The Tesco & other non-Morrisons supermarket thread

[tillyoshea]

pre-existing costs, such as the cost of the bags themselves cannot be deducted from the proceeds before passing the rest onto charity; the retailer is still paying for the bags whether the customer coughs up or not.

That's what the Government says in guidance that it "expects" to happen but, as far as I can see, there's nothing in the legislation to stop retailers doing whatever the hell they want with the proceeds - including paying for the bags and taking the remainder as profit.

[Alexia]

Whereas in Wales, the bag charge goes to charity.

[Andrew]

Everywhere I've visited with self-service checkouts locally (Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, M&S, and WHSmith) has the bags loaded, as usual, onto the hangers.

The best 5p bag I've bought is at my local Spar - very durable, and large too.

Boots don't have any bags loaded, meaning you have to attract a member of staff's attention, particularly if you want one of the free lunchtime bags.

Tesco varies, in my experience it tends to be the stores in the dodgier rougher areas that have no bags.

Whilst on the topic of bags, whereas some stores have improved the quality of their bags since they now cost 5p, particularly Sainsburys who now use very high quality bags, WHSmith are still using veil thin bags that can bearly be used once never mind for life.

[tillyoshea]

Whereas in Wales, the bag charge goes to charity.

Again, nothing in the legislation to require that. Retailers, if they are so minded, can opt into a voluntary agreement with the Welsh Assembly saying that they'll donate the proceeds to charity... but there's nothing legally preventing them from pocketing it.

[bilky asko]

Everywhere I've visited with self-service checkouts locally (Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, M&S, and WHSmith) has the bags loaded, as usual, onto the hangers.

The best 5p bag I've bought is at my local Spar - very durable, and large too.

Boots don't have any bags loaded, meaning you have to attract a member of staff's attention, particularly if you want one of the free lunchtime bags.

Tesco varies, in my experience it tends to be the stores in the dodgier rougher areas that have no bags.

Whilst on the topic of bags, whereas some stores have improved the quality of their bags since they now cost 5p, particularly Sainsburys who now use very high quality bags, WHSmith are still using veil thin bags that can bearly be used once never mind for life.

I noticed that with the WHSmith bags. It struggled to hold a couple of their (discounted) soft drinks without piercing.

[Martin Phillp]

All it takes is a 'sharp' edge for the Smith's bags to split.

Before the bag charge, WHSmith travel shops were already charging for bags, either 1 or 2p depending on the outlet.

[wells]

I thought all WHSmiths already charged for bags not just the travel stores. Never really got the logic of charging a penny for a bag as if you were due a penny change customers often aren't bothered about that so it's more of an encouragement to take the bag. Unless it was more about recouping the production costs than cutting down on waste.

[cwathen]

What is the position if a retailer fails to charge for a bag?

If caught the retailer 'could' be fined. This is a fixed penalty of £200 for 'not charging for bags appropriately'. Repeat offenders can be fined up to £5000 for this offence. All fines are reduced if paid within 28 days, and there are separate (lower) fines for not keeping records or for failing to supply them when asked. Whether they would actually be fined for 'not charging for bags appropriately' over a single incident or whether there would need to be evidence of systematic failure to comply is unclear.

I'd be interested to see what happens if a shopper is caught lying to a self service checkout. Whilst this is theft, something of such little value would almost always be written off by the police as 'not in the public interest to pursue'. If the police do investigate and people get taken to a magistrates court and convicted over theft of a carrier bag, it will doubtless open the floodgates for retailers to query why someone stealing products from their store for a much higher value is unlikely to face prosecution unless they are doing it on a serial basis.

In the past week or so I've been given four bags without charge. In one case it was at a petrol station and it might be that it is a franchise and therefore falls below the 250 employee limit. In the other case it was a national retailer famous for their Boxing Day sales that people get up stupidly early for.

I think the idea of defining a small shop not by the size of the unit (or number of people working in the unit) but instead by the total number of people employed by the overall business is one of the more silly points in the legislation. Particularly in the case of franchises where one store of a given brand name might be owned by a single-store franchisee and be qualified as a small business and exempt, but another might be owned by a franchisee with several stores which takes them over the threshold and therefore require them to charge even thought both stores trade under the same name, sell the same products, and are physically similar in terms of size and number of people working there. This will only lead to confusion. Some franchisees also will take exception at people outside the 'system' being able to freely tell how small/big they are as this is sometimes considered commercially sensitive information. It would have been far more sensible to go down the same route as Sunday trading has gone down and base it on the size of the store in question, not the size of the company operating it.

[Andrew]

I thought all WHSmiths already charged for bags not just the travel stores. Never really got the logic of charging a penny for a bag as if you were due a penny change customers often aren't bothered about that so it's more of an encouragement to take the bag. Unless it was more about recouping the production costs than cutting down on waste.

I think it seemed to be a regional roll out that never was completed. I think they charged 1p in Manchester but they were still free in Leeds for example.

[cwathen]

I thought all WHSmiths already charged for bags not just the travel stores. Never really got the logic of charging a penny for a bag as if you were due a penny change customers often aren't bothered about that so it's more of an encouragement to take the bag. Unless it was more about recouping the production costs than cutting down on waste.

I think it seemed to be a regional roll out that never was completed. I think they charged 1p in Manchester but they were still free in Leeds for example.

ISTR (although I can't swear to it) that at Exeter St Davids they were already charging 5p for some time before the charge came in

[bilky asko]

I thought all WHSmiths already charged for bags not just the travel stores. Never really got the logic of charging a penny for a bag as if you were due a penny change customers often aren't bothered about that so it's more of an encouragement to take the bag. Unless it was more about recouping the production costs than cutting down on waste.

Indeed - my local branch already charged 1p a bag. Incidentally, they are the only NCR self service machines I've seen that have the scales switched off permanently - are they like this at all stores?