Asda charging for carrier bags?

staffie1

Or, just take your own bags

geordie_joe

thatguy1 wrote: »

I amuses me, Asda charging for carrier bags...

It's nothing new, as far as I know Lidl have ALWAYS charged for bags & no one moans about them charging! Same at Aldi!

There is a difference.

Aldi have simply made the customer pay for the bag, which covers the cost of buying the bag, storing it and transporting it to the various stores.

Asda have "given the bags free", but what they have done is added the cost of the bags to the goods they sell. So when you buy at asda you are paying for the bags, even if you don't use them.

If they then start to charge for them, you are paying for them twice.

Gillyx

In the supermarket I worked in, we had periods of giving out free bags for life, to try and encourage people to bring them back etc and some people were really rude about it "I don't want those I want the normal carriers" and you'd try to explain about the scheme and they'd be totally disinterested. Annoyed me alot.

geordie_joe

staffie1 wrote: »

Or, just take your own bags

But if everyone did that, we would be paying for bags we are not using, asda aren't buying, storing and transporting around the country. So they will make even more profit from us because the won't have the expenses of paying for petrol, trucks, drivers and many other things!

The way I see it is this

ATM we are paying a hidden charge for the free bags

If we accept the new additional charge for the bags we can either pay it, and be paying twice for each bag, or use our own bags and pay once for bags we don't use.

Or we can tell asda that we are not paying for bags we don't use, or paying twice for one bag we sue, by letting them know we will not buy their groceries until we are paying a fair price for the bags.

Or we could be weak and spineless and just pay up and tell ourselves "other shops charge for bags" or "it's not worth bothering with for a penny".

babyfruitella

My local Asda tried to stop giving carrier bags away a while ago. They didnt have the little white plastic ones at all, they insisted you bought a bag for life. It lasted about a week & they gave up because it was causing mayhem at the tills.

dibuzz

I don't mind using my own bags, I've got quite a few of the hessian ones as they are useful for other things too.
My problem is actually remembering to take the blinking things with me. Even if I remember to put them back in the car I leave them in the boot when I go into the shop or take my son's car instead.
Years ago Kwik Save used to put all their boxes out for customers to use instead of bags but supermarkets don't seem to do that now.

staffie1

geordie_joe wrote: »

But if everyone did that, we would be paying for bags we are not using, asda aren't buying, storing and transporting around the country. So they will make even more profit from us because the won't have the expenses of paying for petrol, trucks, drivers and many other things!

The way I see it is this

ATM we are paying a hidden charge for the free bags

If we accept the new additional charge for the bags we can either pay it, and be paying twice for each bag, or use our own bags and pay once for bags we don't use.

Or we can tell asda that we are not paying for bags we don't use, or paying twice for one bag we sue, by letting them know we will not buy their groceries until we are paying a fair price for the bags.

Or we could be weak and spineless and just pay up and tell ourselves "other shops charge for bags" or "it's not worth bothering with for a penny".

Yes but can't you see that what's driving this is the environmental arguments against producing, distributing and disposing of billions of carrier bags each year?

I can't see how using my own reusable bags is paying for bags I'm not using. I have 4 bags for life, which cost me 50p each 2 years ago which I use every time I go to the supermarket.
How are the supermarkets ripping me off?

geordie_joe

Gillyx wrote: »

In the supermarket I worked in, we had periods of giving out free bags for life, to try and encourage people to bring them back etc and some people were really rude about it "I don't want those I want the normal carriers" and you'd try to explain about the scheme and they'd be totally disinterested. Annoyed me alot.

The thing you have to remember is most free supermarket carrier bags don't just get used to carry shopping home. They then get used again, and often again and again.

people use them for picking up dog muck when they walk the dog, to give to their kids to put their we baths kit in, or dirty PE kit. They use them for pedal bin liners, and every time they need a cheap plastic bag.

So if they didn't get the free ones from the supermarket they would have to buy a roll of pedal bin liners. Which would do the same job, but they don't really want to take their lunch to work in a bin liner, or carry granny's birthday present to her in one.

The fact is, the green brigade have been telling us to reuse things for years. But now they are trying to ban the one thing that has been reused again and again since it was invented.

And people haven't been reusing them because it's green, or because they want to reduce the amount of plastic in the world, or because they want to save the planet...... They have been reusing them because they are perfect for the job. When you need a cheap, handy plastic bag that free one you carried your shopping home in usually fits the bill.

If you didn't have it you would probably have to buy one, or use one your bought for another purpose (bin liner).

Not forgetting, plastic is largely a by product from turning oil into petrol. As long as we are making petrol we will have plastic, and if we don't turn it into plastic bags it will just get put straight into land fill.

So why cut out the middle man, why bury it before we have used it?

We praise sawmills for sweeping the sawdust off the floor and turning it into something useful. So why don't we praise the petrol companies for "sweeping the plastic off the floor" and turning it into something useful?

katie89

I was in ASDA today, and they had no normal bags left. However, the woman at the checkout said they were giving out the bags for life for free, as long as we filled them up as much as we could.

Middy

I work for a supermarket. I see customers use free carrier bags for just:
. a single pack of Wrigleys Extra chewing gum
. a lemon

Also I have seen customer using them for:
. Packs of 9 loo rolls
. Large packs of nappies

The two things above have a handle on the packaging and are designed not to be put into a carrier bag!

Also, if you left your bags for life in the car, do what I do, pack at the car. If the weather is rubbish, then its a form of 'punishment' to yourself to remind you not to do it again.