please empty your brain below

We are not interested in your shopping habits. We are interested in changes to shopping habits.
DG you need one of these.
No big change for me. I still use Online Supermarket C, who still deliver my shopping in carrier bags (5p a time) who encourage me to recycle them by paying me 5p for each bag I give back to them.

It feels like Online Supermarket C have fiddled the system a little. But it works for me...
The bag tax was long overdue,especially when observing others in the supermarket packing three or less items in each bag. No,that wasn't all they were buying,I once counted twenty bags being stacked up in one trolley. Free dustbin liners perhaps? The culprits were invariably younger people,not looking to save the planet. Yes,you're right,I am an older lady who carries 'proper' shopping bags. But what is puzzling to me is that when going out to buy new clothes,a suit,dress,trousers maybe,you are now asked if you want them in a bag? No,of course not! You're going to carry them home on the hangars,or draped over your arm! So- another 5p! P.s. Suits don't react well to being rolled up and stuffed in rucksacks or shopping bags!😳😳
I haven't changed much. I always carry a messenger bag which can contain most shopping I'm likely to do on a daily basis (and which used to cause bemused looks from staff when I said I didn't need a bag).

However whereas I used to then supplement this with plastic bags as required, I now always carry a "parachute" style bag with me for extras.

As to actual shopping habits... nothing has changed, most of my shopping is delivered because I hate trudging round supermarket A, B or C!
When my local supermarket switched to paid for bags, they used the thicker 'bag for life' ones, the day before when they were still free, there were boxes of the freeby ones on standby (as usual) to be handed to cashiers when their own supply ran out.

The questions is this - where did the boxes of unused freeby bags go?, did they all get thrown away?, are they in a large warehouse somewhere alongside the Arc of the Covenant?
No change here. I was already taking my own bags before the 5p charge started.
I use strong canvas bags, I always found the thin plastic bags rip, especially if you have packed a sharp cornered item.
Use my bicycle so the bike carry's the weight.
I have always kept my shopping bags in the car, ready for the big weekly shop, but as I take a briefcase to work random purchases during the week go in that now, where I might have used a separate bag before. Changes though are that I now have to buy real binliners instead of using old plastic bags (someone will now tell me whether binliners cost more than 5p each!). The second change is that I visit my local shop less often than I used to, but it is difficult to say whether that is because of the bag thing or just because it has moved. Only about 200 yards, but it is no longer on my route to the station.
I changed my habits for all of about a week - remembering to pack a long handled fabric bag rather handily provided by Supermarket A just before the new rules applied, or stuffing it's cheaper cousins in various coat pockets "DG style" before heading out. But it wasn't long before the quality bag took up permanent residence in a seldom used rucksack and the cheap ones found more useful employment as bin liners.

The more pressing question for me now, when I reach the till, is whether to stump up for the 10p "bag for life" or the 5p crinkly one, knowing that the latter will invariably end up being doubled up anyway . I expect such dilemmas when browsing the shelves but not when I'm trying to pay!
Go to Supermarket D, they have less than 50 staff and can give you bags FoC.
My supermarket shopping for comestibles remains largely as previously, as I normally manage to bring along bags of any provenance to carry away my purchases. However, I seem to have a complete bag 'blank' when it comes to non-food purchases, so what is new is the experience of walking - uncomfortably, it has to be said - from non-food shops with the purchased item/s of clothes or underwear on display for public scrutiny, whilst ostentatiously displaying the till receipt for fear that I may be mistaken for a shoplifter!
Now that I either have to pay or my bags (memory problems...) or do remember, when is someone going to look at the quantity of plastic used for wasteful packaging which dwarfs that of the bag itself?

(p.s. 50,000 years to decay. Come and see the dust in my garage where I've used these archival bags to store things and they have now disappeared...)
DG - you want some of these string bags.
They are very small, fit in pocket, smarter than old plastic, and being string, they don't fill up with unhygenic gunk at the bottom.
http://www.turtlebags.co.uk/_wsn/page3.html
My answer is to be a little more assertive about packing my own bags, even if it means putting them on the floor and having my shopping passed down to me.
Wow, that is a lot of angst about 5p. If you are being forced to recycle bags, then you shouldn't care what bags they are or what condition they are in.

Anyway, it hasn't changed my habits - I just pay the 5p because the time it takes to avoid paying it is worth than that.
They brought in a 'no bag' policy in some Australian states a while ago. The one I live in is not affected, but two I visit are. At first, it was a no bag policy ... then they brought in a charge. Most people remember to bring bags (remembering that we are talking about the burbs, where most people drive, and not inner London).

I use a parachute type bag that sits in my backpack (but would fit in a pocket) and at other times I take something like this http://www.greenbag.com.au/index.php?_p_=54, which is sturdier (but mine is black). The cultural difference is that here you get a hairly eyeball look if you actually have to buy a bag (you ill-begotten global warmer dolphin killer, you!) ... so I along with most others just rolled with the change.

