General Chat

I don't have any problem with it , as for new clothes....there is nothing to stop retailers using paper bags which can then be recycled or shredded into a compost bin, primark manage it so the rest can ;-)

Its a good idea in theory, However,why do Councils issue you with Plastic Bags as well as Boxes to put Recyclables in? Then there are the Plastic Wrapped goods in shops etc .plus the Clear Address area in Envelopes used by most Council and Government depts. Perhaps they should Practice what they Preach and use ordinary Paper ones then People would take more notice,as for the ones from Tesco etc, they,re not free, you pay for them in the cost of your Shopping.

I agree with the charge but why do we have to wait 2 yrs. until it comes in. I think we should go back to the old brown paper carriers & still charge for them. Where I work we removed our plastic carriers from the front of the tills, where customers filled them theirselves, to behind the counters. It has made no difference what so ever except now alot of customers expect us to pack for them. Near where my dad lived is a land fill site with a high fence around it, if it is a windy day it looks like the multi-coloured swap shop. Plastic carriers are everywhere, all over the fencing, trees and shrubs, then men have to go outside & pick them up. It looks disgusting. We also live near a park & people do shopping at the supermarket to eat & drink in the park, they can't even put their rubbish back in the bags. People will say that educating people about picking rubbish up is the way but in my opinion some people are un-trainable, so take the bags away from them.
Hilary

M&S in England charge for bags in the food hall but not for clothes.

We always take bags for our food shop both at home and here in Tenerife. Here in Tenerife the big supermarkets charge for bags.

Clothes are more difficult. I suppose a separate cloth bag could be the answer.

Should have been brought in years ago.

M & S did start but it is not consistent. Our local M & S does not always charge!!!

But I get very frustrated with Sainsburys online all their orders come in plastic bags. Yes the driver will take away any you give him, but surely deliveries in boxes would be more appropriate.

All the mainline supermarkets amaze me, they put the items you ordered in plastic bags, well those that don't allow you to choose - do not deliver in bags, then they put the bags in a plastic crate to deliver them :-S

I should imagine that delivering food in cardboard boxes is unhygienic. Manufacturing of boxes is not as controlled an environment as the manufacture of carrier bags.

There have been incidents of all sorts of bugs getting into the manufacture of cardboard. Loose fruit from abroad is usually sealed in plastic now, and I well remember when we used to get the most horrific of crawlies in store deliveries when fruit came in from Africa and other hot places in cardboard containers.

I am not sure why people need home deliveries anyway (unless they have mobility issues and no one can shop for them). If people go to a shop and buy what they want and bring it home, they take the minimal risk of infection and cross contamination on way home and no plastic needs to be involved at all.

Not impressed with this idea - I'll have to start buying bin liners instead of using free supermarket bags. ;-)

If I spend £300+ on a coat on the High Street I don't expect to have to pay for a bag to put it in.

I sometimes have supermarket deliveries because it's a service they offer. Why wouldn't anyone if they find it more convenient than queues?

John, that's a man with a car speaking! As one who doesn't drive I would have to make 5 trips to the shops using buses to be able to get all the shopping in that I can have in one delivery. That would be £20 in fares instead of £2.50 delivery charge. Even getting a taxi back from town to carry the shopping in one go would cost more than the delivery charge.

It's not just a question of mobility, it's a question of how far you are from shops( and possibly how expensive those local shops are ).

Having just been in an area of Wales where the local shops charge much more per item, than the supermarkets which deliver, even if mobility were not an issue I can see why the locals prefer to get their food delivered. :-D

Guinevere. All to do with this thing about carbon footprints. My boss is very keen on that, and sends me from the Rhondda to work in Neath and sends someone from Neath to work in the Rhondda. I think he may have misunderstood the Government's message - or perhaps he is a Jeremy Clarkson fan :-S

And as for the £300 coat, we have seen all that in Wales and got the T-shirt - and the £300 coat. We walk round Bridgend Designer Village with a clean wheelie bin. Leave our wheelie bin (ours is an environmentally friendly light green) outside each shop, buy our items including our £300 coats, drop them in bottom of wheelie bin and move on to the next shop. Each shopper is assigned their own personal security adviser so taht nothing is nicked out of all the hundreds of wheelie bins:-) ;-)

Not sure what all the fuss is about. We all managed before plastic bags were invented didn't we?

Large stores still to give bags? Well they don't in Wales and we survive, even when buying clothes. Yes, even from M&S !! We have to put clothes in our own bags.

It's easy -
You keep certain bags for food shopping only. I use those strong hessian type bags about £1 each from Tesco. They last donkeys years.
And you keep other bags (what I call clean bags) specifically for clothes/other shopping, ie the cotton type, most of which wrap up small in your handbag, and which can also be easily thrown in the washing machine if they get dirty.
Simples.

