by Michael Smith
When I was a child it was a common sight to see a housewife taking home her groceries in a string bag and children too who had been sent on errands used this bag in which to carry home the things they had been sent to fetch.
It sort of died a death in the same way as the ordinary shopping bags made of various materials, from leather and burlap to American cloth, and everything in between. This was due to the arrival of the plastic grocery bag and especially the free one; for initially you had to pay a few pence for the shoppers from the supermarkets and stores.
Now, where we have finally realized – most of us at least – and helped by the fact that the stores now, in the main, no longer simply stuff things into a carrier bag – that we cannot go on this way and the plastic carrier bag.
Now that we are encouraged – and to a degree forced – to bring our own reusable shoppers again people have taken to bringing shoppers of a variety of materials, which often have been sold somewhere for a cause.
The first time I ever really saw the string bag again, for sale, so to speak, was at the recent Top Drawer Spring trade fair that was held at London's Earl's Court. Not that there were many selling those. In fact only one company was there doing so and I shall be doing a more detailed review on the bags and the company in a separate piece.
The bag encountered at Top Drawer Spring 09 were “Turtle Bags”, made from natural cotton, handmade in India. They come in a variety of colors all of which, I believe, being created with natural dyes.
Some folks may feel a little strange using a net, especially the males of the species, of which I am one – a male, I mean, though not someone who would feel strange using a shopping net – and also for the fact that anyone really can see what one has bought but, so what.
The string bag, the shopping net, was what every woman tended to carry on her – rolled up in the apron pocket (the older village and town's women) or in her handbag, whether or not she actually headed tot he stores.
Mind you then, in them days it was the little grocery stores where you also bought things loose and which were then put into paper bags and into the net and fetched home. Today everything is so over-packaged and this is the greatest source of the rubbish that we create.
Now that we have the shopping net back, can we also have the loose goods back?
© M Smith (Veshengro), February 2009
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The String Bag, the net, is making a comeback
