Reusable Grocery Bags

The Stop and Shop supermarkets are selling reusable grocery bags for .99 cents each. They have a picture at the following link

http://www.stopandshop.com/stores/

I noticed them the other day when I took my mother out grocery shopping. My Stop and Shop store does not seem to have these bags yet.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(skruse @ Feb 5 2007, 06:35 PM) [snapback]385728[/snapback]</div>

We use LL Bean ones. Also, we use for frozen items a soft-sided cooler-type thing that is sort of like a bag, too. Last time I was in Costco, I noticed that they were carrying (selling) cloth bags, very inexpensive compared to LL Bean. I think they were in packs of more than one, and they were located back in an aisle near where all the cleaning stuff is.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(onerpm @ Feb 5 2007, 04:03 PM) [snapback]385749[/snapback]</div>

That's too bad. They should put them up front near the check out. At least they're selling them. This is definitely one of the things that we as a country can do to reduce our petro use while not really sacrificing anything. I wonder how much plastic we'd save if everyone used a reusable bag of some kind.

 

How 'bout when your in line in back of someone and they buy one or two small items. The clerk is obligated to say, "would you like a bag" and they respond that they would! Is it difficult to carry two tiny items in your hands and then into your house. I don't get it. Seems to me this is a very simple area in which a positive impact may be made. One lady I viewed said she wanted a bag for her milk gallon. It went in two plastic bags so as not to tear.

 

People don't really think about the consequences of their actions. Most people don't even know that they're charged extra for the bags. Some would probably reconsider if they knew this. Then again, what's $0.05? That's the whole problem. Each individual action has a very small impact. The problem is that there are billions of these actions occurring each day.

 

we finally made the switch! we went with these:
http://cgi.ebay.com/10-Reusable-Gro...oryZ3202QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

they got here sometime last week, but i haven't had any shopping to do until today. i took them to the grocery store with me, and found them very easy to use, handles were comfortable, and they held a lot more than i expected. a box of cereal barely stuck out the top, and i could have put two gallons of milk in one bag but i preferred not to. apparently i didn't need to buy a set of ten but i have many other uses for them so it works out well.

i got two extra points in our grocery rewards program for bringing the bags myself. the only down side is that you can't use the self checkout with your own bags, because the weight sensor gets messed up.

 

Our Vons started stocking $1.00 bags near the checkout. I noticed the Home Depot has some the other day too.

I've sewn my own and I always get some nice bags when I go to a professional conference, but I like the string bags best. They stretch. I'd like to eventually develop a pattern to crochet them out of string. If I can make it simple enough, my students can learn how to do it. So far I haven't liked any of the crochet patterns already out on the internet.

I've been using string bags for years but have worn some out and really need to replace them. I like to get a lot in different colors. Helps me keep track of how many bags I have.

I like ECO-bags.

 

I got the dollar bags recently and use them for lots of things. What I really like is that they are washable (so it says - haven't actually washed one yet). I love the handles, but they do have a tendency to be overfilled and heavy without realizing it.

 

I love Chico bags. I have all green ones, but they really do hold a lot!
I have never weighed how much I can cram into them, but I have had the situation where it was difficult for me to carry the bag, from the weight... and it held just fine.

They fold into their own attached pouch, and have little clips, which make them very handy to take with you.

 

I use the store reusable bags, space age technology from the space shuttle reusable stuff, not like technology of the 60s-70s apollo missions.
Anyway, the stores have their logo on tha bags and I keep taking Coles bags when I go shopping at Woolworths. Oops. I've been using reusable for about 3 or 4 years now.

 

We got our first reusable store bags at Trader Joes, and it is actually kinda a kick to take them into Safeway, or Fred Meyer's
The stores seems to be really getting on the bandwagon now, offering reusable bags for about a buck. Heck, even the used food store (Grocery outlet, or canned food outlet) has them for a buck.

 

I think all the shops have had them for quite some time here.

 

And considering that a lot of stores charge you a nickel for each plastic bag the ROI of the reusable bags isn't too bad. It's really silly NOT to use them. They save you money, they save you space space in trash (because it's often hard to find a place to recycle the damn things). What's not to like about them. The only hard part is getting used to taking them to the store and using them.

 

If it hasn't been mentioned, Costco has great ones. They are very large - 2X or more the size of the Trader Joe's bags and also have a nifty insert on the inside for keeping bottles of things upright.

 

When I was first asked to pay for bags at the store, I thought "How cheap can you get?" After giving it some thought, I understood what they were up to, and pretty much stopped using them. I still have to request 'No bag, please' in some places, but not as often. When we go for our big weekly shopping trip, everything goes into coolers or milk crates. If I'm walking up to the local produce store, it all goes in my backpack. I used to take my bicycle panniers right in the grocery store, and stop when they were full, but it drove the security guys nuts. When I was told the parkade was for cars only, and bicycles were not permitted, I took my money somewhere else.

 

Yes, we've seen the Costco ones... three times the size of normal, and you buy them in a 3-pack.
(I'm not kidding)

 

There is no charge for plastic bags here but still a lot of people bring the green bags.

 

When did non-reusable grocery bags become the norm? And what did folks do before that?

 

Good on 'em. Bloody things are a scourge.

 

There was brown paper. They were recyclable. They were reused. People didn't like them because they broke, had no handles. Were difficult to carry and useless if they got wet. But you could make book covers for your textbooks out of them.

I, on the other hand, feel that plastic bags have many of the same problems. You can't put as much is a plastic bag and if anything has a point or corner you risk the bag being punctured and everything inside pouring out on to the ground. This has happened to me more than once. That's why I switched to string bag waaaaaay back before it was fashionable. They hold more and can carry a lot more weight. It was no big deal to me. I'd been to visit relatives in Germany since I was a child and every time I went, I was given string bags to take to the store. (Which was not open at nights or on weekends.) Our first bags were brought back from Germany.

I put all of my bags in one bag and hang them on the refrigerator near the kitchen door so I can grab them on the way out to the store. I do also have a plastic bag keeper because I do occasionally get plastic bags to use a wastebasket liners. If plastic bags were gone tomorrow, I wouldn't miss them. I also have a few brown paper bags around. Them I would miss. Every year I send kids to the store for brown paper bags to cover their textbooks.