Anyone changed their supermarket shopping habits lately?

[Perry]

Any particular nutters you have in mind?

(There's lots to choose from)

[Bob Kane]

Here's one:

Kimberley Collins
Can we organise a National day of action where people unwrap the groceries they buy and leave the plastic waste (because most of it can’t actually be recycled) at the store for them to deal with.

Plus anyone who signed the partition to ban plastic bags from supermarkets.

[sidinz]

Out walking my dog last night, I passed a house that had about half a dozen bags that had been left out for rubbish collection. Most of the bags were the 15c Countdown 'reusable' ones.
So no behavioural change there, one use to bring home the groceries, one use to bag up the rubbish. Only they cost the homeowner more (both for the visible cost of the bags and the invisible cost in the non-reduction of grocery prices once free bags were done away with) and presumably more environmental cost in the manufacturer of these thicker/sturdier bags.

[Perry]

Tell it to the Greens!

[Bob Kane]

Countdown sell small bin-liner plastic bags with handles for $2.50 for 40 = 6c each.
Very similar to the their old free plastic bags.
Perfect!
Hand a roll of them to the checkout girl and tell her to stack your groceries in them.
Just like the old days.

[Perry]

You'll get a good laugh from this one . . .

At Countdown, $1 bags can be used until the end of their life and replaced for free. But one Countdown customer said stores were replacing her bags before they were ready to be binned. "Without asking she threw it into the bin next to her desk and grabbed a new one. "I said my old one was fine but she simply replied 'It's free'." It had happened several times, she said.

[sidinz]

I went to Briscoes on the weekend and bought four bulky bedding items.

When I got to the counter, they informed me that they no longer had plastic bags, but could sell me a reusable bag for $1. Now, all four of my items would have fit very nicely into one of their old super-sized plastic bags, but would have only just fit one per bag, in these 'eco' ones, costing me $4 for the privilege of carrying my purchases to the car.

Somewhere, someone, in the dark, distant past, recognised that an outfit that specialised in selling homewares would need to provide extra large bags, but no longer. Customer convenience is no longer a consideration.

Not being willing to part with $4 for bags of dubious eco merit, I had no option but to put my purchases down on the hot, dirty, carpark asphalt while I got out my keys and unlocked the door.

Given that there are plastic bag alternatives already in existence (corn, hemp etc.) one can only surmise that businesses are latching onto this greenwashing as a reason to justify appalling customer service.

[Davo36]

Well yeah, but:

1) You could have taken a bag or bags.
2) You could have made a few trips to the car and back.

and maybe you could have put them on the bonnet or roof instead of the asphalt?

Having said all that, I did do a similar thing the other day at the supermarket. Bought like 10 items, go the checkout, which is when I always realise I've left my reusable bags in the car. So then I paid 15c for a reusable one...

What I should have done is gotten a trolley and put the items in there.

[Bob Kane]

I buy small kitchen tidy bags (Homebrand) from Countdown - identical to the old shopping bags.
Roll of 40 for about $2.50.

[Bob Kane]

As expected, we now buy plastic bags for bin liners instead of using the free supermarket bags.
Overall, no change in the number of plastic bags used.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/the-detail/114344595/the-detail-how-kiwis-are-coping-with-the-plastic-bag-ban

New Zealand has now joined dozens of other countries in banning single-use plastic bags.
But supermarkets have told The Detail they're selling more plastic bags and bin liners as a result - and compostable bags are flying out their doors.

So no benefit to anyone except the supermarkets.
Was that the outcome that was hoped for?

[Perry]

Smoke, Mirrors, Spin & Image

Was that the outcome that was hoped for?

That Taxcindarella et al could strut their stuff on the world stage.

What else did you expect?

[Bob Kane]

Yeah, it was a cheap way to gain publicity and let the Greens do a few fist-pumps in the air.
Last year as the plastic bags were being withdrawn, there were interviews with ladies outside supermarkets and they were all enthusiastic and commented about this being great for the planet.
I noticed today that several supermarket carparks are full of SUVs and small trucks driven by women.
Gas guzzlers are good for the planet?
Contradiction/hypocrite anyone?

[Wayne]

Yeah, it was a cheap way to gain publicity and let the Greens do a few fist-pumps in the air.
Last year as the plastic bags were being withdrawn, there were interviews with ladies outside supermarkets and they were all enthusiastic and commented about this being great for the planet.
I noticed today that several supermarket carparks are full of SUVs and small trucks driven by women.
Gas guzzlers are good for the planet?
Contradiction/hypocrite anyone?

Are you sure the SUVs are owned by the same ladies as interviewed?
Or are you generalising like the media often does?

[Perry]

SUVs, bags, bin liners and such aside, there seems to me to be a far greater hypocrisy.

Most of the bleeding heart moaners live in cities. Cities that blithely deliver their waste to be buried in the countryside. (Out of sight - out of mind.)

The very same countryside from which farmers produce the food that the city-moaners need and consume.

Yet the city-moaners complain about polluting farmers.

[Bob Kane]

Are you sure the SUVs are owned by the same ladies as interviewed?
Or are you generalising like the media often does?

Absolutely.
Welcome back, Wayne.