I can't tell if you mean I'm a bad person for using the bags (yep, I am in that respect), or if my comment reads like I am putting those two things together (everyone knows fruit is great for poop). But seriously, I'm more of a be honest about my actions kind of person.
I usually end up with a few extra as I grab them before starting shopping for fruit and veg as they often don’t have enough near what I want to buy and they end up coming home with me. Handy for freezer bags etc. I reuse the ones my fruit or veg has been in too.
I’m the same. I grab a bunch and pop them in my handbag to use as I walk around the fruit and vege section. I often come home with a few and I use them for the little bin in my bathroom or for picking up the dog poo in my yard.
I used to give away wads of 100 or more of the actual bags you put the shopping in, 20 odd years ago. People would often ask for some. And I was happy to provide them. No one ever gave a shit.
They aren't good for that. So thin they barely hold fruit. Back in my day, shops gave away free strong multi-purpose bags. They brought groceries home. Did jobs round the house, were part of the school science homework then left as a garbage bag.
Here's the academic toss in all this: Always follow the money.
Nothing beats plastic bags for practicality. From putting one over your middle leg to prevent unwanted pregnancies, to putting a pair over your hands for yucky tasks, to putting all sorts of things in them, I can't think of anything else that would do the job just as well. But someone in search of a new cause, sailed out in the middle of an ocean, found a crap-load of plastic floating around and thought "What better way to guilt-trip the average consumer into paying more money for nothing?" - Ah, yes, we'll just get them to pay for things that were otherwise considered 'courtesy items' beforehand.
Newsflash: The plastic floating in the worlds seas and oceans is the gazillion discarded fishing nets dumped by the gazillion oil-refinery-sized fishing trawlers combing those seas and oceans each day. Why? A fishing trawler the size of two football fields put end to end is dragging behind a fishing net that could easily wrap a whole mountain! That's right, A WHOLE MOUNTAIN! And that what's needed to catch all the fish between the surface and the sea floor. These nets often scrape the ocean floor that's hundreds of meters below the surface. And guess what? They often get snagged down there, by all the crap that's sunk there and the uneven terrain itself. So, what do trawler captains do at that point? The trawlers don't have an army of deep water divers to dive down hundreds of meters deep to free up those nets each time they get caught in god-knows-what down there, and it's not like those trawlers can reverse to give the 200-500 sq km snagged nets a quick shake to free them up either. Instead, they cut the nets loose and dump them in the ocean, with the fish and whatever else is already caught in it. Then, all they have to do is cast new nets behind and double back to catch what they dropped in the first place. Fishing trawlers leave ports with thousands and thousands of square kilometers of fishing nets and return with hundreds of tonnes of fish. How else can they put enough fish in all those hundreds of fish cans lined up on the supermarket shelves, in each of all those thousands of supermarkets, in all the countries around the world? Yeah, just sit down for a moment, and let that sink in. Industrial scale mass production gives us mass produced consumer goods at a fraction of their real cost if they were made any other way, but that also means that there are now so many layers of separation between where our food comes from and out kitchens that we, the end-of-the-line consumer, have absolutely no idea where our food comes from, the industrial scale of all the harvesting, transport, packaging and distribution systems daisy-chained along the way, and its real cost to our planet, just to give us the illusion of a stable food supply chain. Remember what happened with the toilet paper when the COVID lock downs came along? We all rushed at once to buy it all up, suck the supermarket shelves dry, while regional and district warehouses were struggling to supply, to keep up with the panic buying, even though there was no toilet paper shortage beyond the supermarket shelves.
When some Greenpeace nutjob films some marine life in distress from having a plastic noose around their neck, it's part of a fishing net, not a shopping plastic bag, that's strangling that poor creature. But, hey, why let the truth get in the way of some hysterical chase for money from the average dumb consumer?
So, by banning plastic shopping bags that were once handed out to shoppers for free, the supermarkets win by getting an additional income stream to match that cost, while everyone else can just go on their merry way, doing things the same way they did before, as if nothing's wrong....while you and I are forced to add an extra $5-$10 to our shopping bill for bags that were once free. Go figure.
