Old bag

A couple of posts ago I may have laughed at my local 'health shop' La Druida de Lavapies and its silly name and hobbit-like customers, but I have to confess: I have been back. That, I must stress, does not make me a hobbit; if I was a character from Lord of the Rings I think I'd be one of those tall (and pretty) elf-princess type people with completely hair-free feet. Anyway, back to the matter at hand, I have returned to the druid shop on several occasions to stock up on soya milk and organic bread, and I have to say it certainly beats the queues in Carrefour (which has its own special breed of fragrant, inebriated customer)... Well the other day I popped in for a bit of organic olive pate (yes, really), and when I went to pay, the shop assistant asked me whether or not I wanted a bag. This is the first time this has happened to me in Spain, with the execption of in the Chinese corner shop where they try not to give you a bag because they're stingy, and in 'junkie supermaket' Dia, where everything is so cheap that they have to sell the bags to make it worthwhile continuing in business. I didn't have my eco-canvas shopping bag that day at the druid shop (truth is, I never have it) so I forked out 10 cents for the bag and mumbled some excuse about having come straight from work and not having my 'green' bag on me (why do I feel the need to make excuses to complete strangers?).

I believe that in the UK and the States these reusable shoppers have become something of a trend (see pics below), and I guess Spain will be following suit - in about 5 years. Sorry Spain, I love you, but trends do take 5 years to filter through to you. In a recent trip to Oxford, even chav-haven, TK Maxx were selling canvas bags for environmentally-conscious customers - and I actually felt like some sort of environmental criminal when I bought a few groceries in M&S and had to ask them for a plastic bag as I didn't have my own shopper (it seems that these bags are now a must, no matter if you've driven to the shops in some gas-guzzling landrover. Still every little counts and I am being totally hypocritical here).

Well, as I said, these bags are becoming a must-have, and are popping up everywhere, which makes me think someone must be making a bit of money from them. Here's where I have one of my typical idealistic-late-in-the day-lightbulb moments - 'why didn't I start making and selling beautiful canvas bags?' Answer: probably because you would have spent all night up sewing till your fingers fell off and sold about 3 bags and made a net loss. I was one of those teenagers that wanted to make and sell their own hair scrunchies - remember scrunchies? In velvet? In chiffon? In gingham? eeeewww.

Anyway, next time I'm in the druid shop I'll be able to hold my head high with one of the reusable shoppers below (The Druid shop do actually sell their own canvas bag, with a hairy druid printed on the front).

The Chico Bag is made from 7 plastic bottles.

This bag is sooo cute. Yes, after use, the whole bag folds up for storage inside the 2 peas on the front!

Envirosax come in hundreds of shapes and styles and include organic models, but my favourites have to be the kids' ones, like with the piggies below :-)

Mi Bag from IDA design is also sort of cute.


I like these bags from Flip and Tumble as they look like you can use them like an ordinary plastic bas as they're not too bulky.