Chico Bags Reusable Produce Bags (a Review and a Giveaway)

I haven’t done many product reviews on here. When I was contacted by ChicoBags with the opportunity to review their reusable produce bags, I jumped on it. Hubby and I have successfully stopped using plastic grocery bags thanks to the stack of reusable bags. In the beginning, we were having issues remembering to take the bags back out to the car and then we’d stop at the store on the way home and not have any bags. But now we have a good system set up. When we empty the grocery bags, we throw them on the floor near the back door. That way you literally have to step over them to get out the door and that reminds us to take them out to the car.

The only other issue would be that I’d find myself stopping of unplanned trips to the store while I was out walking around. I’d try to just put my goodies in my purse but sometimes that didn’t work. To fix that problem, I got one of the bags that folds up really small. I keep it in my purse at all times so I have something to carry home goodies if I make a spontaneous stop.

But even though our plastic grocery bag situation was getting under control, we were still using plastic bags to put our produce in to. And we go through a lot of produce in our house! Hubby packs our breakfast and lunch every day during the week. We each get a banana, two apples, some carrots for Hubby and some raw broccoli for me, as well as some seasonal fruit (we’ve been loving strawberries recently!) Literally over 1/2 of our grocery bill every week is fresh produce. That’s where these reusable bags come in to the picture.

ChicoBags sent me Produce Stand – Complete Starter Kit to review. The kit comes with four bags.

• The Hemp-Cotton blend bag is designed for leafy greens and green beans. The fabric is a 70 percent hemp, 30 percent cotton blend and is designed to absorb excess moisture and restrict airflow.

• The rePETe™ bag is great for squash, broccoli, carrots and celery because it restricts airflow and locks in moisture.

• The Mesh rePETe™ is ideal for apples, oranges, potatoes, onions and allows ethylene gas, nature’s ripening agent, to escape. (And the rePETe™ and rePETe™ Mesh bags are made of 99 percent recycled content.)

• The last bag is the little red apple shaped bag which holds all three of the other bags. How cute is that!

I was able to use a couple of these bags this week. I forgot to check the mail before doing our big grocery shopping trip on Sunday, so I’ve only had these for a few days and haven’t needed much produce. I have been using the bags in my fridge to keep the produce I bought on Sunday fresh. So far so good, but it’s hard to tell at this point if there’s a difference or not. If I had gotten the bags sooner, that would have made this review a lot more useful.

I with the labels on the bags indicated which produce they were best for. They are labeled, so ChicoBags really could add either little icons or words giving an indication.

The other confusing thing about these bags is how to properly use them and pay for your groceries appropriately. I could see taking them to the farmers market easily but if I put apples and oranges in the same bag at the store, I’d have to take them out when it’s time to scan them. My store does have the self serve scales where you can print your own label. I guess I can just use that and put my produce directly on the scale… I’m open to suggestions if anyone has any. I’ll have to update here once I have a chance to use them at the store.

And now on to the giveaway. It is not being hosted by me, but as a Beantown Baker reader, you can enter to win your own set of produce bags from ChicoBags.

Win your own Produce Stand Collection by ChicoBag™! ChicoBag™ is hosting a Produce Stand giveaway and will be selecting 10 winners to receive the new Produce Stand Collection. Contest ends June 4th 2010. Click here to enter to win!