ASDA Hulme, and the 3 bag limit
While shopping at the local ASDA the other day, we reached the checkout only to be told that there was a three carrier bag limit. As in, no matter how much you have bought (or, how much you have spent) you could only have three carrier bags.
Oh dear.
Not so bad for us, I grabbed the last reusable (fabric) bag from the adjacent checkout – and as we noticed on the way out, the last fabric bag in the store – and we just about made it work. However, there were people behind us with full trolleys who simply weren’t going to manage.
I think the phase-out of plastic bags has to happen eventually, and I can’t help but applaud ASDA for taking the initiative. But I have to criticize the way they’ve gone about it.
Me, and the girlfriend, spent some time near the entrance of the store as we had to go in to get change for a trolley and not once did we see a sign alerting us to the change in carrier bag policy. I noticed they’d also taken the carrier bags from the self-service machines, and everyone using the machines was simply piling their purchases on the scales and carrying them out sans-bag.
Oops!
So, is this just a one off pilot store – or is this nationwide? And if so, is it just Hulme where they didn’t feel like warning their customers?
[Update]
It looks like they don’t do plastic bags at all anymore. Especially weird since the ASDA near work is still handing them out. Perhaps this is a pilot store?
Tags: asda, hulme, plastic bags
In Asda the other day someone said to me, “Can I help you?” and actually looked as tho they meant it!!!! Strange things happen every day. Like many others in Hulme its Asda or pay Dick Turpin prices in the corner shops like £200 for a tin of corned beef.
Im collecting info, gossip, news and views for my community forum: “Best in Hulme” Its aimed at those of us who live work or study in Hulme so we can find out whats going on. I live in Hulme and didnt hear about the Manchester Festival till it started and missed out on good stuff happening at the Zion and local garden center.
All these are sponsored with tax payers money yet the taxpayers of Hulme never get to hear about these things.
A couple of months ago, the Asda in Eastlands (Sportcity) handed out free bags for life for a couple of weeks, saying they’ll be stopping plastic bags altogether.
I took a number on that occasion and brought them back a month later. It seems the plastic bags of bio-doom had returned.
Still, for big shops, I do now remember to take my bags for life…
I got quite good for a while there, always remembering my (much stronger) material bags… but I found that as you weren’t meant to use the bags to do the initial shop around the store, you had the extra burden of carrying around your fancy material bags too.
This was a bit of a pain, not so much for bigger shops – but definitely for smaller ones, so much so that I somewhat lost heart and stopped bothering – and now, six months on, everything seems to have returned to the way it was before.
As much as it was a pain, this does make me think that the *only* way we will ever say bye to plastic bags is if the whole country gets rid of them in one week – no compromises, and no way back.