Tuesday, September 16, 2008

The price of a bag

I am curious about the financing – as opposed to the economics, green or otherwise - of the moves against supermarket plastic bags

Sainsburys offers 1 reward point for each bag you re-use at the checkout. I say offers advisedly, because in my experience this only gets added to your account on about 1 visit in 2. This is irritating, & hardly the sort of thing you want to make a fuss about or go to the customer complaints desk about. If you use your Reward points in the simplest possible way, to get a discount off some future bill at the checkout, each point is worth ½p. But how does this compare with the cost of a plastic bag?

Marks & Spencer do not seem to keep any old style plastic bags at all at the checkouts now (they do have small ones, which is often all that is needed). However, on Saturdays they are often giving away a free Bag For Life instead of charging 10p for one. Again, how do the costs work out?