Stylishly Ecofriendly ZPM Trolley-Dolly Reuseable Bags

Last week I wrote an impromptu review on an item I own and truly love: our nappy bag.  Since then I have been speaking to the designer/owner Zoe Phayre-Mudge about some of ZPM‘s other products. When she offered to send me a Trolley-Dolly to try out, I was happy to oblige.

When my Trolley-Dolly arrived, I was pleasantly surprised by the size. Knowing what it consisted of, I was expecting something much bigger. And with it arriving just in time for my monthly grocery shop, I immediately had a chance to put it through its paces.

The Trolley-Dolly is designed to get a realistically sized supermarket shop back home without using a single plastic bag! Packed inside the stylishly classy outer bag are 6 vest-style carrier bags with long handles in assorted colours, 2 shoulder bags, 2 short-handled carrier bags, 10 fruit and vegetable net bags with cord lock closing fastener and a trolley-token/keyring. The interior nylon bags will hold 13.7kg per bag. That is the equivalent weight of 30 tin cans or 20 bottles of wine. The interior bags are colour coded (i.e. Green for fruit & veg, Blue for frozen goods, etc.) to help you pack more easily.

The bag has an elasticised outer  pocket, a zipped outer pocket, a see-through sleeve and space for a mobile phone. Inside the zipped pocket there‘s room for the kind of things you‘d normally have to carry in a separate bag. In my case a debit card and store loyalty card, a compact camera, a nappy and a few wet wipes.

I found the see-through sleeve particularly useful, as my grocery store always gives vouchers or coupons for your next shop and I always either lose or forget them. This way they can go in the bag, and remain easily visible.

I also loved the idea of the trolley token as scrambling around for £1 coins for the shopping trolly always leaves me frustrated, irritated and having to break a note for change! Unfortunately the token was the wrong size for the trolleys at my supermarket, but at least I can keep a coin in the Trolley-Dolly for use every time I go shopping.

Trolley-token or no, an expensive monthly shop later, I returned home with 10 full bags. I was also impressed that I didn’t have to walk through the parking lot with my bag of 9 toilet rolls clutched under my arm – the vest bag was big enough to contain it.

When I got home I pulled out my old reuseable bags to see how many I would have used without the Trolley-Dolly. With all my reuseables filled, I still had to use three supermarket bags, and my toilet rolls were loose. That might not sound like much, but the truth of the matter is that I normally forget to take any bags at all, meaning I end up with a full shop of plastic bags!

The Trolley-Dolly is so compact, I can happily leave it on the coatrail at the front door and never forget it again.  My supermarket gives loyalty points for using your own bags, and points convert to cash or shopping, so that’s an added bonus.

Ambassadollies

ZPM believes in its products, and wants to spread the word. It has started a programme for moms and other entrepreneurial individuals called Ambassadollies – You buy the TD at £ 15 + vat (of £2.63) and sell at RRP to your friends, family, at school fairs etc.  The Trolley-Dolly retails for £ 29.95 + 4.50 post from ZPM so you can save your friends the postage and you stand to make about £10 per bag that you sell. Email ZPM on info@zpm.com for more information on the scheme and mention that I sent you.

Special Offer

ZPM is offering Diary of a First Child readers exclusive postage discounts on the Trolley-Dolly.  For customers in the UK, the Trolley-Dolly will cost £29.95 with postage completely free. US customers, meanwhile, will have their postage discounted from £18 to just £8, meaning you can have your own Trolley Dolly for £38 (about $60)

To claim this offer, enter ‘FIRSTMUM’ as your coupon code on checkout. If you are purchasing from the US, email Zoe directly on info@zpm.com, giving her your Trolley-Dolly choice, your full address, zip code and telephone number, and quoting the code DIARYOFAFIRSTCHILD.

Any blogs reviewing the Trolley-Dolly can link up to this page and your readers will be able to use the free postage offer too.

To buy your Trolley-Dolly now, click here

This offer is valid until 31 July 2010