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27 Mar 2012, 1.34PM

17 comments & replies |by Guest | Air, Sea and Land, My Habitat

When businesses charge customers for bags issued, you may think 5 or 10 cents per bag expensive. But what you don't see are costs of bags are included in the prices of goods presently and cashiers issue bags wastefully (so you pay more for bags). When costs of bags are not inculded in the prices of goods, businesses would probably adjust the prices of goods lower -- may not for all goods but some goods.

For example, a supermarket charges 10 cents for a big bag. Presently you pay 3 cents for the cost of a bag which is included in the prices. You may pay average another 2 cents for wasteful issuing of bags. If the shop adjusted prices due to costs of bags are not included in the prices of goods, you could pay average 3 cents less for a goods. While you would pay 10 cents for a bag, but actually you would just pay 2 cents (10 - 3 - 2 - 3 = 2 cents) more than what you have been paying now for a bag. If you don't accept a bag issued, you would gain 8 cents. This would be a choice you don't have presently. Therefore you would actually pay not much more than what you have been paying presently for bags issued and you could save some money if you don't accept bags issued.

The purpose of businesses is to sell their goods. They would like to convenient their customers by giving them bags to carry what they buy. So it wouldn't be their intention to profiteer from charging customers for bags issued. They earn more by selling their goods.

The new way would reduce the number of bags used and so it is good to the environment.

1393 views | 17 comments & replies |

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Guest

28 Mar 2012, 2.25PM

There are shops which sell plastic products. People can buy p/bags there cheaply. Otherewise, you may ask neighborhood provision shopkeeper to help you to buy p/bags from his supplier.

Guest

27 Mar 2012, 1.43PM

You can bring your reusable bag, your own trolley, and reuse old bags given by shops for shopping. If businesses charge 10 cents per bag, you reuse each bag 2 times for shopping and so each use would cost you just 3.3 cents.

Guest

30 Mar 2012, 10.18PM

When supermarket charged customer for plastic bags at the excuse of promoting their reputation of being eco-friendly, they are just *****ting to earn petty profit from their customer.

If they are sincere about promoting eco-friendlyness, they should rebate 10 cents to the customers who brought their bags. See the great differences in execution; they won't smeared their own reputation for being a petty profiteering business.

Guest

30 Mar 2012, 11.53PM

When businesses charge customers for bags, it would be because there is a law which forces them to do so.

If you have read my msg carefully, you would have found that customers would pay for p/bags not much more than they pay now. If you use your own bags, you would save some cents in comparing to the present system.

Guest

1 Apr 2012, 1.10AM

Rotten wood cannot be carved.

Guest

1 Apr 2012, 11.34PM

Don't behave like a dictator, pls.

Guest

31 Mar 2012, 5.34PM

You are wrong to say that the intention of a supermarket to charge customers for bags is to gain profit. A supermarket can easily earn more than that small profit by raising prices of its goods a little.

A supermarket can either charge customers for bags issued or includes the expenses of bags in the prices of its goods. There are some advantages to use the later method. Customers would be pleased to get bags issued free of charge. It would convenient customers to carry their things rather than having to bring their own bag or trolley for shopping. That customers carry bags of a supermarket and walk about means they advertise for the supermarket free of charge.

Since Ikea has charged customers for bags issued, no other stores follow its lead. Do the other stores not want to earn profits from charging customers for bags issued?

Guest

2 Apr 2012, 1.53PM

When expenses on bags are included in the prices of goods (that means customers think bags are free of charge), all customers pay for the costs of bags (including wasteful issuing of bags by cashiers) when they pay what they have bought.

When expenses on bags are not included in the prices of goods, customers won't pay for the expnses on bags if they don't need the bags issued by cashiers. The prices of goods are fixed based on overhead which doesn't include costs of bags. All customers would benefit from this.

Guest

4 Apr 2012, 10.25PM

You are selling an unpopular policy, It is no wonder no one support you.

Guest

5 Apr 2012, 11.38AM

There is a chap who supports my stand under my previous related topic.
There are more people who support pro-green than anti-green.

Guest

5 Apr 2012, 2.29PM

This Stinky Brainy Black Heart says,

dont bluff yourself. This Stinky Brainy is an anti-green, anti-pink, pro-orange people.

Please dont tell people what to do.

Since you need to pay for Plastic bags then you will not waste plastic bags,

PLEASE PAY FOR PLASTIC BAGS YOURSELF.

Guest

5 Apr 2012, 11.44PM

Don't worry, I don't have power to tell ppl what to do.

The govt and the parliament have the power.You should persuade them to follow your opinion.

Thank you for your interest in this topic.You should be stop interested in this topic since you are anti-green.Most people are pro-green.

Guest

7 Apr 2012, 1.55PM

Fairprice supermarkets give 10 cents to customers who don't require bags issued if their bills are not less than $10. I see few people take up such discount.

If costs of bags are not included in prices of goods, shoppers will not have to pay for the expenses of bags if they don't take bags issued and the prices of goods might be slightly cheaper than now too.

Guest

12 Apr 2012, 10.08AM

If costs of p/bags are not included in the prices of goods, it would be possible for businesses not to gain extra profit from charging for bags. They can adjust the prices of goods to achieve such a balance. So the change is just from costs of p/bags are included in the prices of goods to not included in the prices of goods.

Of couse, there might be some businesses which want to gain extra profit from such a change. If they do, consumers can't do much. But then, even if they don't gain extra profit from charging for p/bags, they can always gain that profits from selling goods by raising prices. So it really up to businesses to make their profit and consumers can only choose which shops they want to buy from.

There is Fairprice supermarkets which belong to NTUC and the govt has control. I'm sure they will give shoppers a fair deal when they make the change.

Guest

13 Apr 2012, 9.44AM

For the rich, they can contiue their present habit. It would be cool!

For the poor, they should use their own bags or trolley to save even more money than present.

For the middle incomes, they can sometimes use p/bags provided by shops and sometimes use their own bags or trolley.

For all, they should decline accepting p/bags which are not necessary.

However, you wouldn't really pay much more or (maybe) more than you have been presently paying for p/bags as I have already explained.

Guest

15 Apr 2012, 7.39PM

Supermarkets should sell p/bags in bulk when costs of bags are excluded from prices of goods. This would give consumers another choice. So for those who think businesses charge p/bags issued too high or they need to use them to line rubbish bin, it would convenient them to buy p/bags cheaply. With this idea, I hope there won't be any more worry about businesses charge customers for bags.

Guest

20 Apr 2012, 12.44PM

Where are all the pro-green ppl?

My opponents should by now be satisfed with all my explainations and ideas.