Why Are Retailers Excited About Reusable Tote Bags?

While going eco-friendly may have its own karmic rewards, we all know that the "green" most businesses care about is the color of money. Since reusable shopping bags can be more expensive to implement than the ubiquitous paper and plastic alternatives, it's a wonder why any businesses ever chose to use them.

Yet, such practices are becoming increasingly common -- many of the savvier grocery chains have already been on the reusable shopping bag bandwagon for several years...so we must ask: what do these companies know that we don't?

It helps that we are currently experiencing another upswing in the environmentally-friendly movement, but these businesses have been doing this for years. We must not kid ourselves that they are doing it solely out of of a sense of magnanimity...as with all smart businesses, the bottom line matters a good deal. The truth is, honoring reusable shopping bags in their stores, even if they are branded with a competitor's logo, is simply good business sense.

For many grocery stores, which typically operate on very slim margins, the savings in not having to supply large quantities of plastic and paper bags can be quite significant -- enough that some retailers have even gone so far as to offer discounts for all purchases where the shopper bought their own bags.

Implementation of this eco-friendly practice may not even be all that expensive. Many of those chains actually sell the bags rather than providing them free of charge. The discounts, while minute does add up over time, so consumers, for the most part, have been responding enthusiastically.

In fact, some of those bags were so popular with consumers that they sold out within minutes of their introduction -- with shoppers even squabbling over who got the last bag. With consumer reactions that favorable, this is one particular "green" bandwagon you will want to get on.