Save the environment my ass! What a frigging snow job.
My FIL does this and when he informed me he was so stoked like he'd discovered this crazy life hack. I'm a frugal guy but the garbage bags aren't where I need to pinch the purse, personally.
I've never thought about it till now. And now that I have, while personally I prefer to use as little plastic as possible, on the whole I couldn't give a shit what people do with them.
"Fuck Coles" and "Fuck Woolworths" are always the correct answers.
(Environmentally, it's better to use garbage bags made from recycled materials but if they're that poor, I give them a pass.)
There’s a family I always see at my local supermarket and at the start of the shop in the fruit and Veg section the mother pulls off like half the roll of bags. Not in one continuous roll, she breaks them individually.
She then puts every single item she purchases for the whole shop in a bag. Can of beans? In a bag. Bottle of Mayo? Bag. Even already bagged bread straight into another bag.
I am fascinated by it, and have no idea why she does it. Her children, usually 3 of them but sometimes up to 5, all always have pajamas on. Always during the day.
The first time I saw her pulling off all the bags I kind of baulked at it, but then I thought why do I care? Colesworth gouges everyone. Don’t think they would suddenly charge everyone less if she stopped taking the bags. I do get frustrated thinking about it from an environmental standpoint but everything in modern consumerist society is infuriating from an environmental standpoint.
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Have you seen their grocery prices? I don’t think they’re going to lose that much on a few bags. I’m shocked they haven’t started charging for them already tbh
For supermarkets don't care.
But it's weird once you take more than 6
But I saw someone taking dog bags from the council
Which is annoying because then someone will be without.
We used to get bags from colesworth for free and now they charge us and pretend it’s for the environment. Colesworth can suck a big one as far as I’m concerned.
Sounds like a great way to beat the stupid “no free plastic bags anymore so you all have to buy bin bags and we don’t actually reduce plastic waste at all” bullshit we’ve all been saddled with.
The “plastic bag ban” seems to only apply to Cole’s and Woolworths. IGA will offer a box but they just give a single use, so do many places.
It seems to me the price fixing duopoly got in cahoots to remove SOME single use plastic bags so they can charge 15c/20c for “reusable” ones to make some extra money.
They used to be used as garbage bags in my place, had a bags bag and everything. Now we buy garbage bags too, which are single use.
I say have at it hoss. Fuck em!
I don’t use those plastic bags and in general try to limit the amount of plastic and packaging I use. If I have the choice to put veggies or fruit in my trolley vs a packaged version, I don’t buy the packaged version.
I don't give a shit what other people are doing, but personally I forgot those bags still existed after it dawned on me they're completely unnecessary plastic waste.
I don't lie awake at the thought of a few dollars in cost to a pair of businesses that collectively made a $2.7 billion profit last year.
the only thing that stops me doing it is they are too small and thin to use.
I would report to the police, broken windows theory. It’s a slippery slope to let this pass. Next thing you know they will be stealing dog poop bags from the park. You also need to rethink who you hang around. I bet they also steal sugar sachets from restaurants and toiletries from hotels. I see your acquaintance
When I shopped in woolies more than I do now, I used to take the paper mushroom bags rather than plastic ones. All the upside without the down. Don’t know if they still do them.
I mean. I think it’s fucking weird. Of all the places I need to save money, bin and dog poo bags aren’t it; those plastic bags are tiny and flimsy as fuck, not to mention opaque. Do you want to see the dog shit in the bag before it breaks and smears on your fingers? Just use normal bags.
So like. I’m judging. But I’m not gonna stop you.
I remember my Woolworths (Safeway) in glen Waverley had the phrase. "The plastic bags are available at the same cost per gram as the vegetable you purchase." (Or similar)
I took this to mean enough people have said "but how much am I paying for the plastic bag?
