Last week I talked about the differences between Rume reusable shopping bags and Envirosax bags. One of the positive things about RuMe bags was that they have a set that comes plain and unpatterned which would appeal to guys and minimalists. Mere days after I posted that the kind people at Envirosax wrote to tell me they had just launched their Greengrocer line – Envirosax bags in plain colors made out of extra strong ripstop nylon, including very manly colors. The colors are named for food – Apple, Avacado, Blueberry, Chocolate, Duck Egg, Guava, Liquorice, Oyster, Summerpea and Watermelon.

I was lucky to get my hands on a sample bag to check out. It shares these features with my patterned Envirosax bags:

• The bag rolls up to the size of small cell phone and stays closed via attached snaps. Once you unsnap you can unroll the bag with the flick of a wrist. The closed bags are small and lightweight and are easily kept in a purse or glove compartment of a car.
• The open bag is large enough to hold a free weekly-sized newspaper flat and lay a bottle of wine down in the bottom. It’s roomy and strong enough to hold two paper bags worth of groceries.
• The handles are wide and comfortable on my shoulder, they don’t cut or pinch.
• The bag does not drag on the ground when I hold it as a tote, I’m 5′ 2″ in tennis shoes.

And here are the ways the Envirosax Greengrocer bags are a little bit different than the regular Envirosax bags:

• The bag is the same size and overall length but the Greengrocer bags have slightly longer handles. One of my favorite things about the Envirosax bags is that you can hike it up over your shoulder using one arm, leaving the other free to accept change, dig out your keys or grab onto a wandering toddler. The longer handles on the Greengrocer bags would probably accommodate the longer arms of people taller than myself.
• The Greengrocer bags have a waterproof backing to the fabric, which is extra appealing to my Seattle-located self. I ran my regular Envirosax and the Greengrocer bag under the tap and where the regular bag held it’s own to the water, only letting a tiny amount soak in after a good while, the Greengrocer bag beaded and repelled and stayed dry inside.

I like my Envirosax bags and get a lot of use out of them. It is so nice to come home, unpack groceries and not have a bunch of plastic bags to store until they can be recycled or reused. I even keep one near the laundry hamper and use it to haul laundry up or down stairs when the basket isn’t conveniently located on the same floor I am. They are great for carrying all those extra books I find when I’m at the library or the rare unexpected package I get when checking my PO box.

update: I’ve heard back from all the lucky chosen ones. Thanks to everybody for entering! The people at Envirosax would like to give away a set of five Greengrocer bags to four lucky Not Martha readers! If you’d like to win please leave a comment with this post. You have until 12 noon PST on Thursday, May 8th to enter.

the fine print:

– You don’t need to leave your real name, but do leave a valid email address. I’ll be the only one who can see your email address (just don’t put it in the actual comment box as well). I’ll write to get a shipping address when you’ve won.

– If you have never left a comment here before I’ll need to approve it before it publishes so don’t worry if your comment doesn’t show up right away. That said, you might not end up being the comment number you see so know that if you want to say “pick 351!” you might not be comment number 351. I don’t know why it works that way, and I’m sorry, there is very little certainty left in this world and this isn’t helping any.

– If I have not heard from an initial winner by May 15th I will choose another winner.

– The winners will be picked by the cold, unfeeling random number generator.

Good luck!