Have supermarkets gone mad?

[Puzzled]

Seriously some of you people on here are just plain moaning over nothing. We should follow France's lead and ban plastic bags full stop.

As long as they still offer a free alternative bag to carry my things in then go for it.

When we do a big family shop I'm not going to bring loads of bags with me, plus if I see something in a shop I like by chance I'm not likely to have a bag on my person.

Supermarkets used to have boxes available at the tills, I would quite happily use those instead. Or as suggested supermarkets should offer free environmentally friendly bags at the tills.

I don't see why the customer should lose out and be inconvenienced while supermarkets rip us off and wrap everything in plastic anyway.

 

[Overlag]

Seriously some of you people on here are just plain moaning over nothing. We should follow France's lead and ban plastic bags full stop.

exactly, and that doesnt make us hippys.

free carrier bags are a new thing, 30 years ago you had to bring your own bags...


... the whole point of handing out 1 bag at a time is to MAKE it a pain in the backside for you (likes of Von). Seriously how hard is it to put a proper bag in your boot of the car?

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

I doubt it very much - M&S's "we'll sell you what always should be free under false pretenses" approach failed miserably and together with them turning their back on their niche small town semi rural clientele and blind refusal to stock premium brands beside their own created one of the worst downturns in their history.

Let's face it, no Richmond barrister or Bexleyheath practitioner will queue with a basket of overpriced Parmentier Potatoes, and a bottle of Domaine Vacheron Sancerre with tripple markup just to be nonchalantly dickturpine'd by a cashier over plastic bag. It's a gentlemens agreement and simple rules of qui pro quo: One does not carry old plastic bags in one's Armani suit. Or in a back pocket of one's Orvis Classic Twills when casual. One doesn't transport lose food items on creme leather seats of one's Cayenne. And most of all one does not let someone with a breast plaque "My name is Shaniqua" and a 15k a year salary to their name offer oneself a lifestyle absolution in 10p douchebag installments. It's a matter of principle.

M&S customers voted with their feet and Waitrose got their money.

It is that simple.

No, unfortunately it is not. What started as a trickle has become a stream. M&S got it wrong - as they always, deliciously, do - but now the heavyweights have added themselves to the ring and this is about setting precedents. It's incredibly hard for a company such as Tesco - obvious choice I know, apologies - to 'do the green thing' to only later retract it.

On a side note, I actually liked your post, dreadfull spelling aside

 

[2Thumbs]

what annoys me is the constant "are you 25" everytime i buy booze. i mean whats the point in that ?

If they're asking you to confirm you're 25, they're in a high risk position of losing their license because they've had too many under-18's being served age restricted products.

 

[J.D]

1. That's the point. You say you take care of yourself, but blame others on not educating you. I'm sure you've taught yourself many things, why not this as well? I'm not saying it wouldn't be good if there were more education in this area, it clearly is needed.

2. Ok, so I wasn't as specific as I could have been. I can see that in the broad sense of the word environment, the amount of resources is included. By environmental aspect, I meant the direct 'plastic bags take ages to get broken down' argument.

3. You didn't, and I'm fairly sure I didn't say you had. I was making a general point about using less being a good thing.

I don't blame anyone for my own education on better ways to treat the planet. I was smart enough to work that out on my own. So I have toaught myself this. I was referring to those who haven't educated themselves for tomorrow. I agree on more education was needed. Of course there is point of it now but if there were more people doing this to build a better tomorrow in the past then today this wouldn't be such a problem.

2. The plastic bags are needed for the shopping regardless. If they were bothered as such then they could have changed the policy over time with incentives to shoppers to bring their own bags. Even making up a lot of quality re-usable bags that won't tear or rip easily, preferably made of cloth would have been better. They could have done this ages ago.

I don't agree with the girls attitude though. If someone treated me like that I'd not be happy. I treat people with respect and expect it back apart from m8's who are good for a laugh.

