Grocery bags

[Kent Wang]

This is a bag from Central Market, an upscale grocery here in Austin.

I am nonplussed by the writing on this bag and am a bit resentful that it attempts to guilt me into making it into a kite. Sure, I enjoy flying kites -- at my leisure, not when pressured to do so by some paper bag.

Do your grocery bags also attempt to browbeat you into doing them favors?

[dockhl]

Kent.

Hmm, I am so busy laughing about this that I don't really have an answer. I think most paper bags have good intentions but may use guilt to their own device, if a bit informed.

You think maybe it is a Catholic paper bag? (I remember this from my youth..... )

I kinda like it's attitude, tho

Kathy

[Jensen]

I would think brown paper bags would like to be wrapped around books. They'd get to go out a lot (although probably to the same destination). Sure, it's not as glamourous as being a kite but it's better than being put in the recycle bin, isn't it?

I covet your brown paper bag. (but I wouldn't make it into a kite...guilt trips don't work on me)

[Kent Wang]

I covet your brown paper bag. (but I wouldn't make it into a kite...guilt trips don't work on me)

←

Perhaps he would like to go on a trip. I can send him to you, and maybe you can take a photo of him near one of your local landmarks. You can then do as you wish, wrap him around a book or pass him on to another person.

[Kim Shook]

I have a really great microwave recipe for Caramel Corn that uses a paper grocery bag. Think he'd like that?

[Marlene]

I covet your brown paper bag. (but I wouldn't make it into a kite...guilt trips don't work on me)

←

Perhaps he would like to go on a trip. I can send him to you, and maybe you can take a photo of him near one of your local landmarks. You can then do as you wish, wrap him around a book or pass him on to another person.

←

I think it's hilarious. I also covet it. It could also be the start of something fun. Kent can send it to Jensen, who could wrap it around a book (a cookbook of course) and send it to another eGulleter, who could maybe make it into a paper airplane and fly it to another eGulleter and so on. Each person taking a picture. How far around the world could we make this little bag travel?

Edited October 25, 2007 by Marlene (log)

[CaliPoutine]

Here is our stores "green bag".

They cost .99cents and they're totally worth it. The problem is, I keep forgetting them when I go to the grocery store, so then I buy a few more. If you have a PC Mastercard( which I do), then you get 50 bonus points each time you use a green bag. The points really add up!!

Does anyone else in Ontario have these bags? What do you think?

[Kerry Beal]

I use those. Same problem remembering to take them into the store. I think they should put up signs in the parking lot to remind you to take them out of the car.

[prasantrin]

We use the PC bags, too, but I don't like them so much. One of mine already has a tear in the seam. The ones from Sobey's/Loblaws are better quality, I think.

I also have Trader Joe's bags which are much better quality (though they don't fold up as small as the PC bags, and are a little more expensive). My favourite reusable grocery bag is actually a LuluLemon bag. It has guilt trips written all over it, just like Kent's CM bag (though LuluLemon probably thinks of them as being inspirational rather than guilt-ridden)!

[eskay]

I use the PC bags....I keep one in my backpack so it's around. Anything really heavy, like milk or cans, goes into my backpack though. And the sobeys/etc ones are bigger, but not as pretty

[Kerry Beal]

I had one PC bag with a tear in the seam. They replaced it no problem.

[Dianabanana]

I covet your brown paper bag. (but I wouldn't make it into a kite...guilt trips don't work on me)

←

Perhaps he would like to go on a trip. I can send him to you, and maybe you can take a photo of him near one of your local landmarks. You can then do as you wish, wrap him around a book or pass him on to another person.

←

I think this is a great idea! Like the traveling garden gnome in

Amelie!

[jsmeeker]

The first time I got one of those paper Central Market bags pictured in the original post, I got a pretty good chuckle out of it.

[layla17]

I haven't seen the Central Market bags, but I think they're quite funny. I have a PC bag and haven't really had any issues with it tearing or anything. I usually take my with me every time I visit the store.

Edited October 25, 2007 by layla17 (log)

[rooftop1000]

Mmmm real (paper) grocery bags, built to hold lots of stuff, with handles too

I have a cloth bag too I think it is hanging in the coat closet

T

[annarborfoodie]

I had the same problem with forgetting my canvas bags in the car. I now use Acme Workhorse Bags and they squish up into a little pouch that is attached to the inside of the bag. They're very light, and I keep two of them in my purse all the time. I try to remember to take the other two into the store when I go for a big shopping trip.

[VPF]

I have two of these canvas bags from trader joes. I keep one at home and one at my locker at work (I do most of my shopping after work).

annarborfoodie, thanks for that website. I think i'm going to invest in a couple of those acme bags. I think it looks a little tacky when i use my trader joe bags at other places other than trader joes.

Edited October 26, 2007 by VPF (log)

[chezcherie]

i was in a wal-mart today (for the second time in my life!) and they had a black bag displayed on the customer service station that read "paper? plastic? neither."

i didn't even see the walmart logo on it, and if i had not already gone through the check-out line, i woulda bought a couple.

sadly, at this rate, and with my (non)proximity to wal-mart, i will not have another chance until the next millenium.

i am in trader joes, however, nearly every day. while i have a few of their reusable bags, i mostly use their paper bags, and use them to gather recyclables during each cooking class, then recycle the whole ball-o-wax...seems like a reasonable trade off to me, but i'm not sure how that affects my "carbon footprint". (as i am leading a group of students and friends to tuscany next week, i think my shoes are getting larger by the moment...)

[jayejo]

The CM bag makes me laugh, but I'm hooked on my new "grape" bag from Whole Foods. It was .99 and I've got some of the others as well (coffee, flour). I keep them in the car, and, since I work there too, they have them in the copy rooms that we can take and return, which is really cool. And yet, I still forget to use them 95% of the time.

My paper bags end up as my recycle bin, and then I take them out to the outside bin. 2 fit perfectly in the bin, and I usually have two a week. How's that for serendipity? Or something...

[MelissaH]

We used to use plastic grocery bags, doubled up, inside our kitchen trash can. But since we redid the kitchen and got a new nifty sliding trash can, we use commercial bags. The plastic ones have been building up, and it's not so easy to find somewhere around here that recycles them. (I know Wegman's does, but I never remember to bring them.) I've heard about people cutting plastic grocery bags into strips and then knitting them into a tote bag, but I have yet to try it myself.

We have one of Wegman's $0.99 reusable bags. I'm getting better about grabbing it from the back of the car when I go in to shop.

MelissaH

[halogenic]

In a recent trip to IKEA (one finally opened in Florida), I was surprised to find that they now charge five cents for a regular shopping bag. However, for the convenient price of $0.59, you could purchase a large tarp-material bag that could carry a medium sized dog.

I bought two of them.

[Kent Wang]

Leaving Central Market.

What are we hauling today?

Pumpkin pie supplies.

Here we are at the Texas State Capitol.

Next stop...

[crouching tyler]

Perhaps towards the end of its life, the paper bag will become some postcards, sent on to several destinations....

For those who are plagued by leaving their resuable bags at home/in the car/in the closet, here are the bags that helped me break that frustrating habit. They roll up, ever so nicely, are super light, and so I just chuck them back in my purse after I unload them. Voila! Envirosax.

[Dianabanana]

Next stop...

←

Seattle!

Sunbathing out on the deck with Bunny the Sheltie.

Next we're off to . . .

[Domestic Goddess]

Diana/Kent - you can send the bag to me and I'll post the pic of the bag enjoying its stay here in Korea.