All That For A Few Cents?

Wales had just introduced a compulsory minimum 5p charge for plastic bags in shops. England followed soon after but had not at this point. My shop, in Wales, charged 5p for single-use bags and 10p for “bags for life”, the stronger ones, and it all went to a children’s charity.

I had a very English-sounding woman come in to buy some stuff — not unusual, it was a pretty seaside town with a decent university — and when I mentioned the bag charge, she got really agitated.

Customer: “I shouldn’t have to pay!”

Me: “It’s the law, ma’am.”

Customer: “It’s not the law; it’s Welsh law.”

Pretty sure being from a different country within a union doesn’t make you exempt from the law of the country you’re in.