It’s one thing to hear about supermarkets adding a 5p charge to carrier bags, it’s another actually watching them enforce this rule by stopping customers carrying their shopping away in the store baskets.

Here’s the moment the situation turned ugly at Tesco’s in Leytonstone. 21 year old Khalia Smith says she was confronted by two Tesco staff as she carried her shopping into the car park:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbSzy5AmUN0

Is it just me or is this 5p charge causing way more problems than it’s worth? Fair enough as the guard says there’s been a rise in people taking Tesco’s shopping baskets home, but that is after all a result of charging people 5p for a damn plastic bag. Just let her take her food to the car then take the basket back. Way better than becoming Internet famous for being Tesco security superhero.

Image VIA

Khalia said:

I thought I would take the basket to my car instead of wasting plastic, I didn’t really need a bag because I already had some in my car. I was going to unload my items and bring the basket back. I was trying to help but instead I was embarrassed. It was definitely an overreaction, he should have followed me to my car rather than accuse me.

Tesco said:

We work hard to give great service and we were sorry to learn of this incident. Our store manager is investigating what happened and we’ve apologised to Ms Smith. We want our customers to have the easiest possible shopping trip so of course any customer who wants to can take their basket to their car. All we’d ask is that the basket is returned to the store afterwards.

That’s settled then. What’s going on in east London this week anyway? That whole Walthamstow/Leytonstone area needs to calm the F down.