When I was in Hong Kong I folded up a reuseable bag and walked in with it in my pocket (took it partly because it is easier to carry full and partly to save the HK$0.50). How many bags of shopping are you wanting to do?
we haven't shopped at the LP grocery for awhile cuz it's too claustrophobic for me but we have no problems using our own bags at LP and Robinsons. hell... where i came from, you used your own bag or you had to buy a store bag, made sense to me...
That is the way it should be but, It may, as many things been brought about by Circumstances, More than normal shoplifting for example, we know how things change here overnight. These Guards don't make up the Rules, they just face the customer with today's rules and I Guess the OP got caught up in this one. It was not Long ago 1 or 2 years? where the City tried to Stop all Plastic Bags now we are back to this one you must use Plastic like everyone else, As ever, we are where we are and if that is the order of the day then so beit, many will not like it but..............................
yeah, it's hard to make everyone happy. back when the ban on plastic bags, as jack mentioned, and the counter girls had to make bags from newspaper, my neighbor was pissed because he didn't have plastic shopping bags for his trash.
We bought four straw bags at the public market and have used them at Robinsons and Lee Hypermart. Accepting that the "shoplifting" is a legitimate concern, we leave the bags at the package counter, then when we get near the head of the checkout line, one of us goes over and gets the straw bags from the package counter and comes back to the checkout line and loads up. Haven't had a problem, but then haven't tried Lee Super Plaza yet.
It is important to keep you blood pressure down here, and the one of the best ways is to realize that the guards are not paid to think as we think. I am pretty sure they are not even paid to think, but only to follow the rules that they have been told to enforce. Obviously they never grow up to become LTO officers and enforce traffic rules in the Dumaguete. We could really use some LTO officers that spent their time enforcing rules instead smiling and waving to their neighbors and cousins driving by. I was going to into Robinson downtown. The guard was standing with his back facing out the entrance, as they was someone moping the entrance. So I could not go in the "entrance door", so I use my brain and started to walk into the exit... big mistake. I was told I could not go in to the area that way. When I asked how I was suppose to go in, I got the traditional Filipino blank stare. So I called over the supervisor and the two guards. I ask "Why do people go into the store?" No response, so I told them I went into the store to buy things and give the store money, that paid their wages. The money that the store needed so it could stay open and pay wages. I explained if no one was let in, then the store would eventually close and they would have no jobs... I walked away with the warm feeling that I had just spoken to three statues of rules that had not idea what I was trying to explain to them, but did I got the smiles, and the "yes sirs, thank you" speech they practice each day as they polish their shoes while getting ready for work. Preserve you health and be thankful you were taught to think, care about others, and the environment... some people never get that opportunity.
Get a small backpack, put a small tablet / large phone and any shopping bags you want to bring inside, and if asked for depositing it, say "gadget inside" - problem solved. They appear to have a rule to not store valuable items, which beats any other rules. Until now nobody insisted on actually checking if there is any gadget inside... Fun fact: at Robinsons they refused to store my helmet (for fear of it getting scratches I was told). At the hypermart and also in Lee plaza you're required to deposit the helmet...
Lee Plaza seem to have the monopoly on the lack of common sense application to the rules regarding bags, deposits and so forth. I'm sure I must be personalising things, but the guards there seem to have it in for me. Refusing entry unless I.....fill blank. I've just about given up unless it is to nip in for smokes or dash to their offie downstairs. At Robs it's a cheery good morning and a wave through 95% of the time. I know that all folks no matter what colour or creed can shoplift, but an overweight long nose in middle age is the least likely demographic as compared to the hordes of aimless mall rats I see loitering about buying nowt. It winds Mrs C up when I tell her the female guards have been caressing my butt again on the way in and out if the stores. I tell her the ones in Watsons are the worst...and btw do we need more toothpaste?
Another thing with shoplifting here most of these business's like Robinsons, Lee Plaza, and SM as well make workers pay for whatever is stolen from their section. I've known workers who have lost the better part of their pay to covering theft losses.
It is no wonder then that the sales staff are practically glued to us as we shop and would also answer why there are so many staff, I mean without workers paying for losses, the Store would make a loss and then maybe, as they seem to in Europe add a % to cover losses
