Metropol

can we stay on topic please, this is a dedicated plastic bag thread

My parents have rarely if ever used those inferior plastic bags from the likes of ASDA. Instead, they have these really tough plastic bags (only purchaseable from Somerfield last time I looked, but my parents still have some of these bags in tesco-branded wrapping, that's the old red 80's branding), and two of them are getting on in age - but they are still perfectly serviceable.

I remember the carrier bags of Lo-Cost (now defunct supermarket chain taken over by CRS, rebranded to LoCost Discount and then Pioneer (the branding still survives in Truro), now branded as Co-Op stores after the CRS >> CWS >> Co-Operative Group changes). Right into the early 90's, they still had tough-as-boots thick carrier bags which could carry loads reliably for a long way and the bags then served as storage for a myriad of tasks - my parents still use Lo-Cost carrier bags to store their christmas lights.

The current trend of paper-thin carriers that stretch and break beyond usefulness is only designed to benefit business. If the government is serious about reducing waste and going green, they'd introduce a minimum quality standard for carrier bags, which require them to be produced to the same standard which they were 20-25 years ago. Then we'd have far fewer incidences of plastic bags littering our countryside - if current day bags weren't so shite then they would go on to see the other uses which the previous generation of carrier bags have..

We shop with tesco.com - they seem to put 3-4 items in each bag, resulting in a huge collection of bags if its a big shop. The good thing is tesco will collect the bags and reuse them. Alot of stores have bag recycle bins out side.

We are told to put only a couple of items in each bag.

Two reasons - firstly, so if anything leaks, only one or two items are affected, and secondly, security, so if most things are bagged separately, its more obvious when things have gone missing/been tampered with, between picking from shop floor and delivery.

Now all we need to do is educate those who DO recycle bags, to bundle them up, not just chuck loose handfuls of the bastard things back at us... :roll:

cwathen wrote: I remember the carrier bags of Lo-Cost (now defunct supermarket chain taken over by CRS, rebranded to LoCost Discount and then Pioneer (the branding still survives in Truro), now branded as Co-Op stores after the CRS >> CWS >> Co-Operative Group changes). Right into the early 90's, they still had tough-as-boots thick carrier bags which could carry loads reliably for a long way and the bags then served as storage for a myriad of tasks - my parents still use Lo-Cost carrier bags to store their christmas lights.

I've been past that Co-Op (truro) many times and I've always wondered why it had that branding. I'm pretty sure the one in Newquay still has Pioneer branding too.

The one in my village (a Local) has the new (though it's not new now) blue on white Co-Op logo and the village name in some funny "handwriting" font.

TG wrote:Now all we need to do is educate those who DO recycle bags, to bundle them up, not just chuck loose handfuls of the bastard things back at us.

I'm sure you'll be pleased to know that we flatten them all out neatly, fold them in half, put them tidily in the returning wine box and give them to the driver.

We stuff them all into one bag - but they are all together!

Had a strange subsutitation a few months back...
I ordered

1 Red peper
not in stock and was substutited for
1 small brown loaf!

nidave wrote:Had a strange subsutitation a few months back.

We order eight bananas each week; don't ask why, we just do.

We have a note on the bananas item which says "If small, please send extra".

So the dimbo who blue boxes our order will either send eight huge ones or six tiny ones.

So, sorry Mr TG, if I worry a tad about the intelligence level of the packers.

Nick Harvey wrote: I'm sure you'll be pleased to know that we flatten them all out neatly, fold them in half, put them tidily in the returning wine box and give them to the driver.

Delighted. More like you, please! Far easier to fit in our recycling cage that way

nidave wrote: Had a strange subsutitation a few months back...
I ordered

1 Red peper
not in stock and was substutited for
1 small brown loaf!

Not as bad as one of our girls, who always insists on subbing tiny Whiskas pouches when we're out of huge tins of Pedigree Chum...
Probably perfectly edible, I'll grant, but I'm yet to meet a single customer who actually takes it...

Nick Harvey wrote:

nidave wrote:Had a strange subsutitation a few months back.

We order eight bananas each week; don't ask why, we just do.

We have a note on the bananas item which says "If small, please send extra".

So the dimbo who blue boxes our order will either send eight huge ones or six tiny ones.

So, sorry Mr TG, if I worry a tad about the intelligence level of the packers.

Oh, don;t worry, I frequently despair of them myself.

Do bear in mind though, most stores are still using antiquated Windows 95 teampads to pick the shopping - half the time, we're lucky if ANY notes get through to us as they;re SO slow...

suppose the system is quite old now - I did a very short stint at tesco when they got the current tills in. Just got trained up on them then I left! (was only there 2 weeks).