Everyone has seen the new bags at the end of registers. They are everywhere, grocery stores, box stores, and pharmacies. Not only are they everywhere but they are in every color, which makes it easy to know which one to take to what store. Or does it? Is having the right bag to take to the right store really all that important or is it more important to get any reusable grocery bag to any store. Use these tips to make sure that you are able to use your reusable grocery bags all the time, no matter what store you visit.
Colorblind Bags – It doesn’t matter whose bag you use. If you are in store A they aren’t going to care that you are using a bag from store B, and if they do they aren’t going to say anything about it. Pretend that your blue, green, or white bags are all the same color. In the end it’s all about being green anyway, right?
Groups of 3 – For most of my purchases I don’t need more than three bags. To make it easy I put two bags into one open bag. This one open bag sits right by my front door so I can grab it on my way out to go shopping.
Placement – I keep several of these scattered in other locations too. I have a group of three in my car and one in my husband’s car for just in case. This way you’ll have a bag(s) even if you don’t think of the shopping errand you need to do until you are passing the store. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of trash in the landfill.
Big Trips – If you know you are going to be going on a big shopping trip you can grab your by the door group to add to your car group, and for really big trips you could add all of your groups. But it would have to be a pretty big shopping trip. I’ve found that reusable grocery bags hold a lot more than plastic or even paper. I can fill an entire grocery cart and get it all into five or six bags when I pack them myself.
Obviously, these can be tweeked but they will get you started. If you bike to work, put one of your groups with your bike, if you commute buy the bags that fold down to the size of a wallet and stash them in your briefcase. It’s all about thinking ahead. Eventually it will become second nature to use those reusable grocery bags.