Lack of publicity over England's shops charging 5p a bag

olias

Went to morrisons yesterday to get some 'bags for life'. Of course they didnt have any at any till. Now it may just be that people have been buying a lot of them in the run up to the new levy (in which case why didnt morrisons anticipate this and have more in?) But the cynic in me thinks its deliberate, so people will be forced to pay for the disposable bags......

Olias

BlueEyedGirl

I'm sorted, got an assortment of bags for life for the bigger supermarket shops and purchased some 99p fold up bags off eBay for my handbags and to keep in the car! For 99p they are a good qualify and rather big so will quite easily hold a large bag of shopping!

Nick_C

Azari wrote: »

Interesting use of the word 'any'.

Would the entire charge be subject to VAT or just the part that related to the cost of the bag to the retailer?

Apart from the input cost, the retailer is basically just collecting a charitable donation.

The input VAT would always have been reclaimable, so it's not clear that the government will make anything.

The entire charge will be subject to VAT. The retailer is selling you a carrier bag for 5 pence. If the retailer is registered for VAT (and its hard to envisage a retailer with 250 staff who is not registered) then the charge includes VAT at 0.83p.

The retailer is not collecting a charitable donation. He is selling you a carrier bag. He is not compelled to give the profits to charity. There is an expectation by the government that the retailer will donate the profit to "good causes", but its only in the guidance and is not mentioned in the legislation (as far as I can see). There is no definition of "good causes".

Yes, of course the retailer will recover the input VAT. So with single use carrier bags typically costing less than a penny to buy wholesale, the input VAT will be of the order of 0.17 of a penny. The additional VAT generated for the government will be 0.67 of a penny.

The government state that in 2014 major supermarkets gave over 7.6 billion carrier bags to customers. They hope this figure will be reduced by 80%. If this is achieved, the major supermarkets will sell 1,520 million bags each year. With net VAT of 0.67 pence per bag, that will generate just over £10 million for the Government.

And that's just on carrier bags from the major supermarkets. I don't have any figures for the number of bags issues by other retailers.

The Government say they expect "good causes" to benefit by tens of millions of pounds each year.

Well time will tell how much goes to charities, but by the time administration costs have been deducted from the net proceeds, the biggest beneficiary could be the government!

System

My friend that works for Sainsburys that I visited yesterday. She showed me the photos of the bag boxes that will be installed under the basket shelf on self scans. Bags will be thicker than the thin free orange ones and can replace them for free when fall to bits. The other supermarkets are changing 5p for the thin ones and won't be able to replace them for free. Only time this will apply is when.a bag breaks when packing. As bacon packs and cucumbers are the main culprits of bags splitting from my experience.

My question is how do they stop customers nicking them or get five and only pay for three? As some supermarkets have one colleague overseeing 16 self scans. They are enforcement officers visiting shops to see the staff are applying the charges. The fines can be £200 to £5000. Plus the shops have to record number of bags sold.

foxtrotoscar_2

Oh !!!!!! get on and deal with it...every other region of the UK has managed it quite easily!

System

foxtrotoscar wrote: »

Oh !!!!!! get on and deal with it...every other region of the UK has managed it quite easily!

I know, but it's going to end in tears with some of the horrid, stuck up, selfish and ignorant folks that I have the 'pleasure' to deal with. The shop manager and security have banned some unsavoury people for their horrifying treatment of my colleagues including myself. One time I finished my shift and left the kiosk. So there was one colleague left. Man grabbed my arm shouting in my face 'You will serve me b!tch' I was given a nasty bruise. Can see a few more being banned in the next few weeks.

These customers think they have every right to get a free carrier bag. If the Queen visits a shop after 5th October, she will be charged 5p too if she wanted a bag.

foxtrotoscar_2

ScarletMarble wrote: »

I know, but it's going to end in tears with some of the horrid, stuck up, selfish and ignorant folks that I have the 'pleasure' to deal with. The shop manager and security have banned some unsavoury people for their horrifying treatment of my colleagues including myself. One time I finished my shift and left the kiosk. So there was one colleague left. Man grabbed my arm shouting in my face 'You will serve me b!tch' I was given a nasty bruise. Can see a few more being banned in the next few weeks.

These customers think they have every right to get a free carrier bag. If the Queen visits a shop after 5th October, she will be charged 5p too if she wanted a bag.

Where has the above happened in the rest of the UK?

foxtrotoscar_2

To be quite frank it's been a non event in NI, Wales and Scotland..but then when we get to last of our fellow UK people. they appear to struggle with it....Why?

tomtontom

foxtrotoscar wrote: »

To be quite frank it's been a non event in NI, Wales and Scotland..but then when we get to last of our fellow UK people. they appear to struggle with it....Why?

Because we have a disproportionate number of drama queens?

fuddle

I have been aware of this for a good few months now, possibly even a year. I have seen stores advertise at the till and home delivery drivers have been talking about it for a while.

I use a cotton bag if it's a small amount, a hessian like bag if it's for a larger amount and if we go food shopping as a family the bags are kept in the car. The only place I will find it will hit me is home delivery but I am led to believe that I will have the option to have my shopping delivered without the bags.

I was talking to a checkout assistant this morning who was telling me she had people taking more bags than needed recently. People do know about it.

If customers are abusive to you, and I am sorry you have to take that, I would say that it's government policy and the date it came into force.

It's really no biggy for me and the doubt it will be much of an issue when it comes into force. I hope you don't get any meanies ScarletMarble