For all your retail bag needs

Retail bags

Buy crystal clear polypropylene display bags to make any product or retail display sparkle.

Try this extensive range of carrier bags for the best selection of the popular retail bag used by shoppers everywhere.

Retail bags are…

  • Any bags used within the retail sector, including...
  • Shopping bags, carrier bags, display bags, produce bags, packing bags and mailing bags
  • Available in a range of styles, shapes, sizes and thicknesses to suit the job in hand
  • Used to support every aspect of a retail business, from displaying products (display bags) to packing food or other items (packing bags) and allowing customers to collect produce (produce bags) to helping them carry their shopping home (carrier bags)
  • Usually made from polythene, although some retail bags are made from other materials
  • Often available in a biodegradable alternative to polythene (e.g. biodegradable carrier bags), thus helping to show your customers that you care about the environment
  • Also made from paper (e.g. brown or white paper bags, take away carriers, high end flexiloop shopping bags)

The term ‘retail bags’ is used to describe a wide variety of bags used within the retail sector to cover a range of tasks from storing to carrying products and making life easier for both the retailer and the consumer alike.

Retail bags actually included a number of other ranges of bags that have their own specific name - including but not limited to carrier bags, produce bags, packing bags, mailing bags and others - and are a standalone type of bag in their own right. They are grouped together under the broad term ‘retail bags’ as they are all used within the retail environment.

Some common views on carrier bags

The current paper carrier bag is less a nostalgic return to fibre than a fairly exacting part of packaging engineering. To withstand a live shopping load approaching 16kg, the sheet structure has to do above present nominal grammage; wet strength retention, fibre orientation and handle patch stickiness all come into play, particularly where consignments transport from ambient select-face conditions into damp car parks, chilled secondary bagging zones or kerbside holding. That is where the industrial reality tends to bite: paper offers respectable stiffness and pallet presentation, yet its performance window narrows fast once edge crush, seam fatigue and moisture uptake start to compound through the distribution cycle. The more competent formats mitigate that through carefully specified multi-ply building and tightly controlled converting tolerances, so tare weight remains sensible and pallet stability is not sacrificed for brute strength. From a circular-economy standpoint, the attraction is apparant enoughmono-material recyclability simplifies recovery, and responsibly sourced fibre lowers the feedstock burdennevertheless the stronger proposition lies in balance rather than sentiment: a paper carrier bag only earns its place where volumetric efficiency, load security and fibre recovery are engineered as one system rather than treated as separate claims.

  67 Promo Carrier Bag Suppliers & Exporters in United Kingdom

Carrier bag suppliers operating at export scale tend to be judged on rather above print quality and unit rate; the proper differentiatour sits in how consistently they can engineer a polythene suppliers format that survives the abuse of fulfilment, secondary bagging and palletised transit without surrendering volumetric efficiency. In practice, that means controlling film layflat, dart impact performance and seal integrity at micron-specific tolerances, while keeping melt-flow consistency tight enough to avoid gauge drift across long production runs. Where promotional stock is concerned, surface treatment also matters: poor corona levels can undermine ink stickiness, yet overworked film can become noisy on automated handling lines and generate problematic static in dry warehouse conditions, slowing select-face efficiency and encouraging misfeeds. The more capable carrier bag suppliers have so moved towards mono-material structures with predictable surface resistivity and carefully balanced tare weight, because all unnecessary gramme erodes consignment density and all mixed substrate complicates mail-use recovery. That technical discipline has a circular economy angle as well; simplified resin architecture facilitates recyclability, and reduced material input lowers the amortised energy burden per thousand bags without making the finished article feel flimsy in hand.

