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ASDA sneaky selling techniques...

My OH and I went to ASDA on a bit of a whim last week, only intending to buy 1-2 things. Because of this, we hadn't brought our supply of the hemp bags we normally use. We ended up buying about enough for 2-3 carrier bags, and when we got to the till, the man serving us said that he didn't have any carrier bags left so we'd have to buy new hemp bags to take our shopping out with (he had lots of those left!) When we asked him if we could grab some carrier bags from the next checkout, he said there weren't any in the entire supermarket and we'd have to buy hemp bags or have nothing.
I understand that supermarkets are kind of obliged nowadays to persuade their customers to avoid carrier bags, so I didn't question it further and ended up buying new hemp bags, adding £3 to our bill. The thing that annoyed me was that on the way out, every other till had a massive pile of carrier bags and there were employees unpacking even more to load onto the tills. I joked that maybe the checkout man was on commission for every hemp bag he sold as whoever went thru his checkout was then 'stuck', you either had to buy his bags or face the embarrassment of unloading everything off the conveyor belt and wait another 10 minutes for the next queue.
I was quite angry about it on the way out, and was going to complain to customer services but there was a massive queue and we were in a real hurry.
Do other people think I should/could complain after the event and what are ASDA likely to do about it? Is this something that happens quite often? Having hemp bags already, I don't get put into positions like this! I know it was only £3 but think about how much they'd have made if everyone who went through that till had to pay a similar amount?!
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Comments

  • BenL
    BenL Posts: 3,189 Forumite
    My ASDA is now only offering the 5p chargeable bags, those green ones.

    I got stung a few weeks ago as I stopped off on the way home. Haven't been back since.

    The co-op around the corner with its reduce section, walkable and I don't usually use a bag from there anyway is my shop of choice.

    Environment, my !!!!. 5p a bag. Profit all the way.
    I beep for Robins - Beep Beep
    & Choo Choo for trains!!
  • Aren't those bags free of charge to replace though.
  • I usually carry a couple of emergency carrier bags in my handbag in case checkout staff try it on. I have been doing this ever since Woolworths (before their demise) began charging for bags. Or if you know you're going to the supermarket, then make sure you carry a "hessayon" (hemp, what's that all about?) bag with you.
    Striving to clear the mortgage before it finishes in Dec 2028 - amount currently owed - £32,226.97
  • Sorry, thought they were called hemp bags, i heard someone call them that once. At least you realised what I was on about! Thanks for the advice, will definitely carry a couple of carriers with me wherever I go in the future. However, my main gripe was the fact that the man who served us told us that there were absolutely no other bags in the entire store...basically he lied to us in order to get us to buy more expensive bags rather than use free ones. If it is a whole store policy then it is still annoying, but easier to accept. I just feel that we were tricked into buying them!
  • you can get bags made of hemp so worry not, easy mistake imo :) personally i call the supermarket bags jute bags not hessayon bags... so it seems we all have our own names - but we all know what type it means :)

    you said they where unloading bags to give out more... could you be sure they hadnt just quickly chucked them to some people and where getting ready to pass them out to all the other tills such as the one you where at? It may have been a new delivery and they genuinely had run out for a period of time?
  • DKLS
    DKLS Posts: 13,461 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I abandoned a whole trolley load of food at the checkout in Asda on Monday night much to the annoyance of some jumped up CSA, they had also 'run out of bags' if they cant provide a means for me to get my shopping home I wont be shopping there.
  • Well when we asked if we could go to another till to get some carriers the chackout man said that there were none anywhere else. We laughed and said we couldn't believe ASDA had run out of bags and he went along with it and said that yes, that was the case. So we carried on packing into our new £1 bags but I made a point of walking past every other till as we left and they all had carriers (and lots of them), the fact they were unloading more was the straw that broke the camel's back for me as they were obviously in abundance, apart from (apparently) the till we had used. Grrrr!
  • Would have been just as easy to load the trolley loose and just put the produce in the back of the car, without bags. Sorted.
    I'd rather be an Optimist and be proved wrong than a Pessimist and be proved right.
  • stores are budgeted on how many bags they can "buy" each month. (1.5p per bag)

    If they run out, then they usually ring up neighbouring stores to literally borrow some.

    Previously ive seen them use the 5p ones FOC, or use smiley vouchers so they are affectivly free.

    Leaving shopping is just a waste of your time, the front line workers time who have no control over any lack of bags situation. If i worked at asda and someone did that, they probably be on the end of a punch to the face.
  • Buy a couple of trolley bags (I think they are hard to come by now though) and keep them in the boot of the car.

    OP, if the same had happened to me and the checkout person said there were no other bags in store when there were clearly ones at other checkouts, I would have either gone and got some without asking or just left my shopping where it was and walked out of the store.
    Striving to clear the mortgage before it finishes in Dec 2028 - amount currently owed - £32,226.97
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