So, to succinctly answer your question, for me I went about my business as usual and simply remembered to take a bag with me. But then, I doubt that many women manage to travel without bags to put bags in, not because we don't travel light, but because our clothes are designed to make our bodies appealing, not to carry keys, purses, tissues, phones, etc., especially in summer. So, I reckon you might have a bit of a bloke problem there!
The change has caused me to have to buy bin liners. So, I'm still sending plastic envelopes to the tip in my refuse but they are now plain and unadorned with brand advertising.
In supermarkets I've not really changed. I always used to take a handful of those Bag for Life bags (I have several) which are so much better for carrying lots of stuff from the supermarket.

Online shopping is different - I recently changed supplier (for other reasons) and the new one offers bagless delivery. This is 'fun' as it means me standing in my narrow hallway trying to stack things in plastic boxes as the driver unloads. It's more faff but it saves 40p and lots of bags so I guess it makes sense.

Where I have paid for bags its when been non-food shopping, like clothes or when I recently needed a new laptop. In the latter case I had taken a bag but it wasn't big enough! Five pence it was! Friend of my mums gets outraged by this five pence charge and will decide not to make a purchase rather than pay the 5p, which to me seems bonkers. I spent several hundred pounds on the laptop. I wasn't going to cancel the purchase for the lack of spending 5p for a bag in which to carry the box home in.
"We are not interested...."?

Does Diamond Geezer have multiple personalities, is it a pseudo-name for a whole team or is he really the Queen?

The plot thickens...
I often end up not carrying bags. Example yesterday waking down Tottenham Court Road attempting to balance three loaves of bread in my hands. It works, though.
I don't experience any awkwardness when carrying Morrisons bags in Waitrose or Waitrose bags in Tesco. At least checkout staff won't try to make me pay for them again.
I refuse to discuss this boring subject. Oops.
I too have made changes, not all of them at the point of sale. I go most places with a tank bag which mounts on the tank of my bike which also has a strap for use as a shoulder bag. The shopping now goes direct in that (no carrier bag) and I've become quite skilled at not putting more in the basket than will actually fit in it at the check out.

I'll frequently say "I don't need bags, thanks" before I've been asked.

I also still have a small stock of old bags that I use as bin liners. I used to put them out on dustbin days, but nowadays I make those last few bags last as long as I damn well can, which typically means compacting the contents manually.

On the occasions I do need a bag for larger items (too big for the bike, let alone the tank bag: eg. boxes of cat food) I never knew how much I could resent having paid 5p for something... which promptly splits down the side as soon as you get out of the shop :(
I used to get carrier bags all the time, but now I just use a massive Sports Direct bag from 5-odd years ago!
I always took and packed my own bags anyway so in that respect nothing changed.
But, whereas I used to get my weekly shopping from Iceland delivered, I'm now dragging the heavy load home myself most of the time because of the bag tax.
In fairness, they do ask if I've brought my own bags for them to pack and deliver, but like you I keep forgetting.

A consequence of this is that I now have no plastic bags for bin liners, so I do have them deliver once a month just to get some!! Yes, I know it'd probably be cheaper just to buy bin liners, but hey ho! That's a change for another time!
What's remarkable is that, in the scheme of things, 5p is a negligible amount, yet it's created such a massive behaviour change, with people going to huge lengths with their convoluted used bag strategies to avoid paying it.
I carry a small rucksack most of the time, and in their lives a folded large bag for life - so most of the time I can carry on shopping as before (a combo of small supermarket A near work, small supermarket B next to the station on the way home, and big supermarket B half way between home and station).

One of the things I've found interesting is that (posh) supermarket A has the bags out exactly as before at the self-checkouts, so it's easy to just pay the 5p (which most people seem to do; I have noted I am unusual in carrying my own bag - which is unashamedly from a different supermarket).

Meanwhile both small & large supermarket B have their bags tucked away, making it more of an effort to get - and it seems more people are making the effort to bring their own bags there.

Not sure if that's a difference in the customer base between A & B, or if the placement of bags is making a difference too.
From this thread, we've discovered that - for the negligible impact of plastic bags on the environment - the ban discourages more efficient online shopping, discourages local shops, and encourages car trips to large supermarkets.

Almost as if it were a greenwashing piece of nonsense designed to benefit the political-donating people who run the big supermarkets, innit?
I got rid of my car about the same time the tax came in. Result was doubly so on me 'planning to shop' - I need to cycle 10 mins to a big store but can bring back a big load on the back.

I still use the little stores on my way to/from work/gym but now am far more likely to be bringing an empty backpack on those occasions. I don't mind paying if I get caught out.
...no change for the 1 million people who use foodbanks
I planned to never pay the 5p bag tax. But life got in the way.

