BristolUK

This is covid related, sort of, but environment too.

Supermarkets (here) are no longer doing plastic bags. The discontinuance was already put off once. Now it's paper bags, nothing or (more) reusable bags.

Thanks to the buying on a whim or buying more than my MIL had bags with her for, we have masses of reusable bags. They've been so useful for shopping. You just remember to take them with you.

Since Covid, the stores are discouraging their use unless you pack them yourselves. But how practical is that?

For the most part we are ordering on line and having groceries delivered and since plastic bags have ended we've had one shopper who had no bags at all; everything was placed from car to doorstep (I don't know if he had containers in the car) and 2 or 3 other times stuff delivered in reusable bags that we have not paid for. So now we are collecting even more.

They've not been on our bill. I doubt the shopper is paying but it would seem generous if either Walmart provided them free or Instacart did.

Whoever is 'paying' they're piling up. There's no way for us to get them to the shopper to reuse.

I've done a few trips for small shopping needs. That was tough to get things onto the conveyor belt and then be at the other end to bag them in reusables. A normal shopping trip and that's just not practical even if I was Speedy Gonzales.

Today, for an IGA order (not Instacart) everything came in good quality paper bags. 10c each. No complaints there...apart from maybe more trees get cut down now? Easy enough to recycle, except they're a little bulky and might fill up our blue bag quite quickly.

Or maybe we burn them and increase our contribution to global warming.

The only way around this I can see is to go shopping with two - against advice - and take reusables, having the second person packing the shopping into the bags.

scrubbedexpat091

I am so used to self bagging groceries, I can't remember the last time I went to a grocery store that did it for you. Between the increase in self check out, and chains like Super Store and No Frills, neither of which bag groceries for customers, and Wal-Mart using self check out, I have become a grocery packing expert. lol


https://www.amazon.ca/Radio-Flyer-Fold-Wagon-cargo/dp/B01CTUGCOQ

mrken30

We don't do deliveries, but do the click and collect. Sometimes we get one item per bag. I have no idea why, all I can assume if that different people are doing different items. It is very annoying. Very nice high quality paper bags, but I only need so many.

BristolUK

Useful for panic attacks.

old.sparkles

Everyone bags for themselves in the UK - did when I left and still do. Not sure why you think it's not possible.

Here they bag for you, except early during COVID when you had to bag for yourself. Doesn't take two people - just tell the checkout operator to wait until you finish unloading the cart. Even if they don't, there's only so much they can scan without it being bagged.

We only use reusables - it's part of the routine to grab them when going shopping. I usually take more than I need, but if not I'll grab a box or just put them back in the trolley unpacked, put them in the car like that and unload at home.

As an aside, I still have an ASDA bag for life still in use, even though we left the UK more than 7 years ago

BristolUK

Not where I shopped (Gateway, Tesco, ASDA and Sainsburys in Bristol) they didn't. I was always having to stop them bagging my stuff because I was on my bike and it had to be packed in a certain way
I didn't. I questioned the practicality of it. Perhaps it depends how many you're shopping for. It takes longer to lift items from the cart and place them on the belt than it does for the cashier to scan them so the groceries are piling up at the other end quicker than I am unloading them. So then it's up to me to pack them in my bags and then lift them into the cart while the cashier is waiting and unable to make a start on the groceries of the person behind me.
Now if they're going to wait patiently as I try to pack all those things of different weights and sizes and find room for them in the cart, great.

Last week I was packing my stuff away while the cashier complained that she was waiting for me to do the bit with my card. That would have slowed my packing.

Before Covid, I'd give my reusable bags to the cashier and as they scanned they'd fill up the bags while I'm unloading. Like clockwork it was.

Or they'd put the stuff in plastic bags which they no longer have.

Siouxie

My local stores weren't allowing resusable bags inside the store - (I think that's changed now) - but they still have plastic bags available, some have waived the 5c fee for them.

old.sparkles

This is how I remember checkouts:


You put your stuff on the conveyor, checkout operator scans it and slides it to the end, you bag it. ASDA, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Iceland, etc.

Only shop I remember doing it differently was LIDL who use the trolley from the person in front to put your stuff into, then you give them your trolley when your done.

I usually have all my stuff on the conveyor before the person in front has finished any way, but what are other shoppers doing? And at the end of the day, if the checkout operator has to wait, then they wait. They don't get paid anymore for the amount they scan do they? Or do they?

MillieF

We are still getting plastic bags free, and can’t use reusable bags unless we pack them ourselves, but...a) I Hate having someone else pack my bags, or do anything else for me that I can do perfectly well myself. b) I came here from France where you either brought your own reusable bags, or bought a reusable bag...but they, quite rightly, wouldn’t give you a horrid little placky one. A month after doing this, I NEVER went into a shop without a bag...

A month after living here I never went into one WITH my own reusable bag, I just took the horrid little placky one...we are that trainable! I don’t recycle half of the stuff here that we did in Europe, there seems to be no point? It’s just going end up in landfill? I won’t even mention glass!

scilly

Our Safeway had done away with plastic bags last year, you had to use reusable bags or pay for paper, both cashier packed. When covid struck, they went to customer pack own bags, then after 2 or 3 weeks they stopped that and brought back plastic bags for free, and cashier packed.

Now they do a mix ................... we always have reusable bags in the car and OH takes them up into the store, but only about half of them are used with plastic bags being used for some items.

Today he came back with 2 plastic bag loads (one of them being double bagged for some reason) and 3 reusable bags packed.

BristolUK

I remember Tesco doing that for a period. It would be quite useful now; then you bag it how you want, put in boxes in your car, whatever you want.
Just that 'covid' issue of then using the cart that the customer in front of you used.

So this may be in with the quantity aspect I mentioned. There's no room for all my purchases until the cashier has scanned and packed enough to make room.

Fortunately, my bigger shops have been done using delivery service, I've only done the smaller ones where I can stick stuff on the conveyor and get to the other end to pack without feeling like I'm making others wait.

The moment I do go to make a bigger, more normal shop I'll either take my own bags and feel rushed while packing them; pay for paper bags which are not as convenient as bags with handles, nor as big; or opt for the convenience of new reusables, at a cost, when we already have scores of them at home.

scot47

Golly, talk about "First World Problems" !

cxx

Exactly as I remember it. Always packed everything myself, and continue to do so here. Sobeys here used to have packers that did a dreadful job of sticking heavy stuff on top of light stuff so I told them I'd do it myself. If they don't have separate packers the cashier scans everything and pushes it to the back of the till whilst the customer stands watching them, then after taking payment the cashier has to pack all of the stuff whilst the customer continues to watch! A process which is as ridculously time wasting as it sounds!!

BristolUK

I had planned to put that in my first post but I seem to have missed it

scrubbedexpat091

First world countries have first world problems.