It's the end of the world as we know it (no paper bags!)

[Android Kaeli]

I have reusable bags, I use them during the weekly/bi-weekly shopping. If I'm coming home from work and need to pick something up really quick, I'll use plastic. I, too, use them for bathroom trash.

[RetailSlave]

Our store is constantly running out of the most basic supplies: bags (paper and plastic), trash bags, toilet paper, paper towels, cups, lids and straws for the fountain drinks. Our RAA is in charge of ordering supplies, but she NEVER seems to know what to order.
I work 3rd shift and finally I started just making a list and taping it to her office door when we were starting to get low. Even so, she was arguing that we HAD to have plastic bags because she had ordered a skid of them. Trouble is, we had run completely out...not a single bag on any lane or on UScan. When that happens it takes a skid and a half to get back to where we are supposed to be..and this was during the holidays when we were super-busy. So I spelled it out for her..48 boxes of bags on a skid. It takes one box each to fill the racks on the small lane and large lane Uscans, plus we put 3 boxes down there to refill during the day. We have 20 additional lanes..each lane takes 18 bundles to fill the carrousel, plus 2 boxes under each lane. It takes 2 boxes to fill 3 lanes approximately..so it takes over a skid and a half to get us back where we are supposed to be. We were borrowing boxes of bags from other stores so we had to repay those.

Once she told me "there have to be bags back there" and refused to order more...so we ran out again. I guess it was too much trouble for her to walk to the back room and actually check for supplies. I have pictures on my phone of the entire front end without a single bag on the lanes. We were reduced to taking the bags the cashiers had pulled off the racks and stuffed in the carrousels, flattening them out and putting them back on the racks again. Most of the cashiers refused to use them so we were wasting our time. 3rd shift STILL has to put the bags out for reuse which is a pain and a waste of our time since several cashiers just pull them right back off and throw them in the carrousel again.
I tried putting the few full bundles of bags we had left on the Uscan...the customers weren't being paid to deal with single bags and paper bags, the cashiers were.
Just a matter of penny pinching in the wrong areas.
I do remember once a couple of years ago when I was still on 2nd shift...we ran out of toilet paper...so she ordered more. It didn't come in, so she ordered it again. Still didn't come in. We were costing it off the shelf...my Team Lead said we were one of the leading sellers of store brand toilet paper because of that. Finally they figured out that they had switched the order codes in the computer and she was ordering paper towels and not toilet paper.

[Magpie]

Yes, because it's so much work to buy one of the store bags and use that for your shopping. Let's see... it's presumably bigger than the paper bags and easier to carry. Also, because I'm assuming that no store is going to only charge for plastic if it also offers paper, it pays for itself. I'm not sure I see the downside.

One of the stores I frequent gives you 2c for reusing regular plastic bags, and 5c for using cloth or other reusable bags.

Oh, I like that they're honest about that. I know that some stores which offer a credit refer to it as "x amount for every plastic bag you don't use", but then offer you the credit once per every cloth bag. Loblaws Corp. has gotten better about that (their big bag refers to saving "150 plastic bags a year", fortunately they don't charge based on that).

[BookstoreEscapee]

I have reusable bags, I use them during the weekly/bi-weekly shopping. If I'm coming home from work and need to pick something up really quick, I'll use plastic. I, too, use them for bathroom trash.

I keep my cloth bags in a basket in the backseat of my car. After I unload my stuff I fold the bags up on my bookshelf where I keep my keys, so I remember to toss them back in the car the next time I go out. I have about 4 or 5 of the 99c bags from Wegmans, which are black and shaped like paper bags with handles, with a stiff vinyl insert to keep the bottom flat, plus a couple of nylon bags that fold up -or stuff, depending on how lazy I'm being - into their own little pocket (also bought at Wegmans, for maybe $3 each, and they come in different colors). I have a red and a blue one of those, but I might pick up another one or two soon since some of my black bags are getting kinda worn out.

Oh, I like that they're honest about that. I know that some stores which offer a credit refer to it as "x amount for every plastic bag you don't use", but then offer you the credit once per every cloth bag. Loblaws Corp. has gotten better about that (their big bag refers to saving "150 plastic bags a year", fortunately they don't charge based on that).

I never reuse the plastic bags, simply because if I remember to bring bags at all, it's the cloth ones that are usually in my car. I use the plastic bags for the trash cans in my bedroom and bathroom (Target bags are good for that - they're the perfect size for my cans). I try to avoid them otherwise but when they do start to pile up I shove them all in one bag and drop them in the recycling bin at one of the grocery stores.

