The Complete Handbook of Shopping Totes

Chapter 1: Understanding Shopping Totes

A shopping tote is a bag designed for carrying purchased goods, but that definition is too loose to be useful. A plastic grocery sack, a woven polypropylene giveaway from a trade show, a waxed canvas weekender, and a monogrammed cotton tote from a boutique are all shopping totes under the broadest reading, and they have almost nothing else in common. The term covers such a wide range because the functional demands are so varied. The common thread is that the bag is expected to transport goods from the point of sale to a place of use, usually by hand or over the shoulder, and often without any consideration for the load's weight or the journey's length.

The modern shopping tote sits at the intersection of several distinct histories. The oldest ancestor is the simple drawstring or net bag used for market shopping, records of which go back thousands of years. The next major development was the paper grocery bag, invented in the late nineteenth century, which provided a cheap and disposable carrying option. The reusable cloth tote became a recognized consumer category in the 1970s and 1980s, driven by environmental movements and the rise of "shopping bag" culture in urban grocery stores. The most recent major shift came after the introduction of modern lightweight plastic bag bans in the 2010s, which forced a re-evaluation of what a shopping bag should be made of and how long it should last.

To understand what a shopping tote