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Comment by SamReidHughes | Hacker News Reader

That's really neat, but difficult in places like California where there's a bag fee.

We have a 5 cent bag fee too (Switzerland), and it works just fine. I fail to see the problem?

Our bags have big bar codes to scan, and there's also a big "+1 bag" button on the self checkout machines.

I don't know, in the supermarket I go to, in California, they're very possessive about bags in the self checkout, as if there's high penalties if some customers walk out without paying for their bag.

I still don't understand what hardship you're trying to point out. Are you saying in your store there's a significant barrier to buying a bag?

As someone who has lived in California, sounds like you have a beef with a single store.

In Gaithersburg, MD, you're just prompted to enter in the number of bags you've used. You're then charged the $.05 per bag on your tab.

Is this somehow incompatible with bringing your own bags?

It's not like you leave the store balancing everything in your hands... Scan, put in whatever bag you brought and then go.

In the UK you just get asked how many bags you've used so they can charge the fee.

At grocery stores where I live you can't bag any of your groceries until you've scanned them all. It's the main reason I don't use self-checkout alongside the computer nattering at you and making you wait for it to finish.

To be fair, the Tesco I use most has found some really irritating middle ground where the bags are held by a specific employee that you go and ask for a bag from, slowing everything up massively.

Every time I go in I have the same thought that it's such a waste of someone's life to spend most of it standing motionless with the sole purpose to reduce theft of plastic bags.

Same thing at some large Sainsbury's, very annoying. They are also the medium-weight plastic bags instead of the light ones; I suppose people like to feel they are getting something of value for their five pence, but I find these bags far less useful for re-use at home. At some point I am going to have to figure out how to order a 50-pack of Waitrose bags just for scooping the cat's litter box...

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