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It's the principle

by Whaleoil on December 15, 2009

A friend of mine was at Warehouse at the weekend buying Christmas presents. He spent a considerable amount of time selecting the gifts he wanted to give and then approached the check-out.

After standing in line for a very long time he eventually arrived at the counter and the cashier started ringing up the items. There were a few but not too many, they would all fit in one bag.

And that is where the wheels fell off.

The cashier had completed the total and said “That’ll be $350.00 thanks and would you like a bag for those”

My friend said “Yes Please, that would be handy”

The cashier responded by adding ten cents onto the bill, ny friend queried this and was told that they charged 10 cents for the bags. This was ten cents too far for my friend.

He said “take it off, you offered me a bag and I accepted, no mention was made of the charge until after I had accepted.” The cashier refused and the supervisor called. Same story. “Sorry Sir, store policy, 10c for the bag”

My friend at that point said “Well you can just go put all that stuff back on the shelf because I’m not paying for a stupid bag that costs about a tenth of a cent, I wouldn’t even pay 1 cent for it”, and promptly walked out leaving the $350.00 of goods and two goldfish mimicking staff members gaping.

He tells me it is the principle of the matter and I agree.

The Warehouse seems to want to forgo a sale of $350.00 in order to maximise their profit on a bag that would have cost then less than a tenth of a cent to but and that they sell at ten cents. Even at ten cents the bags are crap anyway, it is an affront to charge even that.

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  • Ian Cousins

    Gotta agree – its the principle that counts and NZ businesses are all looking to gouge the customer whenever and wherever they can – classic example was the supermarket chain who continue to charge for bags in the South Island but who rescinded this practice in the North Island due to continuing complaints from their customers… personally I don’t shop with them any more (and won’t even though the practice has stopped)…

  • http://lancewiggs.com lance

    This is something that I agree with you on – amazing. I’ve also written about this poor business practice – with Borders in Auckland.

    Let’s assume the warehouse makes 20% gross profit on the $350 of goods – that’s $70.

    Let’s assume the bag costs 3 cents, so they make 7 cents a bag.

    That means they need to sell 1000 bags to make up for the lost transaction. The assumptions may be wildly wrong, but add to the lost transaction value the negative publicity from the occasional person that gets mad and goes public.

  • Ben

    The Warehouse charges for bags to discourage people from using plastic bags. Since they introduced this policy, bag usage has dropped about 60%. All of the money they receive from the sale bags is given to local charities. So this isn’t an example of a business looking to gouge the customer.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/Whaleoil Whaleoil

      What's wrong with plastic bags?

  • Scanner

    Ian Cousins, your a dick, the grocery chain involved was Foodstuffs and the charging for bags was all up front, not added after the transaction was made which is where WO is coming from.
    After people like you whinged about they made a commercial decision to drop the 5c charge.
    At least someone was prepared to reduce the number of bags that will last 1000 years in a landfill, in the case of the Wharehouse however they are probably making 200% or more on their bags, and most of of it will finish up in Tindals pocket.

  • http://www.mandm.org.nz Madeleine

    How stupid of the Warehouse staff!

    To think that yesterday at Lincoln Rd Warehouse I bought something, total far less than your friend, and the assistant simply put it in a bag and handed it to me. I, knowing of their studpi 10c a bag-to-save-the-planet policy, scoured my receipt to see if I had been charged and I had not – the bag was given to me free.

    So it seems that their policy ranges from non-enforcement of their policy to draconian violations of comsumer law (if you say you do not wish to buy something that has been rung up at the til, the shop has to take it off).

  • Michaels

    I had the same story a couple of weeks ago.
    I decide a trip to the far north and on the way discovered the wife didn’t pack a few items so off to the Warehouse in Whangarei.
    $87 later and I was asked if I wanted a bag, I said jokingly, “no, I’ll just carry everything…. OF course I want a bag!!!”… That’ll be an extra .10cents thank you… Pardon I replied…. he repeated himself and I simply said, if you charge me I will leave it all here on the counter, to which he said… Sorry sir it’s store policy. I told him I would shop elsewhere and walked out empty handed. Fuck the Warehouse I say.

  • http://mickysmuses.blogspot.com Ayrdale

    Mate…typo heading….

