Less or Fewer??

My local supermarket seems to have failed junior High School English. Well, to be more precise, I have serious doubts about whether any of the staff ever passed junior High School English. A sign at their check-outs proudly announced that they were charging for plastic bags so that we would consume 'less plastic bags'. The sentiment, and the policy, are just fine by me.. they have my total support.

BUT: does anyone ever proof read their signs? Perhaps I should ask 'Does anyone who knows anything about the English language and its grammar ever proof read their signs? I'm no expert on English grammar, but there are some things I do know, and one of those is when to use 'less' and when to use 'fewer'.

It's FEWER bags, guys, not LESS. Use FEWER when referring to something that comes as discrete units, things you can count one by one, like bags, people, animals, cars.

Use LESS when referring to something that is 'continuous' in its nature, like less water, less wine, less rubbish. You'd say less beer, but fewer bottles of beer.

This is NOT hard... stop demolishing the English language just because you don't know any better.