Carry on collecting: why old British shopping bags are suddenly in demand

Old shopping bags from WH Smith, Marks & Spencer and Tesco are finding buyers online, turning disposable retail packaging into collectibles. On eBay, Vinted and Depop, vintage M&S, Tesco, Netto and Waitrose bags sell for about £10, although they were originally free. Vinted says searches rose 35% in 2026 from the previous year. The trend reflects wider demand for tangible, nostalgic objects. Carry a Bag Man, an Instagram account dedicated to carrier bags, has more than 15,000 followers. Jeremy Leslie, founder of London magazine shop MagCulture, says consumers increasingly want physical items that evoke earlier stages of their lives. Tim Sumner, who established the Paper Bag Archive in 2020, has collected more than 3,500 paper bags, plus plastic examples. He regards them as records of social history and changing tastes. The M&S St Michael bag, used from 1928 to 2000, is particularly sought after across generations. St Michael is central to an M&S collaboration with London streetwear label Aries, arriving on 20 August. The collection includes a £90 leather tote designed to resemble the original carrier. M&S womenswear design head Lisa Illis says the partnership reinterprets a familiar cultural symbol, while Aries founder Sofia Prantera cites M&S’s role in her family life. Vintage St Michael clothing is also popular on resale sites. Older bags are often considered sturdier, although Sumner says those made after 2000 can disintegrate faster because they were designed to biodegrade. Supermarket bags now cost 20p in many stores. Anti-plastic campaigns, including Anya Hindmarch’s “I am not a plastic bag” tote, drew attention to alternatives; 80,000 people queued for the tote in 2007. A mandatory government charge introduced in 2015 helped cut supermarket plastic-bag sales by 98% by 2023. Reusable canvas bags from APC, Octobre Editions and Alo sell for more than £10. Vogue named Alo’s bag a trending beach accessory, while Trader Joe’s $4 grocery bag has become a London status symbol. Leslie says the appeal lies partly in older products’ basic, unmediated design.