Cloth bags food for thought

Reusable shopping bags are being marketed by stores as an option to paper or plastic, as well as being chic for environmental crowd

October 09, 2007|By Mary Ellen Podmolik, Special to the Tribune


Sounds like a no-eco-guilt strategy.




They are being sold as both a practical alternative and a chic fashion statement at a time when eco-consciousness is hip.

But will consumers buy, and buy into, the concept of trudging into stores with their own bags, or will they stick with petroleum-based plastic sacks and deal with the eco-guilt? Pet lovers face an extra quandary: If they spurn plastic bags at checkout, how will they clean up after their dogs and cats?

In a random survey of 10 shoppers outside a North Riverside Jewel last week, nearly all said they gave enough thought to recycling that they reused their plastic grocery bags, thus alleviating their guilt for contributing to landfills. Just one shopper admitted throwing away her plastic bags.

Several shoppers had invested in reusable shopping bags or said they would consider such a purchase.

Waiting for his wife in the parking lot, Broadview resident Horace McGrier Jr. said he alternates between using the cloth bags he keeps in his trunk and asking for paper and plastic, for which he finds uses at home.

The downside of bringing your own bags? Running out of room in them.

Shoppers never leave a store with "as [little] as you expected to" buy, McGrier said.

The sale of reusable bags comes at a time when consumers may drive gas-guzzling sport-utility vehicles, but they are buying energy-efficient light bulbs. So even if it is not a popular item within a store, offering a reusable bag is a smart move because merchants will be seen as socially responsible, said Los Angeles-based marketing consultant Eli Portnoy.

But what marketers may find is the bag that a consumer will carry most often is the one with the "right" brand name, making the owner an eco-aware fashionista, he said.

"Here is this practical, environmentally oriented object that gets branded, and then people buy into the concept and make a decision about what bag they carry based on their emotional connection to it," Portnoy said. "[They'll ask,] is it chic enough?"

But for some consumers, a bag is a bag.

A year ago, upon the suggestion of a friend, Kim Smrt dug out a bunch of cloth bags she had accumulated from different events and tossed them in the trunk of her car. Now when she goes grocery shopping, the assorted bags with go with her.

But on a recent trip to Trader Joe's, the Brookfield resident found herself eyeing a brightly colored reusable bag with the store name on it that sells for $1.99 and was frequently sold out in area stores this summer.

Reusable bags "are a collectible thing right now," Smrt said. "I looked at their bag and I thought, 'That's cute,' but what do I need it for. I'm not hoping to make a fashion statement."

But bagmakers think the environmental movement is just at the point where people want to make such a statement.

This summer, Hermes and Stella McCartney introduced bags selling for $960 and $495, respectively. And in New York, hundreds of people waited in line outside Whole Foods stores to spend $15 on a canvas bag from British designer Anya Hindmarch that was emblazoned with the words "I'm not a plastic bag."

The Progressive Bag Alliance, a trade group of bag manufacturers, says plastic is chosen nine times out of 10 at the grocery store, and it is working with retailers to broaden recycling efforts. However, bagmakers and the supermarket industry oppose efforts to do away with traditional plastic bags because they are cheaper to produce and transport than paper bags.

The American Chemistry Council says 92 percent of consumers reuse their bags. Still, according to environmental research group Worldwatch Institute, U.S. consumers throw away 100 billion plastic bags annually.

Chicago resident Angel Musker stopped bringing her own bags to stores once she started having children. But when she saw the new $1 bags at Jewel a few weeks ago, she bought three of them. The first time she used them, she used self-checkout and found them easy to pack. On a subsequent trip to the store, when employees bagged her groceries, she still came home with five to six plastic bags.

The baggers "did as good as they could, and then they started using plastic," she said. "I was toying with the idea of self-checking because I know I'd fill them more than they did."