(no subject)

[hnpcc]

Went to the supermarket to get more supplies (notably tissues - the coughs continue unabated) last night. Got all the things together in one red basket, waited patiently at the checkout for the dippy woman ahead to run off midway through to get items she'd forgotten, dash back out to her car to get her purse, then debate whether she had enough money to cover it, before I managed to put my stuff through.

As it's being put through, the checkout chick turns to me and says:

"We're not allowed to give you more than one plastic bag. If you've got less than three items, we can't give you a bag. You can buy a green bag or get a box, if there's any."

"Huh?"

"They've changed it. We can't give you more than one bag. Well except for today."

"When is this from?"

"It's from now. But because we haven't told you, we'll give you more than one bag, it's just next time we can't give you more than one bag."

I looked around the shop, seeking clarification, or perhaps advertising of this change. There were some signs saying "Say no to plastic bags" but no specific information and definitely no dates.

"No, seriously, when does this start?"

"It started the 10th. But we only found out yesterday".

The fuck? I have no problem with them limiting the numbers of plastic bags. I have green bags. I even know where they were last night - on the lounge room floor from where I'd unpacked the last lot of groceries. I do, on the other hand, have a bit of a problem with them making the change without telling anyone. C'mon here people, that's what advertising is for. If you can spend umpteen million dollars telling us how your farmers really love their potatoes, then you can spend a bit on telling us that you're intending on phasing out plastic bags really, really soon. And please, give us a bit of a chance here! At the very least let us buy the goddam plastic bags for a period while we're readjusting to this (this would also give me more of a chance to remember to put the bags back in the car). I don't mind paying 10-20c per bag over the one bag limit if I've forgotten the bag, but I don't want to end up with several thousand green bags. Even if that does give me a fighting chance of actually having a couple in the boot.

The other problem I have with the way they've apparently done this is they seem to be using the front end staff to tell people. I have (again) no problem with this in conjunction with an advertising campaign. But it's a bit unfair on the front end to have the sole responsibility put on them, particularly as people are frequently arseholes and will take it out on the checkout chicks/chaps. I used to be one, I'd know. You cop abuse from the most unlikely quarters (my favourites still being the woman who yelled at me for putting the bread on top of the icecream (it makes the bread cold) and the man who yelled at me late on Christmas Eve because I failed to find the absolute cheapest sticker of the 20 or so piled on top of each other and so overcharged him 1c on two items. I offered to take the 2c off another item, but that would have apparently thrown out his accounting system, so we had to call the supervisor to get the key out, and take off those two items and re-enter them, with him all the while glaring daggers at me and the supervisor standing between him and me and carefully moving all the items so that the absolute cheapest sticker was at the front. Oh and did I mention I'd been working 9 hours already at that point? And it was Christmas Eve and fucking busy all day? Yeah, it was a good day. Arsehole. Even the supervisor agreed on that.)

Still. I took the bags out and put them in the boot last night so at least they should be there the next time we go shopping. This may involve one of us running out to the car to get them mid-way through the actual checkout process, but at least they should be there. ;-)

Comments

[valamelmeo.livejournal.com]

You know, the other day when I went grocery shopping, there were no plastic bags in sight. I usually use the self-service checkout, though, and that day I was only getting a case of soda, so I didn't need a bag, but I saw someone else ask about them, and they weren't given any explanation at all. The employee they asked (the cashier supervising the self-service checkout stations) merely pointed at a (small) stack of paper bags that was sitting on top of the machine you put your cash into. They don't sell any reusable bags that I'm aware of.

So I have no idea if they'll still have plastic bags or not, when I go back. If they don't, I'm really not looking forward to lugging my groceries up the stairs in paper bags.

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

Annoying though it is the way the shop introduced it, I do wish our local supermarkets would go down this road rather than throwing masses of bags at us and pretending that the fact they 'recycle' plastic carriers makes this alright. They used to promote bringing your own bags but at some point quietly stopped this, and instead now festoon the till with piles of plastic carriers, ready for the customers' use. When I remonstrate about this, they tell me they have to otherwise they get into trouble with the supervisors. I regularly have to explain that I have my own bags; soemtimes they start packing without asking me if I want help, which of course I don't because I use my own bags and they don't want them up on the till, and neither do I.

However, it does seem the world over that supermarkets are congenitally incapable of communicating with their customers.

[hnpcc]

Except about potato love for some odd reason. Which really, I didn't need to know.

[ang-grrr.livejournal.com]

We should all love the potato.

[ang-grrr.livejournal.com]

I wonder if they've introduced some sort of new tax. It just seems strange that the change is so sudden.

I tend to use a "bag-for-life" unless I'm running out of carrier bags and then I take some. I use them as temporary bins in the kitchen - the bag hangs on the door handle and once full goes into the bin at the back. I probably use 2 or 3 in this way per week.

Having worked on the till myself I know what a crappy job it is. In Lidl we used to sell plastic bags for a penny, or 9p for a strong reusable one [1] and lots of people objected to the practice. I remember once a guy edging a bag out from underneath my till with his foot - "I'll still have to charge you for that." I said. He exploded, telling me he was trying to help me out, that he was disgusted I could accuse him of trying to steal a bag, that I was a "smug bitch" and other stuff. I still don't understand how him taking a crumbled dirty bag from the floor was going to help me in any way but *shrug*.

[1] Which are really *really* good. We once had a guy who was moving house come in and buy 100 of them for packaging. :)

[hnpcc]

Customers can be arseholes. There's a reason I don't work in customer service. There's a reason Dean got out of it. And the short version is that of 100 customers, 99 can be fantastic and one will be an arsehole. And which one do you remember?

[dsn.livejournal.com]

Next time, just do multiple 3 item purchases; each 3 items will then be eligable for 1 bag

Dave

[hnpcc]

Yes, but then I won't get the fuel voucher! I think if we do forget we'll just take the trolley and/or red basket out with us.

[kirstenfleur.livejournal.com]

There's a school of thought that says if you take a washing basket with you, that will hold a trolley's worth of goods.
Of course, you'll need a strong washing basket, not like my crappy ones.
And does this new policy mean that they're only giving out one bag to each customer regardless of how many items people have? I'm confused.

[hnpcc]

And does this new policy mean that they're only giving out one bag to each customer regardless of how many items people have? I'm confused.

Yes. Unless you have three items, in which case they won't give you a bag.