5p bag charge - your views

robin58

McKneff wrote: »

Only shops with more than 250 employees are compelled to charge, they pocket the money but the government takes the vAT


Smaller shops will charge and pocket the money, full stop.

I think you will find that the bigger companies who charge for the bags MUST put a large part of it to charity.

This is a government demand.

System

Just to clarify, it's companies that employ more than 250 employees in the entire company, not a shop that has 250 plus workers.

Sainsburys are having a stronger plastic bag for 5p, which can be replaced free of charge if falls apart.

For those in England, look at carrier bags you have been given when bought things. If you see.a barcode on it, these will be the 5p bag for the retailer.

Some of the customers I have informed thought I am talking male cow poo.

Not looking forward to the abuse from some customers on Monday
'I am not paying 5p for a bag'
'I'm sorry, it's the law.'

'Could you give me carrier bag?'
'I'm sorry, it's not free as you haven't bought any excempt items. Before you ask, we don't sell any excempt items'

DCFC79

ScarletMarble wrote: »

Just to clarify, it's companies that employ more than 250 employees in the entire company, not a shop that has 250 plus workers.

Sainsburys are having a stronger plastic bag for 5p, which can be replaced free of charge if falls apart.

For those in England, look at carrier bags you have been given when bought things. If you see.a barcode on it, these will be the 5p bag for the retailer.

Some of the customers I have informed thought I am talking male cow poo.

Not looking forward to the abuse from some customers on Monday
'I am not paying 5p for a bag'
'I'm sorry, it's the law.'

'Could you give me carrier bag?'
'I'm sorry, it's not free as you haven't bought any excempt items. Before you ask, we don't sell any excempt items'

That's not abuse, that's just not wanting for a bag.

Not your fault they aren't aware of what's going on.

sparrer

Much of Australia and several other countries have banned plastic carrier bags. Excellent idea. I use fabric shopping bags and am making more from recycled curtains as I object to the advertising on plastic bags, and I'm blowed if I'm going to pay for the 'priviledge'.

alanq

For in store shopping I see no objection to the charge. People should manage to provide their own bags.

For home deliveries the only options are to have no bags which must be time consuming to unpack (and therefore add to costs incurred by supermarket making the delivery) or pay for carrier bags. Ocado seems to have the right idea. It is going to refund 5p for each carrier handed back to them for recycling. Thus environmental impact is greatly reduced by a little extra administration and driver & customer are not greatly disadvantaged by the new policy.

Alikay

mumf wrote: »

The much- highlighted Ireland, where this charge has been in existence for years HAS reduced carrier bag usage. However, the sale of plastic BIN BAGS has gone up!

That'll be what happens with me: I always use my thin supermarket bags as kitchen bin liners, so from Oct 5th on, I'll be reusing my carrier bags for shopping, but lining my bin with a liner costing around 2p or so instead.

[Deleted User]

When I was a little girl if Mum had to buy a shopping bag it was a brown paper one which got re-used several times as she had paid 2d for it then when it was past its best it was used to fire up the range in the kitchen.The dearer ones were 4d and had little wooden handles and were strong enough to carry spuds.She also always carried a net shopping bag in her handbag with leather handles it went everywhere with her and took up no space in there.I always carry bags in the car and have several bags for life made out of hessian from Waitrose and I am happy to use them in Aldi's or Lidl's even though they have the Waitrose logo on them :):)

N9eav

If you have not already done so, most people will soon find that bringing your own decent shopping bags makes grocery shopping so much easier to pack and carry.

DigForVictory

I'm a huge fan of bags for life (even if they aren't invariably) as the range of colours & patterns makes sorting seasonal presents for people much easier. [Since most of my extended family will visit mum at some stage, if I get in there early, I can leave her with a row of individual bags (all labelled as well) and she can route them onwards.]

I've made loads of fabric carriers from charity shop summer frocks - bright, cheap, cheerful, and washable. Life expectancy with cans of about a month, but easy enough to squish down. I'm going to learn how to make netting bags - they're superb for packing down but taking loads, of all shapes! & carrying serious weight.

I also picked up how to "fold" a carrier bag into a samosa shape, which makes even big thick bags for life cooperate. (Try here? ) Hours of innocent fun & a neat party trick...

System

DCFC79 wrote: »

That's not abuse, that's just not wanting for a bag.

Not your fault they aren't aware of what's going on.

I have removed the swear words.:o

When a customer has tried to buy 3 packs of paracetamol (the law states max. 2 packs of 16. Can buy more otc at pharmacies) the man kicked off, swore, started to say shout racist terms to my non-white colleagues, called me a f****** b***h. He was kicked out of the shop and banned indefinitely.

This the sort of abuse, I am not looking forward to.

My friends that work in supermarkets, are expecting one customer to walk out with no shopping as refuse to pay for bags, causing them to put all the shopping back on the shelves etc.

I will never understand why some people are buying £50 shopping, but somehow find it an issue to pay 35-50p for their bags.