I hadn't heard of it - but I haven't been in our
CVS in quite awhile. I'll pop in soon and see if
they have them, too.

Neat idea. However, my cloth bags usually are in my
car when I am in a store. I remember them as I am
in the check-out lanes.

I now use only cloth bags. We have enough to keep several in each car, so there's no excuse not to have one handy.
So many places give them away...I haven't had to pay for a single one of them.

We stopped going to CVS...they are the most expensive, smallest staffed drugstores, in the area.
Our prescriptions are filled at Wegman's...they have an automatic renewal system, and a real person calls you on the phone when it's time to pick up the drugs.

Although I don't go into CVS, this sounds lie a great idea. I like the idea of putting the tag on your keychain, so you'll always have it with you. Florida is working on some new legislation regarding the use of plastic bags....should be interesting. I haven't used a plastic bag from a store in ages!

I was wondering if you were going to talk about anyone I know! :)

Interesting. And an increased profit for the store since most will give you a bag for the $1 (or less) and get credit when you use it, this one is to pay to use a different bag. OTOH, they're giving quite a bit more in credit than most others.

I haven't heard of this one but I don't go to CVS very often. I do know someone who goes there frequently so I'll pass it on. Thanks for the info.

I do like that they don't require their bag be used for credit.

If they seriously want to cut bag use, they'll have to give a decent incentive. One grocery store gives a 5¢ credit for each bag which isn't a lot and a time or two I forgot to bring in the bags and wasn't going back out to get them. The one time I was at Target they gave a 50¢ credit for not taking a bag. They haven't since. Need to inquire next time I'm there.

BTW, that's a great tip about putting it on your keyring. Might as well put it with the other tag. I don't like those silly things but I don't usually give accurate info when I sign up for them anyway. Track it for someone else.

Since our local Long's Drugstores have been bought out by CVS I don't shop there. I try to avoid all stores with "loyalty cards". They just increase the base prices so they can offer these "deals" and the customer without a card subsidizes the one who has one. I don't have any trouble finding the same items at competitive rates without having to carry a card that tracks my purchases.

They are planning to ban both plastic and paper bags in my city. I plan to buy my own plastic bags and use them for shopping when that happens. Resuable bags are not something I am willing to put groceries in.

I will also have to start buying bags to line my waste bins. Right now I reuse the plastic and paper ones for that purpose and so many others.

I have a neighbor who works as a checker and she said some of the "green" bags people bring in are downright nasty with stains and odors. The checkers hate to handle them.

If someone uses them and launders them after use I have no complaint but face it, most people don't. The worst are those cheap poly fiber bags they make in China. Since they are are so cheap or given away I suspect most just use them for a bit and then toss them in the landfill.

I have quite few cloth bags that I keep stored in another big plastic (Save-a-Lot) bag in the trunk of my car. Use them often, I can say that mine aren't filthy dirty and I think I've only washed one and that was the Aldi's bag because it is of a very light color. I wouldn't think of taking a dirty bag of any color into a store.

A greeting card I used to exchange with an older lady (with a sense of humor) was a plain small paper bag on which was written
'FROM ONE OLD BAG TO ANOTHER!!"

Yeah, speaking of used bags. How often do you wash your canvas bags?

Moni

i have a separate key ring w/ all of those ridiculous discount scanning cards. i keep it in the coin section of my wallet. i own several cloth bags but never remember to grab them. closest i've come was sunday i put them by my purse to go out shopping but walked out the door w/o. we use those plastic bags thou for small garbage can liners and picking up dog doo on our twice a day doggie walks. we go thru 4 a day and often run out before the end of the week. in which case i buy biodegradeable doggie doo bags ~ liz

If I understand it correctly, the CVS card prints on your receipt, the amount of the discount. You only get that amount taken off with your next purchase.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Sue

I use Environsax....they are a lightweight parachute nylon bag that holds a lot, look pretty and even have the hook for the bag holder at check out. I always get lots of compliments from the baggers.
They are easy to wash and dry really fast so mine don't get nasty.

Here is a link that might be useful: Environsax

Here's a couple of links that may explain it better:

http://www.freemania.net/blog/how-to-get-free-stuff-at-cvs/

http://www.cvs.com/CVSApp/promoContent/promoLandingTemplate.jsp?promoLandingId=1160

The whole use a green bag thing is just another "feel good/I'm doing something" measure.

If we were really all that concerned about environmental waste we would look to the packaging.

Cracks me up when I see all the "greenies" at the store buying their plastic bagged lettuce and bottled "super" water. LOL

Then we have:
Snacks individually portioned into bags,put in a box which is then wrapped in plastic.

Hermetically sealed cheese and deli meats

Those mini lunches - pouched drink,wrapped crackers and ounce of meat/cheese in all placed in a plastic tray with a plastic seal and boxed.