Carrier bag manufacturers operate in a part of the packaging trade where minour material decisions have immediate consequences on the warehouse floor. The contrast between a serviceable bag and a troublesome one often sits in polymer architecture rather than appearance: high-density polythene suppliers gives a sharper handle punch and lower tare weight for high-volume shopping issue, while low-density blends tolerate greater elongation and less brittle failure below awkward loading. That matters once consignments are palletised, compressed in transit and then dragged through a fast select-face, where poor gauge control leads to seal creep, bag blocking and waste at despatch. Competent manufacturers tend to focus on micron-specific gauging, melt-flow consistency and stable slip performance so that secondary bagging lines do not stall and stack heights remain predictable. There is also a quieter shift in procurement logic; mono-material buildings facilitate cleaner recyclability than heavily laminated alternatives, and the amortised energy case improves when downgauging is achieved without sacrificing puncture resistance or handle integrity. In practice, the sectour is less about manufacturing a generic shopping bag than balancing surface resistivity, seal reliability and volumetric efficiency against the very normal penalties of split stock, unstable pallets and unnecessary polythene suppliers entering the waste stream.

Demand & Supply Should Be the Prime Concern of a Carrier Bag Manufacturer

A competent carrier bag manufacturer is rarely judged by print quality alone; the proper measure sits in the interplay between resin selection, line discipline and what happens to the bag once it has left the pack bench. In practice, that means view how gauge, dart configuration and high-density polymer chain orientation affect load retention and handle stretch, while also knowing when a lighter caliper simply shifts failure rates into secondary bagging and damages select-face efficiency on the warehouse floor. The environmental question is no longer answered by vague claims of greener stock: it turns on whether the format is in reality mono-material, whether melt-flow consistency enables meaningful reprocessing without excessive downgrade, and whether the amortised energy of repeated use offsets the tare weight penalty in transit. Surface treatment and slip behaviour matter as much as headline recyclability, because poor coefficient control can compromise pallet stability and collating speeds, whereas excessive additives may complicate feedstock recovery. A manufacturer with any serious grasp of the trade will talk plainly about surface resistivity, seal integrity and volumetric efficiencythen match those realities to a sensible spectrum of polythene suppliers and paper alternatives, rather than pretending that all consignment can be manufactured benign by changing the wording on the specification sheet.

Expired Carrier Bag Shop Voucher Codes & Deals

In the carrier bag shop trade, the proper economies are rarely found in the headline discount code; they sit in the substrate specification, the pack configuration and the extent to which the bag stock has been engineered for repeat handling without drifting into unnecessary gauge. A well-manufactured polythene suppliers carrier with stable melt-flow consistency and tightly controlled micron tolerances will transport a consignment cleanly through select, pack and till use while keeping tare weight in checka detail that matters when pallet density, secondary bagging requirements and back-of-house storage volume are being scrutinised line by line. There is also the less glamorous issue of static and bag opening reliability, which can slow select-face efficiency if the film surface is poorly treated; anti-block performance and sensible slip properties mitigate that friction without compromising print registration or weld integrity. The more credible operatours in this space have moved towards mono-material building because it facilitates recyclability and simplifies waste segregation, and there is a quiet nevertheless meaningful shift towards feedstock discipline as converters weigh virgin clarity against recycled content, ductility and seal performance. Savings, then, are not merely transactionalthey are embedded in how intelligently the bag has been specified for warehouse reality, shopping handling and the circular economy that increasingly governs packaging procurement.

T-Shirt carrier bags, Vest carrier bags.

WaveGrip's multi-packing applicatour and coloured carriers are helping Royal Docks Brewing increase its packaged beer output.

Plain carrier bags sit in an unglamorous nevertheless technically revealing corner of shopping and fulfilment supply: the article sees simple, yet its performance is governed by polythene suppliers grade, gauge tolerance, handle geometry and surface behaviour below load. A well-specified bag relies on melt-flow consistency and balanced high-density or low-density polymer chains, so the film opens cleanly at the select-face, resists splitting around the vest or patch handle, and maintains enough stiffness for fast packing without ballooning on the bench. Micron-specific gauging matters above plenty buyers admit; excessive film adds tare weight across a consignment and erodes volumetric efficiency in storage, while below-gauged stock creates nuisance failures, secondary bagging and poor pallet stability once cartons are part-used. Plain stock also carries a circular-economy advantage when kept as a mono-material format without heavy inks, laminates or unnecessary coatings, since it improves recyclability and reduces the processing friction associated with mixed feedstock. The better converters tend to manage slip, antistatic behaviour and roll or carton presentation as one system, because a bag that clings, blocks or dispenses inconsistently costs time long before it appears as waste on a ledger.