And if a cashier forgets to give me the discount (sometimes they remember at the last minute) I wouldn't even notice. Once the cashier realized after I had paid that she forgot to take off for the bags (I usually don't have more than one or two, anyway) and apologized; she looked like she was afraid I'd yell at her.

I do remember once a couple of years ago when I was still on 2nd shift...we ran out of toilet paper...so she ordered more. It didn't come in, so she ordered it again. Still didn't come in. We were costing it off the shelf...my Team Lead said we were one of the leading sellers of store brand toilet paper because of that. Finally they figured out that they had switched the order codes in the computer and she was ordering paper towels and not toilet paper.

I had a manager who (when he worked in a different store; I just heard the story) accidentally added an extra zero to the TP quantity when he was ordering supplies. Yeah, they didn't need to order more for quite a while.

[Chromatix]

In Finland... (yeah, you didn't expect me NOT to post in this thread?) ...we don't give a discount for not using bags. We charge for buying bags. The bags are very good quality and can, in fact, be re-used for quite a long time.

British readers will know about the Bag For Life and similar schemes run by the major supermarkets there. The standard plastic bags in Finland are almost as good as those - as they should be, costing about €0.35 each.

I really should get around to taking a picture of how much stuff I can easily carry in these bags.

[Whiskey]

I keep meaning to buy reusable bags, but i forget. If they put them at the checkstands like they used to, i'd probably have one by now. The point at which I remember is when Im asked if I want paper or plastic. I'm not holding up the line to buy a reusable bag.

Someone remind me tomorrow when I go to the grocery store!

[zombiequeen]

Hey Whiskey, get a reusable bag tomorrow when you go to the grocery store.
(Hey, you said to remind you!)

I have two reusable bags, but the one store will not let you use bags from the other store. It's really silly, i'll even turn the bag inside out, and the cashier (or if I use U-scan, the person in charge of that) will tell me that I'm not supposed to use the other store's brand of bags there. I don't shop there very often (not at all anymore because my husband has a job at the other store) so I'm not too heartbroken, just kind of confused that they'll advertise being so friendly to the environment, but if you try to use any other reusable bag than their brand, you're in trouble.

[GroceryGIrl]

We stopped carrying paper bags once we started charging for plastic bags and selling reusable cloth bags. We also carry boxes which are a completely different story altogether since we can only use them to pack orders for home delivery. There is also a sign beside our stack of boxes that clearly states that boxes are for deliveries only, yet people will always come up to the service desk and ask if they can take boxes or, many times, they'll just help themselves by grabbing as many as they can. So many have left the store furious, leaving their entire order behind when we'd tell them they could not use boxes unless they had their order delivered.

[RetailSlave]

Sam's Club has really nice reusable bags..huge, non-cloth so they wipe clean..they have both handles and shoulder straps and hold 50 lbs. I have two sitting on the back seat of my truck so even if I get the plastic bags I will sit them in the Sam's bags to keep them from shifting on the ride home. When our store was so shorthanded on bags I would put everything except meat loose in my cart and take it out and load it in the Sam's bags...I did put meat in a plastic bag to avoid leakage.
I came back from 3 days off to find that we have new bags..NOT an improvement. They are tissue thin and separate from the tabs that hold them in the racks with the slightest touch. It says something about how thin they are compared to the old ones that a box that hold the same number of bags is only half the height of the old boxes. Ironically the slogan of the store is "higher standards, lower prices" and the boxes said, "Higher Standards" on the label. We were joking that the new slogan must be, "Higher Standards, Cheaper Bags". They have a bagging slogan of "Eight is Great" (meaning that your standard should be at least eight items in every bag). I told my fellow cashier that we would have to change it to "One and Done". It isn't gonna save any money if we have to use more bags or double and triple bag items so the bags don't tear out.

[MoonCat]

I recycle both paper and plastic. It's all very well for stores to discontinue plastic, but please tell me what I'm going to put the used kitty liner in then!

I have a mismatched collection of cloth bags from stores all over town. I use those for groceries at both the bag-your-own and the store that bags for you.

As far as running out, I would think that a store would keep track of how many they use on average, each day/week/month, and when they get down to a certain point, re-order them so they don't run out, just like anything else they use every day. But if they're out, they're out, and yelling about it isn't going to change that. You would think most people would come prepared these days, as the move to eliminate both paper and plastic bags has been going on for a while now.

[Kristev]

No, no, no, no, no, no. We work for the same general company. The correct phrase is always going to be "Higher prices, lower standards."

[Darkforge]

i've never seen a paper bag in my life here in england, its always been plastic. most stores are either selling only reusable bags (or good quality bags that can easily be resused) as their only source of bags or having the enviromentally friendly type of plastic bags (which are so thin they rip if you put something as heavy as a large soda bottle in them