Plastic Bag Charges

[salus.populi]

It is with exceptions, i.e if you buy fresh fruit & veg (loose) or fresh fish you can have a free bag so long as you don't put anything else in it.

So does someone follow you till you get home just in case?

[whiplash]

Fish and chip shops give free carrier bags.

[gsgsgs]

So does someone follow you till you get home just in case?

Once you've left the shop you can do what you like.

[said]

Well, even back in 2015, the government was giving grants of over £3 billion pounds a year to just the largest charities. That will have grown since - especially with the ludicrous ring-fenced overseas aid profligacy that the Tories like to waste taxpayers' money on.


https://www.institute-of-fundraising...ansparency-do/

The shops should be giving the money to a charity - but the fact that customers now enter each shop with a huge variety of bags, some huge, some with many pockets, other carrier bags etc., surely this is very attractive to shoplifters?
"Excuse me, sir - did you put that in your bag and not pay for it?"
"No - I did not purchase it here, I got it from another shop"
"Do you have the receipt?"
"No I was in a hurry and just put the item in my bag"
"But I saw you looking at those items in here"
" Yes, I was just comparing the price that this store sold it at"
So prove it was shoplifted!
As opposed to having a carrier bag, with the cashier putting everything purchased at that shop along with the receipt in the one bag marked with the stores name.

[RobinC]

If a shop employs fewer than 250 staff, then they do not have to charge for carrier bags - may change in the future - so this will be virtually all chippys.

To prove someone shoplifted an item, most big shops will have a CCTV system, and if someone is suspected of theft they will have been followed all round the shop, with the recording kept for evidence.

Many years ago, I worked for Sainsburys and was involved in court, with a man who stole a bottle of vodka, In court he was adamant that he had bought the vodka earlier, gone out of the shop, lost his receipt, bought a fresh crab from the market, which he put on top of the vodka then returned to the shop for more purchases. This explanation went on and on, disputing the statement given by the experienced store detective. It didn't help, that his accent, made him pronounce the letter b as a p, so every time he said "crab" there were muffled titters in the court. Eventually, the magistrate stopped him, and said he didn't believe a word of his expanation, to which the thief replied "OK". He got 6 months - this was in the 70s when shoplifting was treated as a crime. He did have previous.

[salus.populi]

The shops should be giving the money to a charity - but the fact that customers now enter each shop with a huge variety of bags, some huge, some with many pockets, other carrier bags etc., surely this is very attractive to shoplifters?
"Excuse me, sir - did you put that in your bag and not pay for it?"
"No - I did not purchase it here, I got it from another shop"
"Do you have the receipt?"
"No I was in a hurry and just put the item in my bag"
"But I saw you looking at those items in here"
" Yes, I was just comparing the price that this store sold it at"
So prove it was shoplifted!
As opposed to having a carrier bag, with the cashier putting everything purchased at that shop along with the receipt in the one bag marked with the stores name.

On one occasion I wanted to use a bag half full of shopping bought elsewhere to put more shopping in at Sainsbury's. Having placed it in the bagging area what can only described as a Kafkaesque nightware ensued with the checkout. Never again. What exactly is the point of self-checkouts when they need a member of staff on hand to sort things out every 5 seconds?

[said]

Stores do not use CCTV continuously, it is used only occasionally - but obviously shoppers do not know when it is being used. There is a lot of legislation regarding the use of this system and it confuses many store owners or they do not want to get involved in issues that may mean that they themselves are fined. Legislation involves personal privacy, the storage of data and the fact that only a trained employee is allowed access to the footage. Very often the footage is very poor quality (no-where near as sharp as that used for the Russian poison thing) or as the Police have found out, often they do not work at all.

[Alikado]

If a shop employs fewer than 250 staff, then they do not have to charge for carrier bags - may change in the future - so this will be virtually all chippys.

To prove someone shoplifted an item, most big shops will have a CCTV system, and if someone is suspected of theft they will have been followed all round the shop, with the recording kept for evidence.

Many years ago, I worked for Sainsburys and was involved in court, with a man who stole a bottle of vodka, In court he was adamant that he had bought the vodka earlier, gone out of the shop, lost his receipt, bought a fresh crab from the market, which he put on top of the vodka then returned to the shop for more purchases. This explanation went on and on, disputing the statement given by the experienced store detective. It didn't help, that his accent, made him pronounce the letter b as a p, so every time he said "crab" there were muffled titters in the court. Eventually, the magistrate stopped him, and said he didn't believe a word of his expanation, to which the thief replied "OK". He got 6 months - this was in the 70s when shoplifting was treated as a crime. He did have previous.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/carrier-...-to-charge-for