Plastic bag ban causes more...

[TheSHAD0W]

...shoplifting?

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/artic...re-4314744.php

[fireheart]

Ah, I remember hearing something about this. It's not so much the fact that people are outright shoplifting, just that more are getting away with it because of the reusable bags.

[Slayer]

It's definitely easier to steal walking in with bags than it is to walk in empty handed.

I remember noticing an increase back when I worked retail and would watch specifically for people that came in carrying those bags on their shoulder when it was obviously empty.

We don't have a ban, but most places charge 5 cents for bags.

[Flying Grype]

In Toronto a lot of supermarkets have signs that say to please carry your unpaid-for shopping in a basket or cart rather than your reusable bag. I know that there have been plenty of times when I went into a store with some previous shopping in a reusable bag, and was never asked to open my bag and show that everything in there was paid for.

The first time we got reusable grocery bags when I was a kid they were these lovely expandable net bags. You can see anything that's in them and they carry a ton of stuff. Wonder if my dad still has them...

[BookstoreEscapee]

It has never occurred to me to carry my shopping in the bags. I put them in the bottom of my basket or cart, and when I unload my stuff I put them on top of everything for the cashier.

[Estil]

The article is a perfect example of what happens with the plastic bag ban: when I was a cashier, I always made sure to put raw meat/poultry in separate plastic bags (even if the customer had the cloth bags) to avoid cross contamination and so the cloth bag doesn't get all sticky inside. Apparently I was smart to do that according to the article--because it shows what can happen if you just throw raw meat/poultry in cloth bags without first putting them in separate plastic ones. And for the record, I like plastic grocery bags because I can use them as small garbage bags and most important of all, they are GREAT for doing my kitty's litter box.

[PepperElf]

i dunno about plastic-ban areas but here, we still ahve plastic bags for product etc - cos you don't want a bunch of grapes dancing on your other groceries willy-nilly. some stores also have them in the meat dept but if they don't then we just use the produce onces

[telecom_goddess]

And for the record, I like plastic grocery bags because I can use them as small garbage bags and most important of all, they are GREAT for doing my kitty's litter box.

This right here is why I'm against a plastic bag ban. I use them for the exact same things. I do use the cloth reusable bags a lot as well but need my supply of plastic ones.

[Dreamstalker]

I can see this. Another thing I wonder about are customers coming into the store with bags that are already half-full of items that they say they bought elsewhere; there's no easy way to check without someone getting offended. And the S-it guns at my store...too easy to just chuck an item into a bag without scanning it at all, and there's no rhyme or reason to the audits so we may or may not catch it.

[Chromatix]

A very quick reminder of the situation in Finland:

Small, thin bags - designed for fruit/veg but also available at checkout - are free. These are useful for carrying lunch or separating goods but little else. Likewise small paper bags for bakery goods or sweets, but these are kept only near the respective products.

Big, strong bags - whether plastic, paper, bioplastic or cloth - are charged for, and can be bought at the checkout. The standard plastic bags comfortably hold as much as you can carry in one hand, and are very reusable, so they're worth the money.

Baskets and trolleys are available and habitually used at supermarkets. If you brought a bag with you, you pull it out at the checkout and not before. LP chaps probably take an interest in you otherwise. I tend to bring old bottles and cans for recycling in a bag, but after unloading them, it goes in the bottom of the basket.

[XCashier]

...shoplifting?

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/artic...re-4314744.php

Oh joy. Our town is banning the bags very soon, and I just know that's going to open up an ugly can of worms. Aside from the shoplifting, I don't doubt the SCs will be screaming at us about the bag ban, as if we personally banned the bags.

[Dreamstalker]

Myself and my CWs are already getting screamed at about the bag ban...part of the fallout (concurrent with a 'failed' mystery shop, so I'm not sure if it actually has anything to do with my town's ban) is that Corp has decided that my store is using too many plastic bags, so cashiers can only ask for bags when they sign on a register, vacant registers aren't allowed to have bags on the racks and no double-bagging unless a customer asks. Of course we've had some already figure out that even if they have two items they can 'ask' for triple plastic (I took great glee in flat-out refusing such a demand last night)

Of course, on the self-scam registers any restriction on bags is all but impossible to enforce.

[fireheart]

A very quick reminder of the situation in Finland:

Small, thin bags - designed for fruit/veg but also available at checkout - are free. These are useful for carrying lunch or separating goods but little else. Likewise small paper bags for bakery goods or sweets, but these are kept only near the respective products.

Big, strong bags - whether plastic, paper, bioplastic or cloth - are charged for, and can be bought at the checkout. The standard plastic bags comfortably hold as much as you can carry in one hand, and are very reusable, so they're worth the money.

Baskets and trolleys are available and habitually used at supermarkets. If you brought a bag with you, you pull it out at the checkout and not before. LP chaps probably take an interest in you otherwise. I tend to bring old bottles and cans for recycling in a bag, but after unloading them, it goes in the bottom of the basket.

This is pretty much identical to the situation in my state.

People still bitched about them.

[bhskittykatt]

We've had our ban since last July, and many stores have put LARGE signs reminding people to use handbaskets or carts and not their reusables for shopping, for this very reason.

I often carry my bag, because if I put it in the handbasket or cart it of course ends up at the bottom which makes it difficult to fish out at checkout. Of course, my bag I'm carrying is balled up in a wad and is very obviously empty.

i dunno about plastic-ban areas but here, we still ahve plastic bags for product etc - cos you don't want a bunch of grapes dancing on your other groceries willy-nilly. some stores also have them in the meat dept but if they don't then we just use the produce onces

With our ban (and many others I'm sure), plastic is banned in retail stores at checkout but the small bags for produce and meat are exempt from this.

[Estil]

With our ban (and many others I'm sure), plastic is banned in retail stores at checkout but the small bags for produce and meat are exempt from this.

Those little meat bags just don't do the job, especially the larger meat/poultry packs.