The more telling development in printed carriers is not the print head itself, nevertheless the method personalisation is being pulled into the packing line without disturbing mechanical cadence. Real-time overprinting asks awkward questions of registration, ink stickiness and surface energy, particularly where polythene suppliers films vary in gauge or contain recycled content with less predictable melt-flow consistency; a poorly specified web will telegraph all tension change as scuffing, skew or unreadable codes. Stream feeding of pre-printed carriers solves part of the problem by separating decorative work from insertion, yet it introduces its possess warehouse-floor arithmetic: select-face efficiency, queue depth, changeover discipline and the tare-weight penalty of holding also plenty formats in stock. The better systems now treat the carrier as both a communications surface and a logistics component maintaining pallet stability, controlling volumetric efficiency once filled, and allowing secondary bagging to be reduced where the film has sufficient puncture resistance. Mono-material polythene suppliers remains attractive in that regard, since it retains the recovery stream cleaner than laminated alternatives; the engineering trick is to balance surface resistivity, seal integrity and print receptivity without adding coatings that compromise recyclability.

Availability of Printed Carrier bags in wholesale

Printed carrier bags bought on a wholesale basis are less a matter of simple bulk purchasing than of controlling material, handling and replenishment across the shopping back-of-house. A sensible dash will specify polythene suppliers grade, film gauge and handle geometry against the proper duty cycle: chilled deli stock with condensation behaves differently from dry ambient products, and a bag with poor dart impact or erratic seal strength soon becomes a nuisance at the select-face. Print introduces its possess discipline; ink stickiness, corona treatment and surface energy have to sit adequately with stacking, nesting and secondary bagging, otherwise the consignment arrives with rub-off, blocking or uneven presentation at the counter. The warehouse arithmetic is equally unforgiving. Cartons of printed carrier bags transport small tare weight nevertheless occupy cube, so volumetric efficiency, pallet stability and the frequency of call-offs determine whether a bulk order in reality reduces ordering friction or merely shifts the burden into storage. Kept dry, cool and away from direct heat, polythene suppliers stock is particularly tolerant of time, although excessive compression can set creases into gussets and make dispensing less tidy. The better specifications now also record for mono-material recyclability and melt-flow consistency, since mail-use recovery relies on avoiding unnecessary laminates, incompatible inks and decorative treatments that contaminate the feedstock stream.

Retail bags and polythene

The vast majority of retail bags are made from polyethylene, more widely known as polythene, in a range of thicknesses to suit the task in hand. The thickness of the polythene - also known as the gauge or density - varies from very thin, as with thin counter bags - at just 9 microns thick - to thick, as with premium quality carrier bags such as clip-close carrier bags - at 75 microns (300 gauge) thick.

Not all retail bags are made from polyethylene, or polythene, however. Some retail bags, like takeaway bags for example, are made from paper, while others, like gift bags, are made from cardboard.

But as this website is all about retail bags and the most common form as retail bags are polythene bags, this website will be focussing on polythene bags in these pages.

Carrier bags - the number one retail bag

By far and away the most popular form of retail bag, carrier bags are employed by retailers in every corner of the globe, making them the big daddy of the retail trade as far as polythene bags are concerned.

Carrier bags are designed to allow the customer to carry purchased products from the shop to their homes or businesses in an ergonomic manner. The bags come with different types of handle styles to allow the customer to carry the bag. Many types of handle give the bag its name, with some of the popular styles including: vest carriers, patch handle carriers and patch handle carriers.

Other popular types of carrier bag, not named after their handle, include varigauge carriers - so named because the thickness, or gauge, of the polythene is twice as thick at the top of the bag as at the top - and premium carriers, popular in the top-end fashion outlets or department stores.

