Green Spendthrifts, Get a Life!

Christine, I loved your post about the new trendy green fashions. Via Fark I’ve just come across something I think tops it: a new 400 GBP (on eBay) shopping bag with the legend, “I’m Not a Plastic Bag” (Original price, 5 GBP). Except in environments where people purchase food to prepare at home every day or shop for clothes weekly, I can’t see how this makes sense. People just buy too much to carry home in a reusable bag that’s also small enough to be worthwhile to carry to the store. Paul Weyrich, the biggest booster of mass transit I know, knows that nobody uses mass transit for shopping. Before cars, he points out, nearly all stores delivered.

Now, Sainsbury, the biggest British Grocer, is going to try to sell 20,000 of these reuseable bags. Boutiques have already sold out.

But even if people decide that they must have some alternative to plastic bags, this particular bag seems really obnoxious. It seems to have no special qualities except for the logo that basically says: “I’m more environmentally aware than you are.” If Sainsbury’s managers really think they can boost margins or get props with the public by convincing customers to schlep these things around, well, all power to them. But, anyone who pays more than 5 GBP for one of these things really needs to get a life.