M&S flower power & plastic bags & training

While I am on the subject of plastic bags, I would like to name and shame Marks and Spencer. My mother is ill so when I visited last weekend I went to buy some flowers. The flowers were pre-wrapped in the usual plastic wrapping. Taking my flowers to the counter the assistant who served me called to a colleague, "get some more large flower bags, I need one here." What! This is M&S doing its worst for the environment, just in the name of a bit of branding. The flowers were completely adequately wrapped already. This is not just a sign of bad company policy it is also a sign of poor staff training. The plastic bag they wanted to supply is totally redundant. It is a sop. It makes the customer and M&S feel good. Once the flowers are delivered the M&S branded bag has absolutely no other function than going into landfill. M&S, as with other supermarkets should train their staff to discourage the use of new shopping bags. However how often at the checkout do you find your goods stuffed into new bags without a second thought. So often staff take it on themselves to make it seductively easy for you to use new bags. Often they even put your food into bags themselves, "just to be kind." Well it is not kind, it is destructive to our environment, especially when it is a single use bag.