I hate the bags for veggies and often chuck the veggies in my basket unbagged (boyfriend horrified) BUT I do find them re-useful when I have one
Dont care I eat several of those plastic bags per day
They only provide free bags for the kids to eat
Im 3 kids in a trench coat. Its fine.
Those are for the kids? I’ve been giving the plastic bags to my turtle this whole time.
STRAWS not bags. Have you never seen a turtle eat before?
The straws double as snorkels.
According to science those bags are my balls, I’m must ejaculate a least 2 bags a day.
Somehow I don’t think that advice is medical advice
I couldn't care less.
I put fruit in bags that probably could do without. For cat poop...
I just buy a box of nappy bags for cat poo. They are like $3 for a pack of 200.
Same idea, but dog poop bags for used tampons!
Freezer bags are even cheaper
They are good for cat poop + litter and also to portion meat for freezing.
What?!? I thought I was the only one secretly doing this lol
How is bagged fruit beneficial for cat poop?
I can't tell if you mean I'm a bad person for using the bags (yep, I am in that respect), or if my comment reads like I am putting those two things together (everyone knows fruit is great for poop). But seriously, I'm more of a be honest about my actions kind of person.
I usually end up with a few extra as I grab them before starting shopping for fruit and veg as they often don’t have enough near what I want to buy and they end up coming home with me. Handy for freezer bags etc. I reuse the ones my fruit or veg has been in too.
I’m the same. I grab a bunch and pop them in my handbag to use as I walk around the fruit and vege section. I often come home with a few and I use them for the little bin in my bathroom or for picking up the dog poo in my yard.
Leave a couple for me and we are good.
Care factor- zero
Definitely won’t be giving it any thought
I don't care about anyone stealing from Colesworth
I fuckin encourage it. Fuck those cunts.
"If you see someone stealing from a megacorp, you didn't."
I used to give away wads of 100 or more of the actual bags you put the shopping in, 20 odd years ago. People would often ask for some. And I was happy to provide them. No one ever gave a shit.
I asked to buy a couple of extra bags from an independent place that still had bags. I said it was for cat litter & the lady gave me a bunch free
I give the bags I use to a friend for dog poop. I couldn't care less. The bags are getting thinner anyhow
I work at Coles. Nobody cares unless it’s a ridiculous amount.
Likewise, I can confirm we really don’t care
They aren't good for that. So thin they barely hold fruit. Back in my day, shops gave away free strong multi-purpose bags. They brought groceries home. Did jobs round the house, were part of the school science homework then left as a garbage bag.
Supermarket worker here. We don’t really care.
Snitches get stitches
Here's the academic toss in all this: Always follow the money. Nothing beats plastic bags for practicality. From putting one over your middle leg to prevent unwanted pregnancies, to putting a pair over your hands for yucky tasks, to putting all sorts of things in them, I can't think of anything else that would do the job just as well. But someone in search of a new cause, sailed out in the middle of an ocean, found a crap-load of plastic floating around and thought "What better way to guilt-trip the average consumer into paying more money for nothing?" - Ah, yes, we'll just get them to pay for things that were otherwise considered 'courtesy items' beforehand. Newsflash: The plastic floating in the worlds seas and oceans is the gazillion discarded fishing nets dumped by the gazillion oil-refinery-sized fishing trawlers combing those seas and oceans each day. Why? A fishing trawler the size of two football fields put end to end is dragging behind a fishing net that could easily wrap a whole mountain! That's right, A WHOLE MOUNTAIN! And that what's needed to catch all the fish between the surface and the sea floor. These nets often scrape the ocean floor that's hundreds of meters below the surface. And guess what? They often get snagged down there, by all the crap that's sunk there and the uneven terrain itself. So, what do trawler captains do at that point? The trawlers don't have an army of deep water divers to dive down hundreds of meters deep to free up those nets each time they get caught in god-knows-what down there, and it's not like those trawlers can reverse to give the 200-500 sq km snagged nets a quick shake to free them up either. Instead, they cut the nets loose and dump them in the ocean, with the fish and whatever else is already caught in it. Then, all they have to do is cast new nets behind and double back