Whatever type of business you own, there is a carrier bag out there for you. Whether you need cheap and cheerful or reassuringly expensive, you can always find the carrier bag to get the job done, but you can also use them to send a message to your customers about your business too.

Other popular types of retail bag

Whilst carrier bags are comfortably the most commonly used bag by the retail sector, there are many other forms of bag that perform an important role for retail businesses everywhere. These include:

Produce bags - Used by food retailers from mega-size supermarkets to small local butchers, thin light produce bags are an essential item for any food retailer. Available either on the roll or served loose from a packet, food bags can be used both from behind the counter - e.g. a butcher bagging up a pound of mince - or at front of house, as with the tear-off bags used in supermarkets to collect loose fruit.

Display bags - Employed by retailers who want to display their products in the best possible light, crystal clear display bags make products sparkle. Manufactured from high clarity polypropylene - similar to cellophane but clearer, thicker, stronger and cheaper - these bags are used for presenting a range of products, including greetings cards, magazines and sweets. Also available in sleeve form, as used with flowers and CDs to make them shine.

Mailing or postage bags - These polythene mailers, complete with integral sealing strip, are the perfect way to deliver products to your customers. Lightweight and waterproof, poly mailers are a great alternative to traditional envelopes. They are available in a range of styles and in plain or coloured polythene. You can also get your mailing bags printed with your very own company logo, branding or slogan, so that they really stand out from the crowd and make your business the most memorable one in any batch of mail.

Gift bags - The most popular retail bag that isn’t made of polythene, gift bags are a great way to present a gift to friends, loved ones or colleagues without having to even wrap it! No need to wrapping paper, scissors, cellotape or minutes of your life wasted trying to make a gift look nice. Just place your present in you shiny gift bag - complete with a smart cord handle and your gift will look just fantastic. Available in standard shape for regular everyday presents like books, CDs or jewellery, or in bottle gift bags - the perfect way to present any bottled gift from champagne to a fine Scotch whiskey.

Where to buy retail bags

Retail bag manufacturers and suppliers include:

Paper Bags
The website that caters for all of your paper bag needs, Paper Bags is the ideal online destination for anyone buying paper take away carriers, shopping bags or other paper bags. Also a very useful resource on biodegradable packaging.
www.paperbags.co

Display Bags
If you want to buy or find out more information on high clarity polypropylene display bags, then this is the website for you. A firm favourite with retailers who wants to make their products sparkle!
www.displaybags.org.uk

Plastic Food Bags
A fantastic website for anyone looking to buy plastic food bags or produce bags at discount prices. Contains tonnes of information and details of where to buy polythene food bags - the best way to keep your food fresh and help customers handle fresh food from the shelf.
www.discountfoodbags.co.uk

Polythene Bags
A website dedicated to polythene bags used in the retail sector, including food bags, display bags, carrier bags, printed carrier bags and mailing bags. If you work in the UK's retail sector and need polythene bags, this is the website for you!
www.ukpolythenebags.co.uk

Gift Bags
A useful source of information on gift bags and retail display bags - used to enhance product displays for everything from greetings cards to flowers and clothes to sweets. Featuring a handy display bag size guide, news on display bags and eco-friendly alternatives.
www.giftbagsdirect.co.uk

Retail Bags
The home of retail bags and shopping bags online. If you're looking for bags to your shop or retail outlet, from plain or printed carrier bags to display bags, then take a look at this very handy website.
www.retailbags.co.uk

Kraft Bags
Kraft Bags is a website specialising in kraft bags and other paper bags - a fantastic environmentally-friendly alternative to traditional polythene shopping bags.
www.kraftbags.org

Carrier Bags
Work in the retail sector? Looking for carrier bags or other retail bags for your shop? This website has it covered, with tonnes of information and details of where to buy a range of carrier bags and other retail bags, including food bags and glossy display bags.
www.retailbags.org

