kroger promotion shows reusable bags are edging into mainstream

Kroger asked customers to design reusable shopping bags themselves.
People who enter get free bags, winning works (
Voted by users whose website Kroger has set up for promotion)
Free groceries will be available up to $1,000.
The move highlights how far the trend of reusable bags has gone.
Cloth was a major hippie collaboration a few years ago.
Today, almost all major chains have their own versions.
A 2007 article on reusable bags said \"more and more\" stores are selling them, including Stop & Shop, but whole food was the only one to give customers 5-
Discount on cents using them.
Costco has just started testing reusable bags, but only in Canada and San Francisco.
A month after the article was published,
Mart has launched a black reusable bag with the words \"paper or plastic? Neither.
\"For Earth Day, 2008, Wal-Mart-
Mart teamed up with Kellogg to give away millions of reusable bags free of charge, and later this year the company vowed to cut the use of plastic bags by 1 out of 3 by 2013.
The hot news debate highlighted the missing student death \"mastermind\" of the Missouri abortion clinic shooting, and since then attention has only increased to reusable bags.
San Francisco banned plastic bags from major grocery stores in November 2007-
Other places are looking to follow suit, while others like Seattle are also considering taxing plastic bags.
Whole Foods has just announced that over the past year, its store has tripled its reusable bags, saving 0. 15 billion bags for Whole Foods customers alone.
A year ago, the chain stopped carrying disposable plastic bags.
However, it seems that many food chains are selling reusable bags, except for whole foods, but have not trained employees to look for them.
As blogger Shelby Wood said: usually, I have to rush to stop checking before she automatically stores my groceries in plastic, a process that makes me immediately panic and absurd
The reaction of the typical inspectors is indifference.
What is not typical but not uncommon is the expression: \"Give me a break, you nasty hippie.
\"Another blogger had the experience of the cashier picking up the bag. Looked at them. Set them down.
Then start putting my stuff in a plastic bag!
According to The Wall Street Journal, many of these reusable bags will eventually be left in a closet somewhere, or even in a landfill.
Shishiv, a professor at Stanford Business School, said changing consumer habits is an extremely slow process and requires incentives.
\"Is it taboo to mention plastic bags now?
\"I don\'t think so,\" he said.
However, more and more stores offer discounts for people who bring their own luggage.
In the Midwest, when customers bring a reusable bag, Lund and Baili begin to donate 5 cents to the hunger relief charity.
Randy\'s supermarket has just expanded by 5-
Include any reusable packages, not just ones produced by Rondy, with a cents discount.
This brings the last advantage of these packages--brand loyalty.
Shiv told the Wall Street Journal that it is unlikely that customers will bring bags produced by a chain store into a competitor\'s store.
\"What these bags do is to increase loyalty to the store,\" he said . \".