ARRRRGGGGGHHHH Unwanted bags

wishingonastar_3

After lurking on this thread a bit, and my dd becoming more interested in environmental issues, yesterday I went to do my weekly shop at Tesco, and I took my own "bags for life" and string bags with me (rather than use there carrier bags), and made a conscious effort to choose items with less packaging or packaging that is recyclable etc, therefore fruit and veg i left out of those little bags, and put them loose in my trolley. when i got to the till, i realised the checkout girl was putting my fruit and veg in the aforementioned little bags. I said please don't do that, I want them loose, i don't want lots of those little bags. She said that they are not allowed to weigh them without bags for hygiene reasons. (has anyone else come across this?) then she got to my bananas and weighed them without a bag, so I queried why this was, and its cos they've got skin on them!!!! Being quite annoyed by this, i unpackedf all the fruit and veg from the little bags and gave them back to her as i paid, then went down to customer service desk to complain. I was told the bags should be used for my own good, as they help to keep things hygenic, but no one could explain how these made things more hygenic, and why bananas are exempt (and melons too apparently).

It was really frustrating to have more packaging sort of forced on you for no good reason.

What do the rest of you think?

woas.

martinpike

Use a greengrocer or your local market...

arkonite_babe

You will usually find a local market to be cheaper than Tesco with better quality fruit and veg and no nasty plastic bags if you don't want them

SusanCarter

That's crazy!

If it's unhygenic for them to weigh them loose, how come it's okay for them to sell them loose in the first place. Anything you buy loose has probably been touched by loads of people anyway (farm, warehouse, shop, other customers) so what difference does weighing it make? Don't they know that people wash their food and often cook it anyway? I'd write a letter to them.

wishingonastar_3

i can't believe after this last week that now they are giving free points to re-use carrier bags.

morg_monster

i usually do small shops and often buy, say, one onion, one courgette, one pepper etc. and so I never put these in bags. I've never had them put into bags by the cashier by tescos or anywhere else I shop - probably because there is only one of them - but sure if it is for hygiene reasons that should also count as much for 1 apple as for 6?! IE - I expect everywhere does it differently and I bet there is no genuine Tesco's policy about it although the cashiers at your supermarket might believe otherwise...!

Although, when I worked as a cashier, they used to encourage us to put things like whole chickens (which only had cling film on their top) into a small bag before passing it on for packing - I guess that makes more sense both in a hygiene and mess way!