apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I do all my shopping with cloth bags, not necessarily canvas.

I use the natural string bags from greenfeet.com. Love 'em!

i have a couple of grocery tote bags that i love, but here in minneapolis we are required to sort our weekly recycling in paper bags anyway, so every once in a while i have to choose paper at the grocery store. this holiday season i plan to make fabulous totes, filled with homemade treats, for all of my friends. i think the trick is to keep them in the car or right by the door so they are easy to remember when grocery shopping day comes around.

i use some sort of tote or canvas bags usually. we get ten cents off per bag we bring.

I have two canvas bags which I try to use as much as possible in order to prevent a huge pile-up of plastic bags. When moving out of my last apartment, my roommates and I discovered we had filled an entire closet (floor to ceiling) with plastic bags. About 3 large garbage bags worth! Changes had to be made...

I use canvas bags to shop at Trader Joes each week. They sell them for $2 a piece. I think more people would consider using them for groceries and such if they didn't cost $10 a pop!

i leave a canvas bag stuffed with a few more canvas bags in my trunk and use them each week, religiously. just have to remember to put the empty ones back in the car, but i honestly can't remember when i last got a plastic bag from the market (TJs).

I shop with canvas bags about 80% of the time, the rest I ask for paper or plastic, because I need them for other uses here at home (cat litter, bagging books to donate to the library, etc). If you shop at TJ's, and bring your own bag, they'll give you a ticket stub to enter their grocery giveaway (ask for it if they don't volunteer it) and twice I've won $25 in free groceries.

The best bags in the world are the ones they sell at Whole Foods for $1. They feel like fabric, but I'm not quite sure what they're made of. They aren't nearly as thick as canvas, but they're a little bit bigger and very sturdy...I can even put a gallon of milk in with the rest of my groceries and carry it 3-4 blocks back to my apartment with no trouble! I love them!

I bought the string bag set from reusablebags.com and I LOVE it. Sassy colors and a purse-like strap - you can't go wrong. The Trader Joe's cashiers always have a little love for them.

I, too, bring bags about 80% of the time, but Rucy, I'm so jealous! I always fill out those TJ tickets and I never win!
My dad is in "advertising specialties", you know, those guys who put logos on stuff that corporations buy to give out to clients that don't want it, that then winds up in a landfill? Anyhow, I get all his sample totes with the manufacturer's logos on them, which, granted are UGLY, but I feel I've given them useful hardworking lives carrying my groceries every week instead of just being shelved dusty bag models.

shoot, people should do it if only because it's easier to carry 2 canvas bags than 12 plastic bags. And is it just me or are those plastic bags getting smaller and smaller such that they only put like 3 items in a bag? phooey.

Forget the canvas bags and get a deluxe granny cart - mine is by Rolser and it's indispensable for my shopping at my local shops. Light and rolls like a dream. Flattens for easy storage.

redcloverstar: keep entering, I see TJ's winnings in your future!

KBinBC: no way, I keep tripping over people's granny carts in the aisles, I will Not become a Granny Cart Lady!!! (grin)