Product Review: Wal-Mart Reusable Shopping Bags - No More Paper or Plastic

Several months ago, I noticed in the Wal-Mart ad that they had reusable shopping bags for $1 each. I had planned on fusing plastic bags into material I would make into reusable shopping bags, but the price tag on these bags got my attention.

When I saw them at the store, I was impressed with their apparent strength and how well made they were. Some had small 'Wal-Mart' logos on them, and some did not. All are black, 100% recyclable, and are made from 85% recycled materials.

The tags state that each bag is made from approximately 4 plastic soda bottles and can replace 50 shopping bags. The claim is that they can carry the same weight as 2-3 plastic bags.

An article from Sustainable is Good states that Wal-Mart will take these bags back for recycling at the end of their lifespan. The picture on that website shows these bags, but they look more like sturdy shiny fabric, and better able to stand alone, than the ones I purchased. The ones I purchased have a little more of a matte finish, feel like a papery fiber, and are floppy when you try to stand them up with no contents.

At the checkstand, I purchased five of them and had the cashier use them for my other purchases. At Wal-Mart the rotating bag-holder was not designed for reusable bags, and there really is no room for the cashier to put them elsewhere to load them.

My particular cashier had some previous experience with filling reusable bags at the check stand, so she did manage to work out a way to fill them without too much trouble, but it was more time-consuming than using their plastic bags, and it was a hassle for the cashier - though she really was a great sport about it.

We talked about how if Wal-Mart is selling these bags with their own logo on them, that is the same as promoting their use, and as such, they should provide some easy means for the cashiers to be able to use them - or at least use bags with a design that works with their plastic bag holders.