MIAMI — Hannaford Bros., Scarborough, Maine, this week is introducing a reusable shopping bag that folds up and fits inside a 2-by-4-inch nylon pouch.
The new bag, which measures 12 by 23 by 6 inches when unfolded, plus pouch retails for $1.50, compared with 99 cents for Hannaford’s traditional reusable shopping bags.
“One of the things we heard from shoppers is that it’s tough to remember to take my reusable bag with me,” said Andy Mayo, Hannaford’s vice president of engineering, who gave a presentation yesterday on supply chain sustainability at the Food Marketing Institute’s Supply Chain Conference here. “You can have the pocket bags with you in your car. If you have three or four of them you’re always ready.”
Since Hannaford began promoting reusable bags in 2006, he said, its sales of the bags grew from $50,000 annually to $1.25 million last year, including $250,000 in margin dollars. At the same time, the chain, which operates 167 stores, eliminated 56 million plastic bags last year, saving $1.1 million.
The average number of items that fit in a standard reusable bag is 4.9 items, compared
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