Plastic bags for small/stupid purchases.

[powerboy]

powerboy, I hope you realize how much of an SC you sound like right now. They're not your bags. They're the store's bags, and they're provided so that people can put their groceries in them, not so other people can line their garbage cans. Now, if you were paying for these bags, that would be a different story. But if they're free, they're not yours. Yes, it's only a few bags, but (and I hate to trot this line out), it's the principle of the thing. Why are they yours to take?

I'm not saying you're an evil person or anything like that. Hell, taking a few bags is a very lesser evil. But your reasoning behind it sounds exactly like a lot of the things we hear from SCs every day.

Just because I take 1-2 extra bags once in a while, I am an SC? You realize how stupid you sound, without knowing all the facts for the things that I do.

That would seriously everyone and everything at the check-outs down to a crawl. Are you suggesting that stores should severely inconvenience their cashiers and their honest customers just to stop you from taking more bags than required?

You never know, it might actually keep the prices lower on things.

[MadMike]

OK people, just because things are more relaxed here doesn't mean that we allow our members to attack each other. Keep to the topic, without the personal attacks. Threads can and do get shut down here too, just as on CS.

[linguist]

Just because I take 1-2 extra bags once in a while, I am an SC? You realize how stupid you sound, without knowing all the facts for the things that I do.

would it be alright if people were to take a few cents from your bank account? really, it's just a few cents, and it's only once in awhile, what's the big deal? maybe they really need it.

now, with sarcasm turned off, if enough people were to do that, even though it's only a few cents at a time, you'd be broke in a hurry.

You never know, it might actually keep the prices lower on things.

doubtful. if anything, it would raise prices, as stores would have to compensate for all the extra staff they'd have to hire to deal not only with the bag security issues, but with bringing in extra cashiers (and possibly having to construct new checkstands) to minimize unreasonable wait times.

the only surefire way to do one's part to keep prices lower is not to take things that don't belong to you, whether that's product, supplies, etc.

[the_std]

Just because I take 1-2 extra bags once in a while, I am an SC? You realize how stupid you sound, without knowing all the facts for the things that I do.

I never actually said that you were an SC, powerboy. I said that you sounded like an SC and the rationale you were using is the stuff we hear touted by the entitlement-minded, day in and day out. I don't pretend to know you or anything about you. I'm just going by what you put on this thread.

As to reply to the rest of it, basically, what linguist said.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Many years ago, when I was new to working at the supermarket, I was sitting on a till when a woman went by, grabbing an entire block of bags off the bag stand. Cuz I was new, I didn't say anything; partly too, out of shock, but now, I think I certainly would say something; it's stealing. Now tho, bags are not available at the end of the checkout, which saves a bundle on bags cuz it stops thefts like that one happening. In any case, if you use the bags to put your shopping in, you can use them for binliners etc; however, taking extra bags is in fact stealing; and yup, it does push up prices cuz guess what, someone has to pay for those bags and it's the customer who does, thru the shopping they buy.

[powerboy]

Has anyone here ever found some change on the ground and picked it up? This is the same. You stole from someone. That was not your change in the first place. You can say whatever bullshit you want, put your own spin on it. But in the end, it is the same. You stole from someone. And you cannot sit there and tell me, that you never picked anything change up when you were a kid.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Strawman alert; that is in no way the same thing as taking bags. Picking up loose change is hardly stealing; people sometimes chuck pennies and five pences on the floor on purpose. Now, if you were talking about picking up a wallet, taking the money and spending it, that would be stealing. But I hardly see how picking up loose change compares to grabbing a bunch of plastic bags from the checkout. If you asked first if you could have them, then fine; but taking a bunch of bags without asking is stealing. Sorry, but trying to justify it is the problem here, as is throwing down a strawman.

A better example would be taking grapes and eating them, or taking too many free samples. One place I worked at had to keep free samples behind the tills, cuz of greedy people grabbing the lot in one sitting. And in the supermarket, there are tons of people pinching fruit and eating it who don't consider it stealing. But it is.

[powerboy]

I just loves how everyone assumes things on here. You just assume that I do not ask. You do realize what they say about assuming, don't you?

[linguist]

I just loves how everyone assumes things on here. You just assume that I do not ask. You do realize what they say about assuming, don't you?

you've also said that no employee has the right to tell you you can't take them. by that statement, you've pretty much implied that you'll take them even if they say no.

[Lace Neil Singer]

This. Also, nowhere in your statement did you say anything about asking.

[AdminAssistant]

I have cloth bags, but I do forget them sometimes, I don't usually bring them into clothing shops or similar places, so I get plastic bags then, which I use to line trash cans.

But they also have small garbage bags that you can actually buy, and they don't cost that much, so.....yeah. You get the bags you need to carry your purchases, but you shouldn't get extra bags just 'because'.