Asda crisis as shoppers take home baskets

A supermarket has had to order in more shopping baskets after customers took them home from one of its stores which had begun phasing out 5p plastic bags.

An Asda store in Cambridge now has only 30 or 40 baskets left and has ordered in a new load of 100 green plastic baskets. The supermarket pledged in February to end the sale of single-use bags, but customers have resisted buying its larger and sturdier “bags for life” at 9p.

An Asda spokesman said: “We’re trying to do our bit to protect the environment and would ask customers who are taking our baskets home with them to use bags for life instead.”