How to Sell Promotional Tote Bags to Grocery Stores and Retailers

By Michael Cornnell

Packed-up Pointers

Looking for a couple grocery-tote tips from your peers? Geiger sales partner Jacqui Hornberger, MAS, North Wales, Pa., and Michele Cochran, independent promotional and branding specialist with Geiger Southwest, Scottsdale, Ariz. were kind enough to share a few pointers.

1) Handy as a Self-Promo
Hornberger stated she makes consistent use of grocery totes as a successful self-promo, going so far as to carry them when she goes grocery shopping herself and giving them out to customers in the store who look like they could use an extra bag. She has also used the totes as beach bags, and will sometimes co-brand along with her clients, reducing what they pay her in exchange for shared advertising space on the bags.

2) Durability Matters
Both Cochran and Hornberger stressed how much a well-made bag matters to them. Hornberger cited durability as one of her prime selection factors when choosing a bag, and Cochran pointed out how essential high-quality imprints are due to how long the bags typically stay useful to end-users.

3) Open Minds, Open Sales
Just because the totes are designed to carry groceries, don't get wrapped up in the thinking that these bags have to be sold to food-related companies. One of Hornberger's larger grocery tote buyers is a trade convention for land title insurance providers, and Cochran has sold to a similarly wide selection of clients. Like other totes, these grocery bags seem to thrive on their overall utility and have a very broad appeal. "People actually keep them, take them home from events and reuse them frequently," said Cochran.

Grocery shopping. Love it, hate it, regardless, we all do it. A boring and hilariously obvious observation maybe, except for one recent twist: the rise of the reusable grocery tote. Since the early aught's, reusable bags have turned the routine and mechanical chore of food shopping into something with a seriously compelling layer of marketing opportunity. From the stores themselves to the countless businesses that want a piece of the shopping public's attention, there is major potential for business here that was completely nonexistent 15 years ago. And while it is a reasonably new market, it's not especially complex. All it takes to build a foundation for success is a little product knowledge, an eye for detail and the creativity to use the bags in an interesting way.

Not Your Average Tote
To start with, you should know that a decent reusable grocery bag is more than your ordinary tote. Bigger, stronger and thicker, grocery totes are specifically designed to carry heavy loads and survive more serious wear-and-tear. Christopher Duffy, senior vice president of marketing for Bag Makers, Union, Ill., provided a detailed description.

"In general, the grocery stores sell a tote sized at 12x8x13"," he said. "Our industry sells this size, however, it has also adopted one size slightly larger at 13x10x15"." As for bag thickness, he explained that the 12x8x13" size typically comes in 80 GSM (though some suppliers such as Bag Makers will offer a beefier 100 GSM stock) and the larger sizes are usually offered at 100 GSM. "The GSM (grams per square meter) is a measure of the material's 'density' and directly relates to its strength, durability and carrying capacity," stated Duffy. He noted as well that nearly all grocery bags will include some kind of bottom board, such as a solid black polyethylene sheet or a sewn-in-and-covered piece of cardboard.

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