October 2008 - Cooler Bags

Generic Brand
$8 at the local dollar store

When the grocery store of choice could be more than 30 minutes from the house, it is common to transport foods while keeping them cold. Unfortunately, the average coolers used for parties or camping are hard and bulky, and require two hands for opening, moving, lifting. Also, depending on how much you drink when you relax, or how long your average camping trip may be, your typical cooler could also be “overkill” for a trip to the store - big enough to take up the entire trunk or back seat of your vehicle. That’s a lot of ice and space for a day of running errands.

Enter the soft cooler bag. The first bags on the scene were like soft lunch boxes, sized perfectly to fit a six-pack. Not much room for a gallon of milk. Next came the soft cooler sling - an insulated tube with a strap - again, perfectly sized for six cans.

But finally, with the push for shoppers to use (and reuse) their own bags for groceries to decrease human need for paper and plastic products, the cooler bag became more suited for the grocery store. These “big bag” coolers are better sized to fit groceries, TV dinners, packs of meat, gallons of milk, even a small (or not so small) turkey or roast.

Also, they are now more fashionable - not decorated with team logos or purple dinosaurs, but instead sporting bright colors and designs, looking more like a beach bag or ladies tote bag instead. In fact, once filled and closed, the unknowing eye may not even recognize it as a cooler at all. The bag can also be managed easily (full or empty) with a single hand, and can be thrown over your shoulder, so your hands are free to carry your other grocery bags. There’s even an outside zipper pocket for your change, your cell phone, your wallet, your grocery list.

But, are they water tight? Easy to clean? Do they really keep food cold? Yes, yes, and yes. Recently, I popped in to visit a friend just as she was returning from a shopping trip in town. The back seat was filled with store bags, and grabbing what I thought was a tote bag she said, “I love this thing.” I didn’t realize, until she began to empty it in her kitchen, that it was insulated.

“Does it really keep stuff cold?” I asked.

“It sure does,” she said, then told me of the day she fixed food for the football players in town, filled it with ice on Friday afternoon, then, returning home after the game, forgot it in the car. The next day, when she remembered to get it, it still had ice within. Not bad for an $8 bag.

As avid campers, Frank and I have a collection of “hard” coolers, as well as insulated lunch sacks, bottle holders, etc. We have small, medium, large and extra large; a cooler for each situation. Sure, they hard coolers will take a beating, and can be used as seats, stands, even a make-shift table. The problem is - where do you store them when they’re not in use? One won’t fit well inside the other, so we have a stack of coolers on our front porch all summer. But I had not yet seen the big cooler bags.

So, they’re functional, and serve their purpose well, and perhaps best of all, when empty, can be stuffed in a cabinet, drawer or closet without taking up much space. You can even leave the bag in the trunk when you’re not using it, and it won’t slide around and slam the insides of your vehicle as you travel these windy to lane roads. If you want, you can even hang it on the “coat hook” found inside most vehicles above the back doors. Affordable, useful, practical, and now on my shopping list.