No-one wants the embarrassment and frustration of their tins of beans rolling around the supermarket car park while their freshly purchased milk seeps on to the concrete.
I’ve always had a bit of a fear of the plastic handles snapping off my supermarket carrier bag like Kevin in Home Alone.
In 2015, in a bid to reduce single use plastic waste, the government enforced a carrier bag charge on stores, promoting bags for life.
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Prices for supermarket bags vary hugely, from 15p to 60p, but just how sturdy are they?
I went to Aldi, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, M&S, Asda and Tesco to find out who had the best supermarket shopper bags, and if they really are ‘bags for life’.
And there’s one supermarket bag I wouldn’t rely on to carry a heavy load - because it didn’t even make it off the ground.
I filled each of the bags with 13 litres of lemonade to see which could bear the weight the best, and this is what I found.
Aldi
Aldi’s plastic carrier bags cost 20p, which appears to be the standard cost of a supermarket bag these days.
Upon loading the bag it was difficult to get all seven bottle of fizzy pop in, but I got there eventually.
Lifting the bag was a challenge, and I could feel the handles stretching under the weight, however the carrier bag did remain intact.
There was some strain on the handles, but certainly not as bad as some of the other bags in the list.
Sainsbury’s
Sainsbury’s recognisable orange bags have a different handle design to all the others. Instead of a loop handle, the Sainsbury’s ones are built into the bag and reinforced with more plastic.
Having loaded and lifted the bag containing seven lemonade bottles, I could see where the weaknesses were in the plastic as they faded to a yellowy colour.
There was a fair amount of stress just below the handles, but also a hole in the seam of the bag, which could definitely have got worse if I’d held the bag much longer.
This carrier was also 20p, and had there not been a hole, I would have been happy to use this bag again.
Morrisons
Morrisons instantly lose points for having the most expensive bags at the checkout. Sixty pence!
However, the bag did survive the test of carrying 13 litres of lemonade - but only just.
There was some significant stretching on the handles that was almost transparent, and the handle has started to come away from the rest of the bag.
I definitely wouldn’t have been able to use this bag again, and 60p seems extortionate, particularly if you had a weekly shop and needed more than one.
M&S
Surprisingly, Marks and Spencer’s shopping bags were the cheapest at 15p each, and the largest in size too.
The handles felt pretty sturdy, and the bottles stacked nicely in the bag, making it easier to carry because of the wide base.
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There was a lot of handle stretching on this bag too, and I wouldn’t risk using it to carry much more than a loaf of bread on a second shop.
But the M&S bag was cheap and did the job, so all in all I couldn’t really complain.
Asda
After carefully filling my 20p Asda carrier bag I braced myself for lifting it.
But the bag didn’t even make it off the ground before I heard a loud tear. The entire bag had split horizontally across, with the handle falling off straight after.
The bag was thin and I hadn’t held out much hope for it, but I didn’t expect it to be quite so flimsy.
One thing’s for sure, you wouldn’t want to be carrying one of these crammed full across the car park. In fact, you’d probably want to double bag your shop.
Tesco
I had high hopes for Tesco’s carrier bag as it felt pretty tough and durable. The handles appeared well attached and it was of a decent size for 20p.
The bottles all fit in fairly well, but the weight of them saw a small hole appear just below the handles, leaving a weak spot in the bag.
I’d say that Asda’s carrier bag was definitely the most flimsy, followed by Tesco and Sainsbury’s whose bags both wound up with holes.
Morrison’s comes in third place with an intact but heavily stretched bag but an extortionate price tag.
M&S takes second place with a well sized, affordable bag, but it was Aldi who claimed the winners crown for best carrier bag, because even after taking a good tug at the handles, it didn’t falter.
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