[Cross-posted from Kpao!]
Years ago, my friend Ania Moniuszko starteda company making reusable shopping bags to help combat the waste of disposable bags. She designed them herself and calls them MyOwnBag, as in: “Paper or plastic?” / “Thanks, I have MyOwnBag.”
MyOwnBags come in many fabrics and colors
Ania designed a bag that she would want to use:
- strong enough to carry a heavy load of groceries
- light and compactable so it could be squished into its own little pouch and kept in a woman’s purse whenever she needed it
- large capacity so that multiple bags are not needed on a small shopping trip
- versatile, so it could be used not just for groceries but for yoga, gym, beach, clothes shopping, changes of clothes
- fashionable, to look good while being eco. They come in many fabrics and do not have huge gaudy phrases trumpeting the owner’s environmental sensitivity
- washable, so the bag can withstand grocery detritus and can be used for a long time without looking dirty and ratty
Ania created her reusable bags years before they became commonplace and way before progressive municipalities like San Francisco started banning plastic bags. Now there are dozens of players in the game. Amazingly, the MyOwnBag product vision has held up well against the flood of competitors:
- Grocery stores sell canvas bags that look like stiff green shopping bags. Pretty good for reducing waste but you cannot keep it in your purse at the ready.
- Many companies sell $5 nylon bags that fold into nothing. They are commendable for making something that can be carried around, and cheap enough that anyone could buy them. But they are typically over-branded and look like garbage bags when freed from their sac. You wouldn’t be seen with it for other trips around town.
- Hermès, Louis Vuitton and others have designer grocery bags for fashionistas willing to pay $500 - $1700.
- Various gym, yoga or beach bags are optimized for their stated purpose but are not meant for groceries
Here is what this comparison looks like in a needs table, which includes the original comparison points, paper and plastic bags (3 is better; 0 is worse):
Needs table comparing various types of shopping bags
The needs analysis clarifies the differentiation among these competitors. For each customer need along the top you can see which solution does a good job of solving it. You can compare any two solutions and immediately see the important differences between them and which niche each has carved out.
From this chart you can see that MyOwnBag is the only reusable shopping bag that squishes down to a little pouch, and is useful for for things other than grocery shopping, and is chic and may be worn proudly around town, without costing $500.
There is one other need which MyOwnBag solves excellently: your need to find a unique gift for your chic, environmentally-sensitive friend, for about $40 to $60.
Warning: do not give her a plastic bag.
[ Update 12/2/08: Learn more about this needs analysis technique at ProductVision.org. ]
I’m glad someone thought this story was worthy of a post. In my opinion the best thing we should do is to ban the plastic shopping bags at all. There is alternatives and I’m pretty sure once the plastic bags is banned manufacturers will come with brilliant ideas. For example, plastic shopping bags are illegal in South Africa anyway because of environmental reasons and nothing happens so why we can’t banned it.
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