How a simple brown paper bag became a cult object
News News blog
Marvin Traub, President of Bloomingdale's, invented the brown shopping bag in 1973.
The result was a marketing tool that still serves its purpose 50 years later. It is the simplest, plainest object imaginable: the Big Brown Bag.
Actually, it is now the Big Brown Bag, the Medium Brown Bag and the Little Brown Bag. What is even more astonishing is that Traub has omitted the name of the department store from the bag altogether. A bag that doesn't put the name of the company front and center - that's really unusual.
Like so many great marketing tools, the bag was born out of necessity. Since Bloomingdale's had always done a good business in pillows and bedding, "they needed a big bag," notes veteran New York retail consultant Howard Davidowitz.
Nowadays, kraft paper scores points for its environmental friendliness. In 1973, it was simply unusual - plain, unadorned and so emphatically unchic that it became chic. The brown lettering in the store's font was a nice touch - "chic and clever", says Davidowitz.
So chic, in fact, that the store also sells little brown vinyl bags modeled after the little brown paper bags.
