Buy bags in bulk

Christmas fair countdown tip

Buy bags in bulk

After going through the process of lovingly making an item (which we all know, can sometimes be a difficult birth), it's worth having something nice to put it in once a discerning customer comes along and snaps it up. If you sell products that are of a reasonable size, consider purchasing paper bags. It looks professional and if you have a printer (or are handy with linocuts or even a potato), you can put your logo on the outside for a sneaky bit of extra marketing.

The good news is that if you buy in bulk, paper bags don't actually cost much more than flimsy plastic bags (which generally stick together with static electricity, take an absolute age to open and split the moment anything of substance is put in them).

You don't have to buy in thousands - some companies start at 25 in a pack, but 50 seems to be more the norm. If this feels like too many, maybe post on the team forum and find someone to go halves on a pack. Obviously the more you buy, the more you'll save.

After a lot of hunting around online, we at Studio Pickles bought some brown paper bags from Carrier Bag Shop for the Autumn Fair. There are various ones to choose from, but being thoughtful souls we went for the recycled SOS Take Away bags (nothing to do with the fact that they were the cheapest!). We were happy with them - the smallest size is 18cm x 23cm x 9cm and cost £5.04 for 50 (so around 10p each - easily absorbed in the pricing process). The postage was reasonable compared with other companies, too.

Having a nice bag (or box, or whatever) to hand over to a customer is the same thing as buying nice wrapping paper. It makes the whole process a pleasant experience, and makes you look like a super-stylish professional craft genius!