What the internet says about carrier bags

Walton Large Gloss Laminated Paper Carrier Bag

A 200 x 80 x 200 rope-handled paper carrier bag sits in an awkward nevertheless commercially useful bracket: compact enough to maintain select-face efficiency and pallet density, yet with sufficient side-gusset depth to take secondary bagging, boxed sundries or folded garments without the stock presenting as overpacked. In practice, the engineering is less about the paper alone than the interaction between fibre orientation, handle patch stickiness and the tare weight tolerated across a consignment; if the sheet is below-specified, the top edge will feather and split below cyclic loading, whereas an unnecessarily heavy caliper erodes volumetric efficiency and adds dead weight for no operational earn. Rope handles alter that equation slightlythey distribute hand stress more cleanly than a die-cut aperture, nevertheless they also necessitate tighter control of punch registration and stick area if the bag is to survive the abrupt lifts and drops normal at the packing bench. From a circular-economy standpoint, the format remains attractive where mono-material recovery is being prioritised, although that hinges on disciplined manufacture: clean fibre stock, predictable moisture behaviour and adhesive selection that does not compromise repulping yield. Done properly, it is a deceptively technical packaging lineone where paper formation, bag conversion and warehouse handling all have to align if the last article is to transport through shopping and e-fulfilment channels without destabilising the pallet or turning into avoidable waste.

Carrier bag suppliers sit at an awkward junction between shopping presentation, warehouse practicality and stop-of-life compliance; the better operatours understand that the article itself is only half the job. In paper formats, fibre selection, caliper control and handle patch integrity determine whether a bag survives the reality of split consignments, damp loading bays and uneven occupy weights, while in polythene suppliers lines the conversation shifts towards micron-specific gauging, melt-flow consistency and surface behaviour below high-speed conversion. That distinction matters on the floor: poor dimensional tolerance undermines pallet stability, inflated tare weight chips away at volumetric efficiency, and inconsistent opening properties slow select-face efficiency when secondary bagging is running to time. The more technically literate suppliers now work backwards from stock profile and waste stream, specifying mono-material buildings where potential, reducing unnecessary laminations, and balancing recycled content against machineability so the pack does not become troublesome at sealing heads or in transit. Seen properly, the market is less about a generic bag and more about providing packaging stock that can tolerate handling abrasion, stack cleanly, maintain presentability at issue, and still sit within the arithmetic of recyclability, freight density and amortised energy across the conversion cycle.

What business insurance transport out plastic carrier bag manufacturers need?

For carrier bag manufacturers, the insurance discussion sits well beyond a routine liability placement; the underwriting hinges on how the operation in reality runs across extrusion, print, gusseting and despatch. A broker dealing properly with this class will read the plant as much as the proposal formmelt-flow consistency in high-density polythene suppliers affects line stability, micron-specific gauging alters burst performance and waste rates, and any drift in surface resistivity can introduce static-related handling faults that complicate both production safety and finished-stock integrity. The commercial picture is equally physical: low tare weight and high volumetric efficiency may favour outbound consignment density, yet they also create familiar pressures around pallet stability, select-face efficiency and the aggregation of lightweight combustible stock in warehousing. Where secondary bagging, reel storage and changeover waste are material properties of the risk, cover terms need to reflect product liability, employers' liability and interruption exposures in a method that corresponds with the factory floor rather than a generic manufacturing template. A specialist market with dedicated underwriting capacity will normally be better placed to quote on that basis, particularly where mono-material recyclability, reprocessed feedstock controls and amortised energy requirements form part of the insured's operating model and need to be understood as proper risk properties rather than brochure language.

