There are things whose price doesn’t seem proportionate to their usefulness. Simple things. Common things. One such item, which I bought from a drugstore in Germany a couple of years ago, is a reusable shopping bag. It’s a simple bag, made, I think, out of polyester and comes with a smaller bag to carry it in. I paid maybe 2€ for it. Since then I’ve been using it 3-4 times per week to carry around all kinds of stuff. When I still lived in Germany I frequently went out with a backpack, so I only needed to use the reusable bag if I was buying lots of groceries, but since I emigrated to Bulgaria, that situation has changed.
While backbacks are very common in Germany, you’ll see considerably fewer of them here. Instead, more men wear a small “purse” and I’ve come to like those. Mine fits my keys, wallet, phone, tissues, headphones and the reusable bag. The limited storage space in my чанта (“tschanta”) leads me to use the reusable bag almost daily.
I’m trying to think of other items in my life that I acquired for a comparable price that have proven as useful as this bag. I don’t think there are any. While this particular bag is nothing special, it’s comfortable to carry even when it’s filled to the top thanks to its broad handles. It’s easy to fold back into its sleve, weighs almost nothing and has turned out to be very sturdy. The smooth texture feels pleasant in your hands.
The only thing that I think could be improved about it, is water resistance. If I’m caught by rain, which fortunately happens infrequently, the contents of the bag aren’t well protected. The same is true for any leaks from items in the bag.
Bags are such simple things. They allow you to gather and carry a range of things that wouldn’t fit into your hands. Some bags can also be fashion pieces, mine’s just black. I don’t need anything flashy. This reusable bag also features a design with slanted corners, which I think makes it less likely for small trash to gather in those corners. It may also be for structural reasons or just to save on material. I don’t know.
Despite being a simple concept, I have only a vague idea how it’s made. I don’t know exactly how polyester is created, but I image liquid plastic somehow being pulled into threads, cooling off and then being woven into fabrics. These fabrics are later stitched together to form this bag, either by a machine or a human operating a sewing machine. Writing this inspired me to look into it a bit and I’m not too far off when it comes to polyester - this How it’s made episode shows how old plastic bottles are recycled into polyester. It’s a multi-step complicated process that involves shipping plastic waste around the world.
It’s wild that I can buy the result of this long and involved process for about 2€ and some people along the supply chain still make a profit. Some being the key term here. Others pay the price. This started out as me trying to appreciate simple things in my life and took a turn. What to do?
— Maurice