In Germany, you don't get free plastic bags or paper bags if you buy groceries in most local stores. You have to buy them. It would cost 10 zents up to an Euro per piece.
Why would you want to pay extra for those bags if you have enough bags at home, right? So we normally bring our own bags when we shop.
Those ubiquituos cloth bags that are the popular give-aways during Christmas time and anniversaries of stores. Those practical cloth bags that are washable. Those mostly cream-colored bags that you could keep folded when not needed.
We have lots of them and we keep them around, easy to reach. Always there.
We keep them in the trunk of our car. I have one in my bag. My girls have a piece each in their school bags. I still might even have a folded one in my winter coat!
Now, what do you do if you forgot your cloth bag? Do you buy a plastic bag?
Of course not. Use those sturdy empty boxes inside the supermarket. They usually have them near the cashier area. If there's not one available, then simply check out the supermarket and you would always find an almost empty box that you could use. Please don't forget to be orderly in clearing the bag you chose, though.
And now for the picture of bags in this post.
Those are Philippine-made cloth bags promoting the products of the different regions in the country. Those bags are sturdy and spacious. And those bags costed only less than a hundred pesos each.
So I grabbed almost a dozen of them and gave them out as a souvenir to friends in Germany of our trip in the Philippines.
Yes, cloth bags are great gift ideas, too. Yes, they are practical but they look good and sturdy; and most of all they are not bulky nor heavy compared to other souvenirs.
