I was today years old when I realised bags for life were bags for life 🤯

[BargainBagger11]

Honestly, I just found out that if your bag for life gets damaged, you can take it back to the supermarket, and they’ll replace it for free! I always thought "bag for life" was just a fancy way of saying "sturdier plastic bag" but no—it's literally for life. How did I not know this?! Have I been throwing them away like an absolute fool all these years?! 😩
Please tell me I'm not the only one who only just figured this out...

I was today years old is a phrase I have only ever heard on here. I saw it in the thread title and rushed in to see what had been learned. Surely if you don’t have that that reaction there are plenty of other threads for you.
I did know about this and used to use it but now have so many of the damn things I am actually secretly glad when they give up and die on me.

You are clearly not a Lidl shopper 😀 it actually does say it on the bag. I'm fairly sure Tesco ones do too

Where do you buy a bag for life that isn't emblazoned with the name of the supermarket?

I can't think of one that sells them, that's marketing craziness

I did know you could swap them, it was a selling point when they first started

My mother always used to ask me if she was allowed to use a Tesco bag in Lidl or an Asda bag in the Co-op etc.

Every single time we went anywhere.

Unfortunately it's not necessarily true. I remember trying to swap one of the more rigid ones in morrisons once and they said that they couldn't because they didn't stock them anymore. Later found out that quite a few of the shops would change the bag sizes occasionally and they wouldn't give you the different sized bags. Not sure if they got pulled up on this as it was about 8 years ago that this happened, but we stopped asking at that point. We use ours for laundry as well so they get used until they are absolute threads!

Well I have about eleventy billion B4Ls ☺️😘

I thought you were supposed to fill in as appropriate: 'I was today 46 years old'

I agree. I'm sure when the sturdy bags came in (approx 25yrs ago) that sainsburys would replace worn out ones.

I tried to do it a couple of years ago and the woman in sainsburys totally dismissed me and looked at me like I was mental.

No - it started as "I didn't realise this until I was 30, everyone should know"

"I didn't know that until I was 40 so you're right OP, everyone should know!"

"My life would have been so different if I had realised this at a younger age. I was 25 but still old enough".

Then follows loads of people responding how old they were when they realised some sage piece of wisdom.

Or it might be a thread like "How old were you when you learnt to tie shoelaces?"

Cue lots of responses of "Six" "Ten" "64 minutes old" "No idea but my first lace up shoes were these memorable ones blah blah" "I was 20!!" "I couldn't do it for ages until someone showed me the bunny method" etc.

Then someone posts as a joke "Today. I just learned this today. I was today years old."

It's half to hide your age because you're embarrassed at how old you are having not realised. And it's half as a joke to say that this internet thread has taught me the thing everyone apparently already knew.

But like most memes it has become a bit overused and lost the humour of the original moment.

@Manchesterbythesea I don’t think that Supervalu replace them for free now?

If the stitching comes undone on the thicker plastic bags, you can easily re-sew the edges with a standard sewing machine, universal needle and ordinary polyester thread. I’ve repaired a few that way although I make a lot of Tote style shopping bags from donated curtain fabric. Our sewing group made quite a few to sell at the local farmers market in support of the local animal charity.

Shops that sell made to measure curtains will often donate their hanging fabric samples at the end of each season, otherwise they just dump them. It’s a good way to get hold of free fabric for beginners sewing classes to practise with.