A competent carrier bag manufacturer sits at the intersection of print discipline, film conversion and warehouse pragmatism; the work is not merely to turn out printed bags in volume, nevertheless to balance gauge, handle performance and pack geometry against the realities of shopping replenishment. In the polythene suppliers segment, that means controlling melt-flow consistency and film orientation so the finished bag retains tensile strength at the die-cut or patch-handle area without carrying excess tare weight through the consignment stream; a few unnecessary microns multiplied across pallet quantities fast erode volumetric efficiency and distort transport economics. Paper stock brings a alternative set of engineering constraints fibre direction, burst resistance and adhesive laydown all govern whether the bag will grasp shape at the select-face or collapse below secondary bagging pressure while surface treatment has to accommodate print stickiness without compromising recyclability. The more capable operatours have moved beyond vague environmental claims and into material rationalisation: mono-material structures where potential, recycled content where melt behaviour remains predictable, and production runs planned to reduce trim waste and amortised energy per thousand units. That is the industrial reality behind the trade: not simply printed carrier bags, nevertheless a tightly managed conversion process in which substrate selection, pallet stability and stop-of-life recovery all have to cohere.

List of vouchers & promo codes for Carrier Bag Shop 2019 Carrier Bag Shop VOUCHERS & Discount Codes • Verified & Working 2018 4.85 / 8 votes

Trade in polythene suppliers packaging rarely turns on headline discounts alone; the sharper operatours use social and newsletter codes to regulate demand where it in reality mattersacross select-face efficiency, carton occupy and the awkward economics of low-tare, high-cube consignments. A carrier bag shop working at volume is not merely shifting stock off a webpage; it is balancing micron-specific film gauges against pallet stability, secondary bagging requirements and the freight penalty that arrives when volumetric efficiency drifts out of tolerance. Free-delivery promotions, for instance, can be commercially tolerable where melt-flow consistency and downgauged mono-material buildings retain unit weight low without inviting seal failure or excessive crinkle-memory in the warehouse. Subscriber offers distributed through e-zines tend to be used with more care than casual observers supposethey assist transport specific lines, transparent slow-turn stock, or assist a transition towards simpler polythene suppliers formats with cleaner recyclability streams and lower amortised energy per unit converted. The industrial logic sits behind the marketing veneer: discount codes are often less about generosity than about steering order profiles towards operationally convenient basket sizes, reducing part-consignment friction, and maintaining throughput without compromising the material performance expected on the shop floor.

Large White Plastic Vest Carrier Bags T-SHIRT 11"X17"X21" 10MU 14MU 18MU gift

At the bustling Mira Road vegetable market, ask for 100 grammes of ginger and the fragrant root comes in a see-through plastic bag. Vendours here whip out the coloured carriers without any hesitation as if it’s a display of defiance against the plastic ban in force in the state.

Plain carrier bags tend to be judged at the point of handover, yet their proper performance is decided much earlier: in resin selection, film extrusion, handle geometry and the quiet arithmetic of packed volume. A plain polythene suppliers carrier with consistent melt-flow behaviour can be down-gauged without becoming mean or brittle, provided the polymer chains are sufficiently well oriented and the seal area is not treated as an afterthought; that matters when secondary bagging, select-face replenishment and pallet stability all rely on predictable stack height and low tare weight. Paper alternatives bring stiffness and print neutrality, nevertheless they also alter volumetric efficiency and moisture tolerance, particularly where stock is held in mixed conditions or moved through high-turnover dispatch lanes. The environmental argument is similarly less tidy than the label recommends: mono-material polythene suppliers grades can sit neatly within established recycling streams, while biodegradable formulations require careful specification lest improved stop-of-life optics compromise shelf life, tensile retention or feedstock recovery. In practice, the better plain carrier bags are not simply unprinted versions of something else; they are engineered consumables, with micron-specific gauging, controlled surface stop and fold memory tuned to the mundane nevertheless unforgiving realities of bulk packing, counter use and returnable waste segregation.