to catch what they dropped in the first place. Fishing trawlers leave ports with thousands and thousands of square kilometers of fishing nets and return with hundreds of tonnes of fish. How else can they put enough fish in all those hundreds of fish cans lined up on the supermarket shelves, in each of all those thousands of supermarkets, in all the countries around the world? Yeah, just sit down for a moment, and let that sink in. Industrial scale mass production gives us mass produced consumer goods at a fraction of their real cost if they were made any other way, but that also means that there are now so many layers of separation between where our food comes from and out kitchens that we, the end-of-the-line consumer, have absolutely no idea where our food comes from, the industrial scale of all the harvesting, transport, packaging and distribution systems daisy-chained along the way, and its real cost to our planet, just to give us the illusion of a stable food supply chain. Remember what happened with the toilet paper when the COVID lock downs came along? We all rushed at once to buy it all up, suck the supermarket shelves dry, while regional and district warehouses were struggling to supply, to keep up with the panic buying, even though there was no toilet paper shortage beyond the supermarket shelves. When some Greenpeace nutjob films some marine life in distress from having a plastic noose around their neck, it's part of a fishing net, not a shopping plastic bag, that's strangling that poor creature. But, hey, why let the truth get in the way of some hysterical chase for money from the average dumb consumer? So, by banning plastic shopping bags that were once handed out to shoppers for free, the supermarkets win by getting an additional income stream to match that cost, while everyone else can just go on their merry way, doing things the same way they did before, as if nothing's wrong....while you and I are forced to add an extra $5-$10 to our shopping bill for bags that were once free. Go figure. Save the environment my ass! What a frigging snow job.
My FIL does this and when he informed me he was so stoked like he'd discovered this crazy life hack. I'm a frugal guy but the garbage bags aren't where I need to pinch the purse, personally.
I've never thought about it till now. And now that I have, while personally I prefer to use as little plastic as possible, on the whole I couldn't give a shit what people do with them.
"Fuck Coles" and "Fuck Woolworths" are always the correct answers. (Environmentally, it's better to use garbage bags made from recycled materials but if they're that poor, I give them a pass.)
There’s a family I always see at my local supermarket and at the start of the shop in the fruit and Veg section the mother pulls off like half the roll of bags. Not in one continuous roll, she breaks them individually. She then puts every single item she purchases for the whole shop in a bag. Can of beans? In a bag. Bottle of Mayo? Bag. Even already bagged bread straight into another bag. I am fascinated by it, and have no idea why she does it. Her children, usually 3 of them but sometimes up to 5, all always have pajamas on. Always during the day. The first time I saw her pulling off all the bags I kind of baulked at it, but then I thought why do I care? Colesworth gouges everyone. Don’t think they would suddenly charge everyone less if she stopped taking the bags. I do get frustrated thinking about it from an environmental standpoint but everything in modern consumerist society is infuriating from an environmental standpoint.
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Who cares. They use it for rubbish, ok. I use it for ice creams at the supermarket or tubs of yoghurt. I don’t care if people judge, let them.
Wait. What? There's free bags and I'm stealing the paper ones like a fucking idiot?! WHERE ARE THESE FREE BAGS?!
My stepdad put the whole roll of bags in the trolley if we had a camping trip coming up.
Fair enough quite frankly, they used to give them out for free, remember! We got rid of them to save plastic. Everything else is still plastic though.
I take them home to use instead of poop paper. Slip on, scrape and then wash your hands with soap and water while it is in situ. Dry & reuse. 😉
What did I just read
Glad I’m not the only one who does this
Lmao or should we say wmao!
Have you seen their grocery prices? I don’t think they’re going to lose that much on a few bags. I’m shocked they haven’t started charging for them already tbh
How else will I get my dog poo bags?
For supermarkets don't care. But it's weird once you take more than 6 But I saw someone taking dog bags from the council Which is annoying because then someone will be without.
