Encouraging people to buy and use reusable grocery bags

I haven't written in a long time, but those of you who followed my Global Warming: An issue or just politics will remember that I had committed 10 hours for community service as part of VT-ENGAGE program.  I wanted to spend these hours to encourage people to buy reusable grocery bags and use them as often.  One of the grocery stores in Blacksburg OASIS WORLD MARKET agreed to help me in doing it.

The OASIS owner was very enthusiastic towards this project and she ordered 500 reusable bags from 1 bag at a time for this project.  She also committed to sell those bags at the cost price.  The process took a little longer as we had trouble finding a reliable and cheap place to buy those bags. Finally, everything went well and I was able to do it yesterday, couple of days before I am leaving Blacksburg for good.  A colleague from my department also helped me for couple of hours. She is Chinese, so she was able to convince some Chinese customers.  I was at the grocery store for about 4 hours and was able to sell about 35-40 bags.  As percentage wise I was able to sell the bags to 20% of customers during that time frame.

Some people don't care about this issue at all.  They do not want to think or even talk about it. Some people said that they have bags but forget to use them. I requested them to remember it everytime they come for shopping, and develop a guilt if they don't.  I hope I was able to bring some change into the society. 

Below are some pictures of the event.

 

I am leaving for Mountain View from Blacksburg, tomorrow and will be driving the 2700 miles distance. I hope I will be able to post some pictures from the way.

 

-Raag

PS: By the way, I had gifted these kind of reusable bags to my friends in Christmas as well.