Carrier bag charges.

[Kattylove]

What do you guys think about this? I work in a big chain store part-time and we've just started charging 1p per bag - and I can tell you, it's been the stressiest couple of shifts of my working life so far. People just hate it. Well, you know what? I hate their moaning.

 

[MarcusHill]

I think it's a great idea. They've been doing it (I think) in Ireland for a while. I always try to remember to take my reusable bags whenever I go shopping. This is helped by the irksome fact that one of the things my local council won't take from my home to recycle is plastic carrier bags!

 

[GreenMunchkin]

This is helped by the irksome fact that one of the things my local council won't take from my home to recycle is plastic carrier bags!

Why ever not??

 

[Celtic Dreamer]

I do recycle my bags, but I object to having to pay for new ones when they wear out.

 

[Cjwinnit]

I dislike it. Where am I going to get my free binbags from now?

 

[MarcusHill]

Why ever not??

I don't know. All the supermarkets have recycling points for carrier bags, but that means remembering to take the old bags along. In any case, reuse is the most efficient form of recycling.

 

[Judy02]

I think it's a good thing. When people have to pay for something, they will think more carefully about whether they actually need something, in this case plastic bags. It will also encourage people to re use them more if they have to pay for new ones. All the plastic we use does cause a lot of harm to the environment...we should be sensible in not over using our resources anyway.

But 1p?! My goodness, that is NOTHING. I think in M&S, they're 10p and they introduced this about a year ago I think. Talk about petty. Problem is, some customers will always complain no matter what, if it wasn't this it would be something else. Over the silly petty things that don't matter, over time you'll learn to distinguish between petty complaining and whinging and complaints that should be taken seriously. You'll gradually learn to switch off to the former - I did after too long working in retail lol.

 

[ukok]

When people have had something at no cost to themselves, for so long, it is understandable that they are going to gripe for a while that they are suddenly being asked to pay for it.

I think it has to do with education though too, as maybe some people don't understand 'why' they have to pay for their carrier bags and just think it's another way for the supermarket chains to make money.

On a personal note, if i have to pay for a carrier bag i would t least like one that doesn't split when it has my shopping in!

 

[Pogue]

Sounds good to me. Whenever I'm in Britain, I bring bags along with me, and sometimes actually get odd looks when I refuse a plastic bag. And here in Germany, that's normal. You almost always have to pay for a bag if you want one!

 

[Sinful2B]

Yes, I encountered this problem the other week, after having unloaded my trolley and then filled up two reusable bags, before eventually running out of storage, and then being told that that would be an extra 3p for the 3 bags that I had used.

The three bags I left where they were, and I then emptied both of my reusable bags on the checkout desk, and left the store clutching them under my arm.

I've never been back, and never will.

That's power to the people, who can aim to the lowest common denominator that pleases their conscience.

Simply put, since the supermarket began trading, I was always paying for the cost of their plastic bags in the cost of their food.
I no longer buy their food, and therefore resultantly neither do I buy their plastic bags anymore.

 

[Minty]

We tend to take our own bags and have for years (there are only so many times that you will put up with sub-standard plastic bags splitting and dropping your shopping all over the floor ).

I really like the jute ones that they sell now, and we have loads of them here...our cats really like them, too, and whenever we leave them sitting in the kitchen they start rubbing themselves around them like kittens (must be something that they treat the jute with, whatever it is they love it ...they never put the shopping away, though, which is mean of them ).

After seeing the sheer amount of bags up trees, wrapped around lamp-posts and swirling on the breeze, I'm glad that retailers are trying to do something.

 

[Sinful2B]

Additional to my last post, I have been busily frequenting supermarkets outside of this antiquated country of ours, where we can arrive without a care as to packaging, apart from dumping off a few cardboard boxes.
We enter the store, and proceed straight to the first row - without the need to retrieve a trolley, which doesn't even exist in this store.
At every suitable juncture, we insert our storecard in the order box adjacent to the block of items, punching in the code on the keypad.
By the time we have finished shopping, the storecard goes into a master unit for us to check that our shopping order is exactly as we wanted. That being so, we push the purchase button and our bill is paid.
Back to the car, and we drive to checkout.
Whilst still sitting in the car, helpers load the boot with our shopping, which has been assembled into recyclable containers, shut the boot and off we go.

No stress, no trauma, no trolley - just a storecard, and of course, your own credit/debit card.

Such a simple system, and freely available within this third world country that I visit often. !,000's of shopping malls, some as large as NINE stories, plus the THREE underground car parks!!!

Mind you, nowhere is perfect, and the route to the shops is fraught with potholes, insane drivers speeding at suicidal rates, muggings at traffic lights, and corrupt cops.
At least in the Uk, we can get too and from the shops relatively safely - it's just so antiquated when we get there!!!!!

 

[Minty]

Additional to my last post, I have been busily frequenting supermarkets outside of this antiquated country of ours, where we can arrive without a care as to packaging, apart from dumping off a few cardboard boxes.
We enter the store, and proceed straight to the first row - without the need to retrieve a trolley, which doesn't even exist in this store.
At every suitable juncture, we insert our storecard in the order box adjacent to the block of items, punching in the code on the keypad.
By the time we have finished shopping, the storecard goes into a master unit for us to check that our shopping order is exactly as we wanted. That being so, we push the purchase button and our bill is paid.
Back to the car, and we drive to checkout.
Whilst still sitting in the car, helpers load the boot with our shopping, which has been assembled into recyclable containers, shut the boot and off we go.

No stress, no trauma, no trolley - just a storecard, and of course, your own credit/debit card.

Such a simple system, and freely available within this third world country that I visit often. !,000's of shopping malls, some as large as NINE stories, plus the THREE underground car parks!!!

Mind you, nowhere is perfect, and the route to the shops is fraught with potholes, insane drivers speeding at suicidal rates, muggings at traffic lights, and corrupt cops.
At least in the Uk, we can get too and from the shops relatively safely - it's just so antiquated when we get there!!!!!

Can I ask where this place is...it sounds amazing!

 

[Sinful2B]

Can I ask where this place is

Yes you can, and you have.

it sounds amazing!

Hmmn? Perhaps I didn't add the constant 33C daily temperatures and 20C nightime temperatures. The constant threat of earthquakes, tsunami and cyclones, where most people's annual rainful, dumps itself upon your garden in 5 minutes bursts of such ferocity, that the covered walk from the car to the front door leaves you looking like you've just done one round with Mike Tyson in a swimming pool!!!
Oh yes, the constant nightly barks of street dogs, mosquitoes that can kill with one bite, theft of anything that isn't secured with at least two steel padlocks, corruption at EVERY level of government, and shopware on sale that I witnessed as new 40 years ago!!!
Amazing?
No, I don't think so, except of course for the supermarkets, where ALL items are held behind screens, so that theft is completely removed from the equation.

Strangely, I have learned that 3rd world countries have a great deal to teach our so called modern civilizations, and perhaps top of that list, would be the sobering understanding that each and everything that we know to be true, is of so little consequence, that most of it is entirely unknown to them.

It certainly helps you to understand the complete valueless nature of almost everything we value. After all, everything is almost completely valueless, because value is only determined by the value we apportion, Not the innate value of anything itself.

 

[LoisGriffin]

I like the bag charges. Our island went bag free about 6 months ago and its gone well. All the supermarkets charge 10p per bag. The reusable ones are so handy anyway.