Reusable Shopping Bags

I work retail. I work at a retail location that does not have paper bags, only plastic. Maybe 10% of shoppers bring their own bags. Say the stores profit for the day is $100,000. Granted, that's not a very high profit for a large company, but that is a lot of merchandise going through the check lanes and into plastic bags. 

I went to school at Northwest Missouri State University. NWMSU provides class books for the students, as well as laptops. My freshman through junior years, these books were placed in paper bags. My senior and super senior years, they were placed in reusable shopping bags. I still have these bags, but until recently, have been either in storage or in hiding. About a month ago, I moved these bags to a location that is more recognizable. 

The other day, Mark and I needed to pick up a few groceries. As we were walking out the door, I actually remembered my bags. The great thing about them, other than being reusable, is that they are so durable! Think about it: a plastic bag can maybe hold six cans of food. If you buy a lot of canned items, that's a lot of bags to carry...especially if you are going upstairs. A reusable bag can probably hold three to four times that many canned items. Having two reusable shopping bags is perfect because you can fit the majority of your items and you have one hand to carry each bag. $50 worth of groceries can easily fit in these two bags, and that's about two weeks supply of food. I will say that if you have a dog, every once in a while I wouldn't blame you if you skipped the reusable and got plastic. In essence, that is reusable, too, because no one likes to step in dog doodoo that wasn't picked up. Then again, it does act as fertilizer. o.O