A mother opened up about her frustration at having to pay a 30p bag fee while shopping with her “crying” baby. Posting on Mumsnet, the unnamed woman said she popped out to the supermarket to pick up some bits for her Christmas food shop.
While shopping, her daughter began getting “a bit irritable”, leaving the mother heading straight for the self-checkout before heading home. Writing on the forum, she explained: “I paid for my shopping and realised I needed a bag so got one and put all my stuff in there. I go to walk out and the shop assistant said I needed to pay for a bag. Fair enough. She said I had to rescan it.
“The baby is now screaming and wriggling out my arms. Heavy bag of shopping in the other hand. She made me wait there until she had scanned the bag, pressed ‘check out’, selected ‘pay by card’ and then I had to scan. All for bloody 30p.”
While the woman said she “understood” she had to pay for the bag, she said she was “frustrated and just wanted to get out of there”.
She continued: “I paid 30p for the bag and stormed off. Left my giant trolley in the middle of self checkout. I was at my wits’ end. I felt like I was at school being held back by the teacher. She acted like she was earning money out of making people pay for bags.”
While the mother was clearly left furious at the situation, other people in the comments disagreed with her frustration. One person wrote: “Screaming baby isn’t an excuse to have a free bag. I realise you are probably frazzled and grumpy. Let it go and try to remember a bag in the future.”
Another said “She was just doing her job”, while a third added: “It would be more annoying to see others get free bags for failing to manage curcumstances within their control.”
A fourth explained: “It’s a legal requirement. She can’t just say off you trot without paying for an item of employer’s property. Keep a bag in your handbag and coat pockets.”
The law was brought in from May 2021 that obliged retailers to charge a minimum of 10p for single-use carrier bags in England.
In regards to self checkout, the GovUK website explains: “You must do all you can to make sure that you charge for bags at self checkouts. For example, the checkouts ask shoppers how many bags they used and charges for them.”