Years ago I would price a whole shopping list in supermarket A (without buying), go to supermarket B, and buy only things which were less than the A price, then go back to A for the rest.

That way I saved far more than the odd 5p. But I stopped doing it, because life got in the way.
Oh, and DG was not using the royal we. He meant him and his readers.

Of course, he might be wrong about what interests his readers: but probably not, because any readers who were not interested in the things DG though would interest his readers have already stopped reading.
Having done the main grocery shop every month or so at Lidl I've accumulated a stash of the extra heavy duty bags that last pretty much forever, and are great for that. However they're no good at all to pop in your pocket/rucksack so I've found that one change has been me acquiring a load of the "10p" bags, which fold up handily to slip into a back pocket.

Luckily I do carry a rucksack pretty much every day so I've ended up allocating a couple of bags solely to that use - once I've unpacked any shopping they go straight back into the rucksack ready for the next day. This makes my occasional "just need to pick up some milk" trips to Supermarket B much more practical.

The one downside of the change is that I'm running low on bin liners :)
The only place I've had a cashier react snootily to a different store's bag was at Waitrose. I assume it was in jest - but it's happened twice now.

The thing which has annoyed me most about the charge is the Tesco self-service checkouts, which ask you how many new bags you need to pay for, and then make you hang around for 10 seconds until the 'enter' button becomes active. Annoys me more than paying 5p for a bag.
About 10 years ago, the Co-op brought in a 5p charge. An Assistant Manager told me that at his store, in a relatively-wealthy village near Southampton, the clientele typically would pay the extra 5p for a bag-for-life over a biodegradable thin one - which was the point of the charge.

Thing is, most of them didn't remember to bring them to the store the next time they shop and bought bags-for-life again (and again and again). Some were still doing this a year after the 'green' charge was implemented!

I believe said Assistant Manager complained to HQ, and did things like encouraging people to use the 5p bags instead of buying yet more 10p bags that they never reused. Both to little avail.
In my previous life as a retail assistant manager, the chain I worked for made a big fuss about their green credentials by introducing a new range of reusable recycled cloth bags to cut down on plastic use.

Each of these bags came individually wrapped in its own plastic bag...
I personally can't believe that 5p a bag changes anyone's habits. Make it 40-50p a bag and I would re-use bags every time I go shopping, but an extra 20p or so on my shopping bill won't have me worrying about it.

I do try to reuse bags and did before the rule change, but I wouldn't bend down to pick a 5p up from the floor.
as I frequently visit Wales, I started getting used to the bag tax before it started in England - the one big change I made was to (try to) remember to have my stash of hemp bags in the back of the car, which doesn't always work as I often forget to take them back back down to the car afterwards

I tried to remember what my mother did back in the good-old-bad-old days before plastic carrier bags - women used to carry around proper old fashioned shopping bags whenever they went out, but I can't remember what happened about small purchases, guess it must have been paper bags
This policy is a classic example of what the Behavioural Insights Team (the Nudge Unit, formerly) can achieve. DG ( and me) go out of our way to avoid this minimal charge, although it may mean we shop somewhere more expensive.
I think I wrote about this last year in a post titled nudge nudge.
Like Peewit, I have a nylon shoulder bag that scrunches into a pouch that fits on a keyring but mine's a £10 'ART FOR ART'S SAKE' souvenir from an art gallery, possibly the Tate.
It looks too middle class to be an embarrassment!
What is the energy input required to manufacture and deliver a cotton string bag, or one made from a thicker fabric such as canvas? Compared to a single-use polythene carrier bag?

I just try to remember to take a bag of some sort, with little effort in trying to match the bag to the shop.
Oddly enough I just had a chat with a Waitrose checkout assistant on this very topic - because I had forgotten my bag so had to ask for one. She told me that people have got better over time - that at first everyone was still paying, but that now she rarely gets asked for a bag. So it's working. (I've just bought a book about the Nudge Unit, I think it'll be rather interesting...)
The thing to remember is that, not all shops make you pay, so if you can find one of them, you can just be 'as you were'
Not much change for me but then I was using bags for life for food shopping before hand. I keep a bag for life in my coat pocket in case there is an impulse buy but I try very hard not to do that. I have a bag in my camera rucksack just in case shopping happens! My food shopping tends to be planned and very regular (same days each week) so more conscious thought and less risk of "oh dear no bag" syndrome.

I don't do much clothes shopping on the high street but got caught out before Christmas and resented paying the 5p. Anything else tends to be bought on line and is delivered to my front door.

I once got "told off" by a cashier in Sainsburys for using Waitrose Bags for Life. Bloody cheek. Needless to say I have kept using them (far better quality but they're getting old and tatty now) and always use the self service tills because I pack the bags how I want them and at my own speed. Much more conveninent except for the horror of "unexpected item".

