SKAGGS

The NY Times on Sunday had an interesting article about retailers making their bags “cooler” more luxurious and durable, so that consumers would use them again and again, thus the consumer becoming a walking billboard for the stores. Scoop and Lord and Taylor both have new bags whilst Bloomies and Bergdorf Goodman both have extensive “top secret” redesigns underway.

The interesting thing about all of this is how much people really are reusing the bags and for what reasons;

Interviews across New York City suggest, for example, that shoppers covet the heavy-duty plastic bags from Lululemon Athletica, the seller of yoga clothing, above the thin paper version provided by the luxury department store Bloomingdale’s.

And the status symbol that these bags have.

But it turns out that some consumers are eager to walk around with a ,000 Coach purse on one arm and the Coach shopping bag it came in on the other.

With the popularity of the I Am Not A Plastic Bag bag and the sudden influx of re-usable shopping bags a la Whole Foods - it feels like everybody has seemingly gone bag crazy.
Maybe it’s a cycle…remember a few years back - the Duane Reade bag “craze”?