BUFFALO – Tops Markets has joined retailers such as Wegmans, Save-A-Lot and Trader Joe's by introducing reusable shopping bags. Tops hopes to encourage its customers to make the environmentally friendly switch to the 99-cent grocery bags.
"We've looked into offering these bags for a while now. For their introduction, we ordered over 25,000 bags," said Tracy Pawelski, director of public relations for Tops Markets, to the Buffalo News.
Tops decided to offer reusable bags after listening to customer's requests as well as analyzing market trends. "Many are now looking at environmentally friendly products," Pawelski said. "We look at offering reusable bags as one more choice for the customer."
The average U.S. consumer uses 336 single-use bags a year, according to GreenSak.com, a Web site that sells reusable shopping bags. Envirosax, another reusable bag seller, said more than 380 billion single-use plastic bags are used in the U.S. each year.
"Switching to the reusable shopping bags is slowly gaining momentum here in the U.S.," said Debi Berndt, owner of GreenSak.com, to the Buffalo News. "Right now, the biggest problem is getting consumers in the habit and reminding them to switch to reusable shopping bags."
Wegmans has been selling reusable plastic bags since March, and canvas bags since January 2005. "We used to offer a reusable bag back in the 1980's, but customers lost interest," said Jennifer Kurzdorfer, a spokesperson for Wegmans. "Now, with the resurgence of environmental concerns, customers demanded we offer a reusable bag again."
At their release, the 99-cent reusable bags sold out at over 70 Wegmans stores. The grocery chain has seen a modest reduction in single use plastic and paper bags since then.
Discount grocery chain Save-A-Lot offers reusable grocery bags to its customers as well.
"We began offering reusable canvas bags about a year ago. Many customers demanded the bags and we are also looking to be 'greener,'" said Mike Marshall, district manager for Western New York Save-A-Lots. "When we first offered the bags, we sold out immediately. This was beyond what we had anticipated."