till youve paid.

I started doing that after I hit my 4 month old baby on the head with a can of tomatoes in LIDL when I had her in a sling and the assistant was being so evil with the speed. Fortunately she was fine, but I will not let myself be rushed again in that 'oh Im such a shuffling hindrance let me damage my baby in my haste to get my disgraceful self out of your store' way .

Last time I did my slow packing number the assistant just sat back and read the paper I had bought! Be eating my food next, I thought.

I have no problem with taking my own bags to the supermarket (and other shops). I just tell the person on the till I've got my own bags thanks and don't need any help with packing.

This is such an important issue I don't think we should be afraid to set a good example in supermarkets, not just to the staff there but to other shoppers.

If enough of us do it the message will get through eventually.

I use the big canvas/jute bags for the supermarket stuff as they do hold open better and let you get the stuff in quickly.

For other stuff I have an assortment of cotton bags (fold up easily into my handbag) that I pull out whilst in the queue.

Round here theres loads of people who take their own bags, and a couple of places have started bag free initiatives.

Have been trained up in this as my mother wouldn't know a plastic bag if you hit her with it !

I use the blue IKEA bags - can get a week's shopping in two of them and makes packing so much quicker!

I take a load of Ikea bags, although can never find room for them and my shoppinfg in the trolley.
Do find in Sainsbury by the time I have put my shoppin gon the one end it is piling up at the other and it is a faff getting ti packed.
Aldi is much easier as I chuck it all back in th trolley and then pack it on the benches properly.
Things will change eventually i am sure...

Mrs Curly-
Nah- you're not sad...

They comment on that where I come from- try to give us their own bag.... but we willfully resist and it gives us pleasure

Mrs Curly -
I love putting my sainsburys shopping in the indestructible big bags you get from Netto or Aldi for about 8p each. They last forever then when they are done I turn them inside out and use them for parcelling up ebay items!

i separate all goodies into freezer/fridge/ baby/ etc etc, then open and line up me bags at the packing end and kinda take my time but not too slowly.
Some people look at me oddly cos' i'm a
young(ish)'un re-using bags.

This has not reached Spain unfortunately, so I get the full on stare and shock when I bring out my big isothermic bag plus a few extra plastics. I always say ' just doing my bit for the environment!' but, do have to go super super fast to get everything into one of my bags before the cashier starts plucking new ones and packing my shopping.

I have had two bad experiences, when shops didn't let me use the competition's bags. Needless to say, I haven't gone back there, and in one I made an official complaint. Didn't get me anywhere, but I felt better.

It makes me grrr, especially as originally I am from near Modbury, which is the first town in the UK to ban totally all plastic bags. If you go to the butcher there, your meat will be packed in bags made from potato starch, and everyone walks around with baskets or cloth bags.

But, my local greengrocer is seriously behind me, and makes a point of mentioning to all the people in the queue behind me what I'm doing to help the environment, and how they should all copy me!

woww chica what acoup...

It's funny 'cos some places ineurope you have to pay for each bag- is it Frnce or taly? And that really makes people bring their own.

truning ioto smone clled doc or cod or somethinf who cant type

I made a complaint in Toys'r'us on the one and only visit I'll ever be making there.

The made me leave my jute shopping bags at the security desk, so when I was waiting to pay I asked the till person to send someone to get them for me.

It held up the ques no end, but gave me time to give the manager a piece of my mind!