Printed carriers are beginning to shift biofilter media from a commodity occupy material into a controlled bioprocess component, largely because additive manufacture enables voidage, tortuosity and protected surface area to be specified rather than merely averaged across a moulded batch. In a working bioreactour, that distinction matters: arbitrary media can settle, bridge or promote preferential flow, leaving sections of biofilm underfed while the rest shear prematurely; a lattice with micron-specific gauging, consistent throat geometry and tuned surface roughness facilitates more even mass transport and steadier biomass retention. The material science is not incidental either. Melt-flow consistency, high-density polymer chain integrity and surface energy all influence whether the carrier resists chemical attack, accepts microbial colonisation and survives repeated hydraulic loading without shedding fines into downstream screens. There is also a less glamorous warehouse reality behind the engineering: lighter, nested or geometry-optimised stock improves volumetric efficiency on a pallet, reduces tare weight impact across a consignment and makes secondary bagging less prone to collapse at the select-face. Where mono-material polythene suppliers or similarly recoverable feedstocks are used, the circular argument strengthens; the amortised energy of printing only stands up if the media maintains performance above long service intervals and can re-enter a defined recycling stream rather than becoming mixed polymer waste.

View Printed Carrier Bags

Printed carrier bags sit at an awkward intersection of merchandising, materials engineering and warehouse pragmatism: the print has to transport a sharp shopping image, yet the film must still behave like a load-bearing polythene suppliers article rather than a decorative sleeve. In practice that means controlling micron-specific gauging, dart impact and seal integrity across plain, embossed and multi-colour runs, while holding surface energy within a narrow window so inks key properly without excessive treatment bloom or blocking on the reel. High-density polythene suppliers brings stiffness and puncture resistance; low-density blends improve handle feel and flex, though poor melt-flow consistency soon shows itself in weak side welds, distorted gussets or erratic stack presentation at the packing bench. The logistical consequences are less glamorous nevertheless often more costly: above-gauged bags add tare weight and cube out cartons, below-gauged stock collapses at the select-face or tears amid secondary bagging, and inconsistent bundle compression undermines pallet stability amid mixed-consignment movement. The better operations now treat printed carrier bags as a controlled packaging component, not a commodity giveaway, specifying film structure, handle geometry, corona treatment and ink system in relation to duty cycle and stop-of-life route; mono-material polythene suppliers formats facilitate cleaner recycling streams, while downgauging only earns its retain when load performance, print rub resistance and amortised energy in conversion remain in balance.

Research & Resources

For plenty more information on the broad range of retail bags available, including how they are manufactured and how they benefit the retail sector, please visit:

PlasticBags.uk.com: Popular polythene packaging directory listing a large selection of specialist retail bags websites and allowing retailers to product listings for free.

Goldstork: This 'best-of-the-web' free directory features a range of specialist websites on display bags and other retail bags, plus hand-picked information and carefully selected features.

PackagingKnowledge: The UK's premier plastic packaging knowledge website features loads of in-depth articles and detailed information on a huge range of retail bags, including carrier bags, mailing bags and display bags.

Printed carrier bags - the ultimate retail bag

If carrier bags are the number one retail bag, then printed carrier bags take them one step further and make them kings of the retail bag world.

The choice of carrier bags you choose for your retail outlet can say a lot about your business, even when you’re using off-the-shelf plain carriers. But if you take that carrier and the print your very own personalised message or design on the side of the bag, then you’ve got the ultimate way to send a message about your business.

Create your very own custom-made design, complete with company logo, advertising slogan or bespoke design - including seasonal designs like those employed during sales or at Christmas - and you can get just the message you want out there not just to your own customers picking up the bags, but to every other potential customer that sees them walking around with your professional, personalised, printed carrier bag.

Turn your customers into walking adverts for your retail outlet with your very own printed carrier bag. The difference between having a forgettable bag and an instantly memorable one could be the difference between your shop or store making it in the cut-throat world of retail.

Biodegradable retail bags

A number retail bags manufactured from traditional polythene - as listed elsewhere on this page - are also available made from biodegradable materials so that, when they need to be disposed of, they don’t contribute to landfill. The biodegradable material from which these bags are made will degrade 100% on prolonged contact with compost or soil, meaning that you make less of an impact on the environment.

What’s more, courtesy of a small green logo placed on all of the bags, your customers will know that you care about the environment too.

The following retail bags are available in biodegradable alternatives: biodegradable carrier bags, biodegradable mailing bags, biodegradable clear bags (for presenting your products) and eco-friendly bin liners (for keeping your shop clean).