Matthew Voelker, 29, in New York is a serious shopping bag collector.
He has over 3,700 shopping bags in his collection — from 40 countries.
Most of the bags are from the US — supermarkets, convenience stores, Broadway shows, golf courses, restaurants, and anywhere else that has a plastic bag with an ad.
He has 160 bags from the U.K. but would like to add more. He says bags from TK Maxx, Sainsbury’s, Asda, the yellow Netto one with the dog on it or any other bag from the U.K. would be great.
Click here to read more in the article “Small Ads, Big Story: Desperately seeking British carrier bags” by Emma Broomfield in The Sunday Times.
Hi Matthew,
I am British and have also collected retail bags for years, although they all tend to be luxury high end ones. I actually stopped a few years ago, so if you want my collection then you are more than welcome to it 🙂
Hi Cat,
I am a graphic design student about to start a new project based around the collection of shopping bags. Would it be possible to either come take photos of them or attain them for a few weeks before sending them to Mathew?
This would be a massive help! Many Thanks, Alex.
Alex,
Your new project is great idea. We’ll be interested in seeing it.
Dull Men’s Club
Cat,
Would be great to talk about your bag collection, so if you would like, please email me at voma13@yahoo.com and we can chat!
M
I always thought I had a weird obsession for shopping bags, when I found this post I was relieved and ecstatic to finally find I’m not the only one :). I also collect shopping bags, I’ve been doing this for the last 8years. My current collection is currently from shops in Botswana & South Africa. I’d also love to have collections from other countries.