You've just got to remember to take them with you.....you'll get used to it, I promise, it just takes a wee bit of time :-D

Welcome back, Rose. Passport duly stamped?:-D

I quite agree with you about many rural areas. Yes, you do need a car. In fact, problems in rural areas seem very acute - long way to access anything, prices higher, fuel prohibitive.

I wonder how this "order on line and pick up" works. I see the pick up stations on many supermarket forecourts now. I would have thought that is quite a good way forward. A group of, say, 10 neighbours could form a little shopping group like those baby sitting points circles many belonged to when we had littlies and wanted to escape for an evening out.

In that group of 10 there may be 4 car drivers and the other 6 pay them in petrol or kind for going down, collecting shopping for 10 and delivering up and down street. So each driver only has to do the shopping run once a month and it will only take minutes to load up at supermarket and load down at neighbours' houses.

It wouldn't work in places where it is considered improper to speak or smile at your neighbours.

John, you seem to be being deliberately rude or obtuse. I can't work out which and don't really care.

I don't shop at outlet stores - there aren't any near me and to go to one I would have to create an enormous carbon footprint and that would never do. And who wants to be seen in last season's styles anyway?

My point was that when you are spending a lot of money it's ridiculous to be asked to pay for a bag. I understand some shops are looking at moving to paper bags to get round the regulations.

I rarely take bags with me unless going to the supermarket so I'll be carrying stuff home over my arm, I expect. I never know I'm going to buy something until I see something I like.

Karen, I have been to Wales and understand the position but some larger stores keep old bags under the counter and you just ask if they have a recycled one. I've done that a few times.

Simple.

Oh I didn't know they had some hidden under the counter Guinevere, that's a good idea. :-D

As for supermarket deliveries, I think they're a great idea. Sorry, going off the original topic here, but it seems to have crept into the conversation....When my mum could no longer manage her shopping (onset of dementia) I used to order on-line for her (she had more or less the same every week) so it was easy.
It gave me, in Cairo, great peace of mind to know she was not going without anything, and it was easy for her not to have to go into town to get shopping or worry about the paying aspect, which became a problem. Tesco delivered without plastic bags (on request). The chap brought the stuff in a plastic crate, unloaded it in her kitchen, and took the crate away with him.
So, John, in answer to your 'not sure why people need home deliveries anyway....' there's yet another example of why they do :-)

Thankyou, Guinevere. Neither of those :-) Shopping habits change. Women would once never go to Howells or Browns or Harrods without a hat. Now even the most fashionable ladies walk round bear-headed (edit bare-headed) pulling a wheelie bin whilst clothes shopping.

I wish they'd done deliveries when my Mum was still alive, it would have made life so much easier for her. She had to wait until we could go for her.

Ironic when you think my Nan had a twice weekly delivery from "Thomas the grocer" in the 1960s.

But the problem with your idea John is that

a) you have to be part of a community ( and you have to want to be!). I really don't want my neighbours to know exactly the contents of my shop every week...nor they me I expect! I had enough of that in the village whenever I went into the corner shop it was an interrogation on" what do vegetarians eat ?" :-0 :-P

b) you have to rely on someone who is doing it for free ( or petrol money) and is therefore not necessarily willing or available when YOU want your shopping, they could be ill, away, working, fed up with you lol.

c) why ? when you can pay a very small amount to have it professionally delivered, on the day and at the time of your choice, and with the ability to accept or refuse subsitutes if they haven't got exactly what you have asked for. it keeps one vehicle on the road delivering to a considerable number of people at once, but with proper facilities on board ( ie cold storage!)...who want's half melted frozen stuff because the 'designated shopper' has detoured or delivered everyone's shopping before yours?

HID normally takes his Tesco canvas shopping bags with him when he is actually going shopping...but he quite often pops into Morrisons on his way home from work for a few bits and pieces....so no bag.

He will now have to remember to keep a bag in the car or walk home with the trolley instead.

Daughter lives in a village with a small baby....she doesn't drive so shopping would be a nightmare for her catching the bus with nappies and whatever else she needs.

Other daughter works for Tesco as a "picker" on a Saturday so at least it keeps people in employment.

So people in Wales have to pay for their bags...maybe they should pay for their prescriptions as well then.....a lot more than a 5p bag :-D

The problem is plastic bags.

There isn't a problem putting shopping in paper bags, used to happen before they came up with plastic bags.

.................quite often see men in the supermarket with an old bag..... :-D :-D :-D

When SIL comes to visit from Wales she goes back with a pile of carrier bags.