I am surprised that DG is suffering as much anguish over carrier bags as he seems to be. The phenomenal organisational skills to plan his trips and generate a daily blog entry are surely up to coping with shopping bags!
I've always taken my own bags to local supermarkets because I made my own from denim and they are way stronger than any supermarket bag.

But what surprised me at Christmas was when I went to M&S (to buy underwear, obviously) and virtually everybody had brought their own bag, completely unlike whenever I had been in there previously.

I think there is an element in buying clothes when you actually want to make sure you've got a clean bag in case you need to return the goods.
You are confusing recycling with reusing.
Taking an old bag shopping (should I rephrase that?) so you don't have to pay 5p for a new one is re-use.

Recycling means putting the old bag (when so worn as not to be re-usable) in a collecting skip so it can be taken away, melted down, and reappear as a bottle, a chair, or another bag.
On holiday last Summer in France I bought, for a euro, one of those nylon shoulder bags sold in aid of the Samaritans. Once I learned how to refold it into its pouch I keep it in my jacket pocket, and its not much bigger than a handkerchief. I also have a daily reminder of my holiday.
Having staff routinely on hand to pack your shopping, whether at a small or large supermarket, is clearly a major difference between Norfolk and London. Another is perceived disapproval at the re-use of plastic bags. The frugal check-out people at my local Co-op clearly like me to bring my own bags.

I do get a bit peeved, when I spend a few hundred pounds on new clothes, having to spend 5p on a bag to put them in - obviously, a standard shopping bag isn't big enough and I'm not going to scrunch up a new coat. It might be amusing to take in the big bag from a rival retailer, though.
I'm planning to turn Food Balancing into a new sport: https://twitter.com/dedomenici/status/699922986833461248
The main difference for me is that I use carrier bags for rubbish since as a single person household I rarely fill a black sack every week. My local Turkish greengrocer still provides carrier bags though so if I shop there regularly I'll have enough for my purposes. A friend takes me to a supermarket once a month to get heavy stuff, we've always used plastic boxes there so no change needed.
I have long carried a carrier bag with me (and often a backpack, although now with 2 small children, that is more likely to be full of other cr*p anyway), but now just make absolutely sure. I have a few of those harder plastic disposable/reusable bags, and one always stays folded in the back pocket of my trousers. It can be a bit weird carrying it indoors/at home, but it soon becomes second nature, in the same way that i always have a handkerchief.

I keep a stack of larger, folded bags plus a foldable plastic crate in my care for occasional larger shops. In all cases, the trick is remembering/building into your routine to return newly emptied bags and boxes to there correct place as soon as they are emptied, so you are always ready.
Oh, and as somebody who has lived in several countries and only returned to UK a few months ago, I have long had problems with cashiers etc looking at you strangely when you bring your own bags and particularly when you insist on packing them yourselves - especially in USA where they are so used to handing out reams of disposable plastic bags in a single, small shop, and often have 'helpers' there to help you bag and who almost uniformly do a really pathetic job anyway
I do point out that the self scan tills in the small supermarkets are the same design and hence width as the big supermarkets.

So if you can stand to use these you can pack for yourself in the same space every time.

Also a single "bag for life" is just about useable when they pack for you.
Well, a few days on and I've just had something of a shock. After getting an email from a 'people power' type organisation expressing dismay towards ASDA for discontinuing it practice of donating safe but unsaleable foodstuffs to food banks, I asked some friends who are or were in the retail trade what the supermarkets used to do with these items before they started giving them away. Answer: they'd just sling it all in the compactor out the back, to be sent to landfill. And what are they going to be doing with it all, now they've stopped giving it away? Answer: same as they used to do before :O :(

Sheesh, these environmentalists (etc) who pressured the supermarkets, via the government, to bring in the tax on carrier bags to "reduce waste" seem to have been looking down the wrong bloody end of the microscope. Seems the real waste starts at the top and occurs on a scale that makes the matter of carrier bags utterly, totally insignificant! :( Besides foodbanks, there's any number of ways those unsaleable merchandise items could be sorted and put to some use or other, but - hellz no! - just bin the lot of it and chuck it away! :O

I think it's little surprise that some people have a feeling of indignation about the carrier bag tax, as if there's a subconscious awareness that they're being penalised for someone else's fault. After some of the things I learned today, I can well understand that sentiment.
Alibert's suggestion above of a string shopping bag was known in the old USSR as a "perhaps bag". You kept it on you at all times in case you came across someone selling something you might need.

As far as checkout snobbery is concerned, in my experience, Waitrose (heavy duty bag 10p) don't bat an eyelid at my Aldi (6p) or Sainsbury (5p) bags.










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