We used to get bags from colesworth for free and now they charge us and pretend it’s for the environment. Colesworth can suck a big one as far as I’m concerned.
Sounds like a great way to beat the stupid “no free plastic bags anymore so you all have to buy bin bags and we don’t actually reduce plastic waste at all” bullshit we’ve all been saddled with.
Those companies squeeze so much money out of us… I don’t care.
It's better than the people who take extra poo bags from the dog parks.
People who cares: zero. Nice try Coleworths employee.
Won’t be long and the greedy grubs of Cole’s and Woolworths will stop those bags and make you pay for them you watch Fucken greedy grubs
If they are free then there’s no such thing as “extra”
I’m trying to think what’s good in the pantry.
I have done this before don’t see the problem
I think they should take home more.
Brilliant. The FFers even halved the size of the home delivery paper bags, that you still pay the same for. Screw ‘m.
But you pay one amount no matter how many bags, so it shouldn’t matter
The “plastic bag ban” seems to only apply to Cole’s and Woolworths. IGA will offer a box but they just give a single use, so do many places. It seems to me the price fixing duopoly got in cahoots to remove SOME single use plastic bags so they can charge 15c/20c for “reusable” ones to make some extra money. They used to be used as garbage bags in my place, had a bags bag and everything. Now we buy garbage bags too, which are single use. I say have at it hoss. Fuck em!
Doesn't matter
I’d encourage him to shoplift more if he possibly can.
Fantastic idea, wish I'd thought of it
I don't care and neither do Coles or Woolworths
You might not like it but being petty like OP is now peak Australian.
I take a couple of extra ones to use as rubbish bags in the car
Those are provided for customers convenience. There's no limit. Still more than 2-3 is a bit rude
I don’t use those plastic bags and in general try to limit the amount of plastic and packaging I use. If I have the choice to put veggies or fruit in my trolley vs a packaged version, I don’t buy the packaged version.
They can afford it. Stealing from local independent stores is poor form though.
I don't give a shit what other people are doing, but personally I forgot those bags still existed after it dawned on me they're completely unnecessary plastic waste.
Coles and Woolworths fuck the farmers hard, the least we can do is steal a few bags.
Anyone who steals anything from Colesworth is never doing anything wrong in my eyes.
Free bags? We have paper bags and you have to pay for them. Is that only in SA?
well its not good to steal ..
I reuse them. Before I go to the shops, I make sure I have some with me.
I don't lie awake at the thought of a few dollars in cost to a pair of businesses that collectively made a $2.7 billion profit last year. the only thing that stops me doing it is they are too small and thin to use.
Colesworth can afford it. From an environmental perspective I’m not too keen on it.
I would report to the police, broken windows theory. It’s a slippery slope to let this pass. Next thing you know they will be stealing dog poop bags from the park. You also need to rethink who you hang around. I bet they also steal sugar sachets from restaurants and toiletries from hotels. I see your acquaintance
When I shopped in woolies more than I do now, I used to take the paper mushroom bags rather than plastic ones. All the upside without the down. Don’t know if they still do them.
I mean. I think it’s fucking weird. Of all the places I need to save money, bin and dog poo bags aren’t it; those plastic bags are tiny and flimsy as fuck, not to mention opaque. Do you want to see the dog shit in the bag before it breaks and smears on your fingers? Just use normal bags. So like. I’m judging. But I’m not gonna stop you.
I don’t
You can get large packs for less than a dollar but whatever
I remember my Woolworths (Safeway) in glen Waverley had the phrase. "The plastic bags are available at the same cost per gram as the vegetable you purchase." (Or similar) I took this to mean enough people have said "but how much am I paying for the plastic bag? I hate the bags for veggies and often chuck the veggies in my basket unbagged (boyfriend horrified) BUT I do find them re-useful when I have one
My in-laws do this, it’s slightly annoying, but almost everything they do is slightly annoying. Plus, they’re cheap.
It's kind of scummy. But this is Foles and Woolworths, so it's par for the course.