Cereal in a bag which is placed in a box

All sorts of fruit and veggie items placed on plastic trays and sealed in plastic

Multi packs of tissue or paper towels wrapped individualy and then wrapped again in plastic

Even those ring topped cans so people don't have to use a can opener (more manufacturing waste than a simple old fashioned can)

When all the over-packaging is addressed I might take some of this movement seriously. If we were serious about being eco friendly we would have returnable glass soda and milk bottles and all our meat and cheese would all be behind glass at the butcher and deli counter

This bag thing is nothing more than a profit to the ones manufacturing and selling these these bags and a way for the stores to save by not having to supply them. Another follow the money scam playing on our "guilt" about ruining the planet.

I don't care if it profits the manufacturer, saves the store or saves the planet....the canvas bags are much easier to carry the groceries in and my grocery store gives you an option of taking the five cents per bag or donating it to the local food bank. Now 15 - 20 cents doesn't sound like much, but from every shopper, it adds up. I like the canvas bags and keep them on the front seat of my car so I don't forget to take them in with me.

Wildchild, you make some very good points. Unnecessary packaging really shocks me (and I'm a slow convert to paying attention to environmental issues, I admit).

You mention individually wrapped TP and paper towels which are then all sealed together in another piece of plastic. Just crazy! For the TP, it's a dilemma for me: buying Costco's huge package of TP, with the double wrap, and that'll last a long time for me, versus making more trips to the grocery store.

I've never really liked the concept of the canvas bags ever since some meat "juice" spilled in one of mine--even bleaching it didn't rid it of the "eww" factor. I use extra-large plastic bags that Ikea sells (not the blue/yellow bags--these are different-patterned heavy plastic bags). Even though they are still plastic, I do feel better using them over and over again than getting the small plastic bags at the register every time. My friend calls it "easing into it"!

Most of our grocers charge a nickel per bag if you want some of the ones they used to give away to carry groceries home. I often buy few enough items that I can carry them in my hand.

At our discount grocers, after loading the shelves they put the cartons and produce trays out by the front window near the check-outs and if I have several items I often use one of them. I especially liked the trays in summer, for they're great for picking peas, beans, tomatoes, squash, etc. and carrying them to the churches, social agencies, etc.

I also find it rather disgraceful that they need three times the size of mainly plastic packaging to carry most any item that I'm buying.

If you buy coffee in those coated paper take-out cups ...

... take them home and carry them with you when taking the doggie for walkies.

They make a great carrier for the waste that any but the largest of critters produces ... and the plastic lid makes a great scraper-pusher to load the cup ... then cap it.

What could be easier - more efficient?

Think outside the box, ... er, cup ... folks, O.K.?

If you find that you run short of cups ... maybe pick up extras left on tables when you visit the coffee house.

Better'n paying for plastic bags!

ole joyful

Oh my gosh georgysmom. I was thinking the exact same thing as I read wildchild's post; it suddenly dawned on me that that IS the main reason I carry a canvas bag and was about to type it when I read your post. Thank you.

I have one canvas bag that is never used for groceries. I use it for packing picnic things or other non food items to carry somewhere. Seems to me the poly bags are more sanitary by their design. And keeping them clean is not difficult. You don't put meats and sloppy things in there without a liner. Simple concept. But effective. But it wouldn't surprise me to see grungy bags. People are such pigs in virtually every other way, why would it be different with the bags?

Was at the store the other day with a friend and she wanted to pick up some makeup. Talk about overpackaging! And we're not talking about a bag in a box! These hard-shell cases inside plastic wrap inside a blister pack on a card. For the little dab of war paint in there it requires a tackle box for a container?!

However I disagree with criticizing cereal in a bag in a box. I'm disgusted with anything that isn't in a plastic liner, for instance pasta. That requires immediate wrapping in plastic and insertion into the freezer. This part of the country doesn't have the trouble with bugs and rodents like other parts experience. My cousin in Texas talks all the time about the need for Tupperware. And for the outer box, it isn't totally mandatory but the storing, transporting and the like is far better by using a lightweight box. Less damaged product too.

So much of the packaging can be reused and/or recycled. I laugh at people who cry about all these bottles "going to the landfill"! LOL Simple laziness. Recycle it. But I realize that people are slobs.

There's lots of ways people can help themselves, the planet and all the feelgood folks but I don't think people really want to make the effort. But people are gullible pigs.

wildchild, I am totally with you.

When I grocery shop with my sisters, in Europe, they forever take off all superfluous packaging in the stores, and leave it there.

Most people do that. Lots of items are packed more environmentally friendly now. The stores complained to the manufacturers. :)

Maybe we need to start such a campaign here?

To top all this superfluous packaging, both my sisters (one in Germany one in France) take a "bread bag" to the bakery. No packaging is used there at all. This bag, is only used for bread and rolls.

Moni

This is going to sound like a lie, but oklamoni - I typed another paragraph onto my last post about people in Europe using cloth bags or baskets for marketing, then deleted it thinking I wouldn't bother to mention it. Too funny. Thanks.

I admit to just using the plastic bags the grocery uses. Guess I'll buy another kind when I have to, but the thought of putting raw meat in one of them creeps me out.

Patti, many times I've seen the cashier put meat in the regular plastic bag or the smaller special-for-meat bag EVEN IF the customer has given him/her a canvas bag, and the customer doesn't complain. It just makes sense to wrap meat carefully in another bag. It's the sanitary thing to do, and that must trump environmentalism.