July 31, 2008

Consuming with style
Business launched to fill shopping bag niche
By Heidi Masek hmasek@hippopress.com

The billions of disposable shopping bags people use release toxins harmful to wildlife and waterways; create litter; and are made from petroleum, according to Diane Guimond and Martha Hickey. Hickey teaches at a Bow elementary school; Guimond has a sales and marketing background and has been a stay-at-home mom for nine years. To model environmentally “respectful habits” to the next generation, they launched DoodleBug Bags & More from Bedford. They offer two styles, made from recyclable cotton, and sell them through www.DoodleBugbagz.com. NH All Natural in Bedford and A Rhode Island are stocking DoodleBug.

Q: How are your bags different from those already on the market?
M: Well, I think the durability... We bought those [$1.50 grocery store versions] right when they came out on the market. And you can put things through them. They’re easier to puncture, where this isn’t. And our bags, also, you can just throw in the washer and then line dry.

D: For a 99-cent bag or a $1.99, you’re going to get the quality of a $2 bag. ... They’re made to be functional but to have the customer easily be able to repurchase it. Ours has high-quality manufacturing, high-quality fabric. We have the wrap-around handles to provide support for heavier loads.

Do you think you’re going to have a hard time getting past that price barrier of the $1.50 bag?
D: Our target market is the moms, the people in the workforce, who are already buying upscale or are more in tune to looking fashionable. So we’re not trying to go after those people that are just happy with their $1.99 bag because it’s great that they’re using it. And I’m happy to see them carrying a reusable bag. But we’re targeting people that want something more attractive — and are willing to pay $20.

Instead of running around with a Hannaford bag?
D: Before we even did this I was always carrying around the Stop & Shop bag ... even to the school to bring things in to my kids’ classrooms. And now I have an attractive option to do that.

So ... you were looking for a product that wasn’t around?
M: Exploring some of the places, the shops through Maine and New Hampshire that we’ve been looking at, it’s either the grocery bag — that $1.50 bag — or it’s that plain canvas tote.

D: The plain canvas totes ... you probably get them from different trade shows? ... Those are made for advertising purposes.... to get their name on a product and out in the marketplace.

Instead, your bags express that you are environmentally conscious ...
D: And I look good doing it, yeah.

Do you think that the concept of reusable shopping bags will ever catch on here as much as in Europe where some stores don’t provide bags for free?
D: I do think it’s going to catch on. I think in Portsmouth, there’s discussion of, I’m not sure if it’s passed yet or not, but they’re petitioning to ban plastic bags ... I think people aren’t going to have a choice ... what we’re trying to do is for those people that want to carry an attractive bag and go into Neiman Marcus or Macy’s or the mall, or Wal-Mart, or Target or to the grocery store, that they have an alternative.

I see a lot of people bring reusable bags to grocery stores, but do you think it’s going to catch for other shopping?
D: I think it’s just educating people about bringing it everywhere, and that’s why we have the forget-me-not key tabs so that whenever you go shopping you’re going to remember to grab that bag.

M: We’re realizing that sort of mindset is something people have to consciously train themselves to have. ... I think also the more diverse group of merchants who carry bags like this—

D: Everyone is starting to carry these [reusable shopping bags] with their own label ... so I think that the trend has stared already, for retailers to start pushing. And retailers are going to save money. You know the more people catch on, the [fewer] bags [retailers] need to provide.

Who makes your bags?
D: We’re working with Enviro-Tote out of Bedford ... they are right around the corner so we have high quality control, being able to just run over to pick up prototypes, have face-to-face discussion about how we want the bag to look, improvements.... They’re local, they’re a women-owned business.

Are these geared just toward women?
D: The next one we have coming out is a solid ... it’s not that a woman won’t carry it ...but [men] won’t have to feel like they’re carrying their wife’s bag. It’s going to be a navy blue bag.

M: I think New England is a prime spot to be marketing something like this because New England is known as the tailpipe of our nation.... It is something that’s done on the West Coast more but I think because of the environmental awareness, the impact on people’s health, New England is a key spot to be starting up something like this. I can see New England being very much the trend-setter of reusable bags.