my idea

golden gal

hey all,
as i work in a retail store at weekends i see the annoying amount of waste there is. people have like 10 bags and still want another one for stupid stuff like earings.
my theory is that shopping centers should work in the same way that grocery stores do and not give out bags. if the companies stopped giving out paper bags there would be much less waste. this would also benefit the companies as they wouldnt have to pay for the bags. they should instead get fair trade cotton bags on which they could put the store logo and sell them for a reasonable price .
the perks of this would be as follows;
no unnecessary paper bags
farmers in poor countries could benefit
the companies could use the bags to advertise and also make a higher profit.

i think it just makes sense!!!

dame

It is a good idea but you're forgetting what "retail therapy" is all about....
People like to have lots of bags going home from a day out shopping, makes them feel good. Women especially like to have as many bags as possible cos it makes them look/feel loaded. Ever noticed how they'll be walking around with the bag from the most expensive shop on the outside and the cheapest in beside their thighs? I know of one woman who keeps a bag from a particular shop (or two) and carries that with her umbrella or something in it. Now, it'd easily fit in her handbag, but she likes to look like she's always shopping in expensive places.

Maccattack

dame wrote:

Women especially like to have as many bags as possible cos it makes them look/feel loaded. Ever noticed how they'll be walking around with the bag from the most expensive shop on the outside and the cheapest in beside their thighs? I know of one woman who keeps a bag from a particular shop (or two) and carries that with her umbrella or something in it. Now, it'd easily fit in her handbag, but she likes to look like she's always shopping in expensive places.

That is a GREAT. No wait STUPENDOUS. No hang on... THE ULTIMATE reason to keep handing out disposable bags.



NOT!

golden gal

dame wrote:

It is a good idea but you're forgetting what "retail therapy" is all about....
People like to have lots of bags going home from a day out shopping, makes them feel good. Women especially like to have as many bags as possible cos it makes them look/feel loaded. Ever noticed how they'll be walking around with the bag from the most expensive shop on the outside and the cheapest in beside their thighs? I know of one woman who keeps a bag from a particular shop (or two) and carries that with her umbrella or something in it. Now, it'd easily fit in her handbag, but she likes to look like she's always shopping in expensive places.

yeah but thats part of my idea. these women could have bags from expensive shops and they could have the shops logo on them!
and as a 19 year old i am a huge fan of shopping and fashion and i still think this could work so well!i know that i have started to bring my own bags while shopping!

Red Alert

This is a really super idea actually. The big shops could actually get creative with designs so the shop designs actually become fashion items themselves.

dame

It is a good idea but it's hardly original is it?
http://www.anyahindmarch.com/division/environmental_bags.aspx
This bag was featured in magazines (carried by celebrities) before the launch date, and sold out in no time.

http://images.google.ie/imgres?imgurl=http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/04_02/bagES2504_468x490.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html%3Fin_article_id%3D450547%26in_page_id%3D1770&h=490&w=468&sz=87&hl=en&start=9&um=1&tbnid=fQGV3gy4yncvAM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3DI%2527m%2BNot%2BA%2Bplastic%2BBag%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den
Quote from the above;
"Its "It" bag credentials were secured when it was chosen as the goodie-bag for guests at the 2007 Vanity Fair Oscar night party.

Since then celebrities such as Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller and Lily Allen been seen touting the shopper as if it were the latest offering from Gucci or Fendi. "


If the bag is nicely designed, distinctive, and carried by a celebrity or two, women will use it. Golden gal, you're not the first to think of this.





Maccattack, I was pointing out the flaw in the OP's plan. She's since said she'd put the name of the shop on the bag. Problem solved. It's still true though that a lot women like to carry lots of shopping bags (of clothes not groceries) to make themselves feel good.

democrates

Good one golden gal. My gran used to send me shopping with a net nylon bag she re-used for decades.

Those "I'm not a plastic bag" bags are made in china from unbleached non-organic cotton (read soaked in pesticides and herbicides) and do not carry a fair trade logo even though the retailer claims workers are paid twice the going rate - whether this is factory workers and farmers is not clear.

I think hemp is the way to go. Hemp use dates back 10,000 years, it's fiber used for rope and textiles and the seeds in food. It was one of the worlds biggest crops until restricted ostensibly due to non-medicinal use.

You can get a licence to produce it commercially, maybe one of the ex sugar beet growers could try it out for textiles (shopping bags and clothing) and building insulation (we're importing from the uk at the moment).

Archeron

Usually if I go to a shopping centre, I get one big paper bag with my first purchase, and then put everything else I buy into that. On a couple of occasions, as sales assistants have been preparing to put my next purchase into another bag, I would say, "no thanks, I already have a bag here", to which the assistant would reply with a grin, "okay, thats fine, we dont mind you advertising X shop instead of us", so I think a part of it is that each shop likes the shoppers to be seen going around carrying THEIR bags. Kind of free advertisement they might be unhappy to lose out on.

Red Alert

This is definitely a big deal - the shop i worked in would never use brands' promotional bags that it got for free. We were only allowed use them for double-lining bags holding a lot of stuff.

Just to see how far off the mark anyone is, Anyone hazard a guess at the cost of paper bags the shops give out?

Archeron

Harard a guess at €0.01c each?