3. My bad, I apologise and agree that using less is the best thing. Although we should be way ahead of plastic bags by now. For that I blame the supermarkets and governments for not making a bigger issue out of this.

 

[meghatronic]

You tell that to a cashier who faces the prospect of prison if they sell alcohol to someone under 18.

But if they have to ask you, why not say "are you over 18?"

Instead of are you over 25...? As if you're 18 and 1 second, you can legally buy drink, no?

 

[v0n]

... the whole point of handing out 1 bag at a time is to MAKE it a pain in the backside for you (likes of Von). Seriously how hard is it to put a proper bag in your boot of the car?

Hard enough for it to never work. People don't want bags in boot of their cars. On in pockets. Or hand bags. It's how handing out bags in supermarkets started - because it wasn't convenient for people to carry their own bags around. It just didn't suit their evolving lifestyle. And being as helpful to your customers as you can is right, and it's good, it's the way to go about it. The last thing you should do is try and SHAPE people's habits to what you want them to be. It will never, ever, in million years work. That whole, "give me 10p" and "what, you want ANOTHER bag??" setup is wrong. It patronizing, it makes the shop look cheap, it annoys clientele accustomed to certain level of standards. If the guy wants a bag to put one mars bar and an issue of "Horny Jugs Fortnightly" then so be it. He was getting that bag last year, last week and darn, he shall get that free bag today. This is how customer service works today. End of discussion.

However.

It doesn't mean he should get PLASTIC bag. And that is all I'm trying to point out. You want to be green then you don't fight a customer, you fight the bag. Give your customer biodegradable plastic bag, paper bag, recycled compostable bag, cellulose bag, NASA patented self chewing and self pooping bag, I don't care - but A bag they shall have. It's responsibility of the shop to provide green bag, not for customer to come with theirs. You do not charge your customers for your plastic foot print, you do not give them dirty looks, you do not slow down their shopping process by rationing bags from under the till like it was Cuba. If their experience tells them they need to double bag, triple bag one bottle of milk or it will break before their reach their home it's not your place to debunk their bag handling techniques. Your job as a supermarket is to give them bags. Ones that go along with the current Greenpiss agenda, Bob Geldoff's wooly hat and whatever else your PR department wants you to follow.

 

[dbmzk1]

Legally not allowed to Nor are they allowed to give it to a charity

I work in a food factory and we sell waste to pig farmers. Why can't Tesco?

 

[LOAM]

why does anyone need a bag anyway ? They sell those trolly things for only £1 and they are massive, you can easily get everything in one. Plus if you have a small angle grinder at home you can cut them down and recycle them as either grill trays or knock up an enviable bbq, failing that if you can push it in a canal.

seriously some of you people moan for the sake of maoning

 

[Overlag]

It's responsibility of the shop to provide green bag,.

err we do provide them but they are hardly "green" if you take em home and throw them away because you dont like reusing stuff.

people made do without free plastic bags 30 years ago, and they will start to get used to the idea when free plastic bags stop happening from next year. If you dont, i guess you will get hungery and die because you cant shop anywhere

 

[v0n]

err we do provide them but they are hardly "green" if you take em home and throw them away because you dont like reusing stuff.

But that's the fact. Most people do not reuse them. no one collects them. no one wants them. And 10p can make a shop look like a rip off but it won't make that bag any more attractive next day. However, if you make them biodegradable from the beginning and recyclable even when chucked into waste bin.. see, very easy solution.

people made do without free plastic bags 30 years ago, and they will start to get used to the idea when free plastic bags stop happening from next year.

Look, 30 years before that people made do without supermarkets and further 30 years before that it was perfectly normal to pour your poop onto the street, straight from a bucket chucked out of the window. It doesn't mean we should revert to the old ways of doing things. Society has natural instinct to embrace progress rather than regress.

Free bags in supermarkets is good practice, it's useful, it's convenient, it's something to encourage.