    Of course it’s the principle, the principle being that Tindall would like us all to feel guilty about accepting a filthy plastic bag ( a trite symbol of our successful capitalist way of life) and wants to demonstrate his care for the planet and appeal to the hypocritically sensitive greens among us, by asking us to pay for the convenience of carrying our garbage home from his emporium.

  • http://www.democracymum.co.nz democracymum

    Its is the same principle in effect over the anti smacking legislation.

    Every year countless children are being bashed, abused and murdered in New Zealand and Sue Bradford (like the Warehouse shop assistant) stands up in Parliament and says Let’s ban parents from smacking their children.

    It’s the legislative equivalent of being asked to pay 10c after spending $350 in store.

  • Colonel Masters

    I recommend Joanne Black’s column on New World’s charging for bags where she exposed the rank hypocrisy of making YOU feel guilty about wanting a bag to carry goods home in while at the same time selling over-packaged crap.

    http://www.listener.co.nz/issue/3599/columnists/13223/see-through_packaging.html

    Pleasantly right-wing for a Listener contributor.

  • Pete

    A couple of points on this:
    1. I find the Warehouse position to be most hypocritical. Arguably they retail more useless crap than the rest of NZ retail combined, but they want to compromise customer service to assuage their corporate guilt, and they do it by compromising on customer service..
    2. Over the weekend I spent over $200 and after it had been rung up and paid they asked if I wanted to pay for a bag. If my 9 yr old hadn’t been with me I would have got stuck in.
    3. I told New World to put over $300 worth of groceries back on the shelf when they gave me a lecture on conservation. (I had just planted 30,000 trees on my place). They were very surprised that a customer would do this.
    $. On a very wet day I had purchased a stack of books at Borders, completed the sale and then got told I needed to pay 10c for a bag. I asked for my money back and got a lecture on conservation. Ignorant prats!
    Sorry, for large $$$ purchases I expect to be GIVEN something to carry my purchases in.
    All my bags are recycled anyway.

  • bill hicks

    I do not shop at the wharehouse or bunnings for the same reason………They charge for bags…….

  • dead

    Funny how they claim to want to help the environment. And how do they do this TAX YOU!!!!

  • Pedrovsky

    Lesson… try the high street… I am completely underwhelmed by the new Gisborne Big Bunnings and took myself off to the little ole mom & pop hardware store. Parked right in front, staff know where everything is and have product knowledge and I’m happy to pay 25c more per item.

  • Joann Ransom

    $2,000 on at The Warehouse in Levin – and yep I argued unsuccessfully for 4 free bags to get the slippery things to the car…. wish I’d had the balls to walk away and leave them all there.

  • petal

    Nothing new here boys.

    When I buy a $2000 fridge, and they tell me it costs $25 to deliver it, I tell them to stuff it.

    I remember a $10,000 computer (during the 80s), and they added a $15 power cable. I challenged them to give me a free cable or lose the sale…

    Sometimes companies lose perspective, and need a reminder as to why they are in business.

  • Cadwallader

    Shopping at the warehouse is a bit like dating a fat bird: Both can be fun until your friends find out! I only go there after dark and take my own bag to prevent being caught out giving them my custom!

  • http://amerikiwee.wordpress.com Amerikiwee

    Good on him. I was asked yesterday if I wanted a bag…I was in a hurry and didn’t even realize I was being charged extra for it.

    We stopped shopping at New World until they quit charging extra for bags…we didn’t need the environmental lecture, especially when we pay New World’s high prices already – I enjoyed Countdown’s advertising of their use of plastic bags at the time.

  • John Boy

    I selected a child for the church Angel Tree project (anonymously buy a present for a prisoner’s child). I was blessed because the only one left was a 10 year old boy who wanted an educational book and a watch. Most of the rest had wanted a Warehouse voucher. They’ll get $25 (the spending limit) of junk, mine gets $100 (rules schmools) of stuff carefully chosen. Hopefully the difference between value and cheap will be learned but having done what I can he’s in God’s hands for that.

  • Grinch

    How to get your 10c worth

    1. Purchase loads of stuff
    2. Unpackage everything at the counter
    3. Suffer abuse from queue & cashier
    4. Push very tall messy useless pile aside
    5. Smile & Ask for a bag
    6. 40min later “walk away”

  • http://mickysmuses.blogspot.com Ayrdale

    But fair go for Bunnings, I’ve never ever been asked to pay for a plastic bag, but am given if I ask a free cardboard box to take my stuff home.