Hope you all noticed that each and every time you ask for carry bags after shopping, cash attendant at the counter stares you like anything and gives inappropriate reasons like no bags, it will cost and many more.
Customer feel distressed after getting horrible reactions from those store guys but there is a fact hidden relating customer rights and company's wellbeing.
Have you ever noticed why they charge for carry bags after shopping? if not get connected you will know the reason behind.
These big store companies are charging handsome amount ranges between Rs.5 to Rs. 50 which they should give customer in free.These carry bags after shopping let customer in liable position of must buying to carry items easily.
The debate was reignited earlier this month when footwear major Bata India was slapped with a fine of Rs9,000 by a consumer forum in the north Indian city of Chandigarh. An angry customer filed a complaint after he was charged Rs3 for a paper bag.
The forum Dismissed BATA's argument that it was merely transferring the cost of using environment-friendly bags. “If Bata India is an environmental activist, it should have given the same to the complainant free of cost,” the forum noted, adding that “it was the store’s duty to provide a free paper bag to the customer who had bought its product.”
WHY NOT CHARGE FOR BAGS?
- Like Bata, many popular Indian retailers—hypermarket chain BigBazaar, department store chain Shoppers Stop, and fashion retailer Pantaloons, to name a few—charge consumers for their eco-friendly carry bags.
- To be sure, this practice is relatively new. Until a few years ago, many brands counted the cost of their carry bags (at the time, mostly made from plastic) as “overhead expenses,” and provided them free.
- Things began to change in 2011 when India’s ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) issued the plastic waste (management and handling) rules. One of these rules state that: “No (plastic) carry bags shall be made available free of cost by retailers to consumers.”
- Soon, retailers began switching to the more expensive paper and cloth carry bags, but for a fee.
- While the companies justified it as the price paid for being environmentally conscious, experts are not convinced.
LEGAL OPINION
- “A consumer ought to pay for anything and everything she purchases. Carry bag is not a part of the product and hence it’s charged for,” says Ashok K Aggarwal, managing partner at the New Delhi-based Mint Law Associates.
- Most importantly, Aggarwal, added, “It’s not a forced purchase. There are no hidden charges, concealment of facts, breach of trust, or unfair practice adopted by the seller who declares the price of a carry bag up front. To buy or not to buy is a consumer’s decision.”
- This suggests that the Chandigarh consumer forum’s order against Bata can be challenged.
- Nevertheless, customers will be emboldened. “It (the order against Bata) will set a precedent for consumers to refuse to be charged for a bag.
- Even as different stakeholders promote a safe environment, the beneficiary has to be the consumer. Companies cannot say it will impact their bottom line,” argues Chandramouli.
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Thts a great piece of information....i am sure there are th number of people who get fooled by th stores whenever they go for shop...even i am one of them...and this is something tht we never expected...thankyou for sharing such information
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