Supermarkets worked for years to get people hooked and used to certain necessities and now they want to guilt trip everyone for taking advantage of simple convenience? Doesn't make any sense. It's not like we insist those bags must be ugly, non degradable etc. We just want something to take shopping home. I'll gladly take paper or compostable bag home if I'm given one.

 

[CaptainComedy]

what I find hilarious is the fact that they are so stingy with giving plastic backs - but they literally throw away all their hangers and cardboard into a compactor never to be used again.

I always said that it wont work, its probably saved them a fair lot of bags - but its probably cost them a lot more in lost custom from people not bothering to go because its too much hassle.

We'll be back to local butchers and bakers before we know it

 

[Overlag]

Free bags in supermarkets is good practice, it's useful, it's convenient, it's something to encourage.

its good to encourage being wasteful? what planet are you living on? one with unlimited resources, one with unlimited land fill sites?

Im sick of all this Co2 rubbish telling me i cant rev my engine past 1500rpm or i might kill millions of people but being wasteful is one thing i think we ALL could reduce. Theres no need to throw away half the stuff we do.


our 1use bags are totally biodegradeable but thats not the point its still a waste of oil.


everyone whines that free bags are rubbish, yet they are also crying that we are taking them away? i seriously dont understand peoples logic

what I find hilarious is the fact that they are so stingy with giving plastic backs - but they literally throw away all their hangers and cardboard into a compactor never to be used again.

I always said that it wont work, its probably saved them a fair lot of bags - but its probably cost them a lot more in lost custom from people not bothering to go because its too much hassle.

We'll be back to local butchers and bakers before we know it

all our cardboard is sent back on the lorries that makes deliverys (so it reduces the amount of empty lorrys driving around), the cardboard is then recycled. very little cardboard is sent down our compactor.

Hangers do **** me off tho, these are totally wasted. each new rack of clothing comes in with bran new hangers, and at least 80% of these end up in the bin.

 

[needmorespeed]

Heh I bet the vans for home deliveries manage about 5 mpg as well.

actually the lowest i know of was 9mpg with the best being 20mpg I tend to get around 15mpg when driving them

 

[Bri]

On a side note, I actually liked your post, dreadfull spelling aside

Oh the irony

I do have some of those green bags, bag for life etc things but haven't got into the habit of taking them with me. Didn't they do something in Northern Ireland with bags that was fairly successful?

 

[Doonhamer]

Hangers do **** me off tho, these are totally wasted. each new rack of clothing comes in with brand new hangers, and at least 80% of these end up in the bin.

Most garment hangers are recycled. Not necessary back into coat hangers but most are re used in some form. The likes of Next have saved themselves hundreds of millions of Hangers through resorting and using them again.

Any black garment hanger you buy is likely to be made from recycled material. Anything clear or white is virgin material.

 

[The Pat]

what annoys me is the constant "are you 25" everytime i buy booze. i mean whats the point in that ?

I Agree.

You tell that to a cashier who faces the prospect of prison if they sell alcohol to someone under 18.

If they're asking you to confirm you're 25, they're in a high risk position of losing their license because they've had too many under-18's being served age restricted products.

The point is it's a redundant question. I can be 26 and say yes, or 17 and say yes. Just ask for ID straight away.

 

[Manlove is my forte]

It is also a sackable offense to eat damaged goods - like crisps that you have just seen the bag burst. They HAVE to be chucked in the compactor.

I was never a good tescos employee. Tescos "Waste" kept me well fed for 3 years.

If these stores were so green concerned they be using paper bags not plastic. Sure they are less durable and trees need to be cut down. But Trees can be replanted, and the paper recycled.

 

[deuse]

I went into Tesco once and the lady at the check out said
Do you want a BAG for life! (meaning there Guranteed bag)

To which I replied You want to marry me!

She just looked at me and I turned away FAST

No sense of humor some people.