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A string bag, net bag, or mesh bag is an open netted
bag A bag, also known regionally as a sack, is a common tool in the form of a floppy container, typically made of cloth, leather, bamboo, paper, or plastic. The use of bags predates recorded history, with the earliest bags being lengths of animal s ...
. Mesh bags are constructed from strands, yarns, or non-woven synthetic material into a net-like structure. String bags are used as
reusable shopping bag A reusable shopping bag, sometimes called a bag for life in the UK, is a type of shopping bag which can be reused many times, in contrast to disposable product, single-use paper or plastic shopping bags. It is often a tote bag made from fabric ...
s and as packaging for produce.


History

Bags of net-like material have been used by many cultures in history. For example, Japanese divers have used string bags to collect items to bring to the surface.


Czechoslovakia

In Czechoslovakia, the production of string bags dates back to 1920s to the town of
Žďár nad Sázavou Žďár nad Sázavou (; ) is a town in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 20,000 inhabitants. The town is an industrial and tourist centre. It is known for the Pilgrimage Church of Saint John of Nepomuk, which is a UNESCO Wor ...
in former Czechoslovakia, present day
Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...
, when a salesman Vavřín Krčil, representing Jaro J. Rousek company, began to produce string bags under the trademark Saarense (EKV) at the local chateau Žďár. They formerly made hair nets, which had become obsolete due to shorter hairstyles coming into fashion. This led to years of prosperity for the company. The hand made shopping bags were made of
artificial silk Artificiality (the state of being artificial, anthropogenic, or man-made) is the state of being the product of intentional human manufacture, rather than occurring naturally through processes not involving or requiring human activity. Connotati ...
yarn, woven by women working at home (this was often their second job) or by using child labour, the finished bags were then given to Vavřín Krčil. The bags quickly became very popular due to their low price, light weight, and compactness. Krčil soon extended the range of designs, including bags to be carried at the elbow or on the shoulder, and bags for sporting equipment. In the late 1920s string bags were being produced in Switzerland and Italy, and were distributed around the world. Krčil himself exported the bags to
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
,
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
,
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
,
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
,
Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
, and North African countries..


East Germany (German Democratic Republic)

The classic
East German East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...
''Einkaufsnetz'' (shopping net) has leather handles and multicoloured netting made from '' Eisengarn'', a strong, starched and waxed cotton thread. Due to shortages of many types of raw materials in the GDR, recycling and reusing were the norm; plastic one-use shopping bags were rarely available in shops. The bags took up very little space when not in use and therefore could be carried around in case one serendipitously came across something useful for sale.Klassik Lust. ''Eine wiederentdeckte Waren-Transportmöglichkeit''
(in German). (Accessed: 4 December 2016)
In West Germany use of net shopping bags declined from the early 1980s due to single-use plastic bags becoming common in shops and supermarkets, but they continued to be used in the GDR. In the 1960s and 1970s net bags were also made out of ''Dederon'', the East German trade name for
Nylon 6 Nylon 6 or polycaprolactam is a polymer, in particular semicrystalline polyamide. Unlike most other nylons, nylon 6 is not a condensation polymer, but instead is formed by ring-opening polymerization; this makes it a special case in the compari ...
. The oil crisis of the mid-1970s meant that GDR could no longer produce Dederon in such large quantities and ''Eisengarn'' was then more often used for the manufacture of net bags. Environmental concerns, ''
Ostalgie In German culture, ''Ostalgie'' () is nostalgia for aspects of life in Communist East Germany. It is a portmanteau of the German words '' Ost'' (east) and '' Nostalgie'' (nostalgia). Its anglicised equivalent, ostalgia (rhyming with "nostalgi ...
'' (nostalgia for East Germany), and a general fashion for
retro Retro style is imitative or consciously derivative of lifestyles, trends, or art forms from the past, including in music, modes, fashions, or attitudes. It has been argued that there is a nostalgia cycle in popular culture. Definition The term ...
products from the mid-20th century have led to the resurgence, in all parts of Germany, of what was once considered the frumpy ''Omas Einkaufsnetz'' (Grandma's shopping net). The
DDR Museum The DDR Museum is a museum in the centre of Berlin. The museum is located in the former governmental district of East Germany, right on the river Spree, opposite the Berlin Cathedral. The museum is the 11th most visited museum in Berlin. It ...
in Berlin has a collection of ''Einkaufsnetze'', and the bags are now often sold as ''DDR kult Klassiker''.


Russia

String bags were popular in Russia and throughout the
USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, where they were called ''avoska'' (), which may be translated as "perhaps-bag". The ''avoska'' was a major cultural phenomenon of Soviet daily life. ''Avoskas'' were manufactured using various kinds of strings. With the advent of synthetic materials, some of them were made of stretchable string, so that a very small net could be stretched to a very large sack. With the popularization of
plastic bag A plastic bag, poly bag, or pouch is a type of container made of thin, flexible, plastic film, nonwoven fabric, or plastic textile. Plastic bags are used for containing and transporting goods such as foods, produce, Powder (substance), powders, ...
s (which had the same important trait of convenient foldability) ''avoskas'' gradually went into disuse, but recent political trends in support of
banning plastic bags A plastic bag ban or charge is a law that restricts the use of lightweight plastic bags at retail establishments. In the early 21st century, there has been a global trend towards the phase-out of lightweight plastic bags. Single-use plastic shopp ...
may bring it back.


Etymology

The name "avoska" derives from the Russian adverb '' avos''' (), an expression of vague expectation of luck, translated in various contexts as "just in case", "hopefully", etc. The term originated in the 1930s in the context of shortages of
consumer goods in the Soviet Union Consumer goods in the Soviet Union were usually produced by a two-category industry. Group A was "heavy industry", which included all goods that serve as an input required for the production of some other, final good. Group B was "consumer goods ...
, when citizens could obtain many basic purchases only by a stroke of luck; people used to carry an ''avoska'' in their pocket all the time in case opportunistic circumstances arose. The exact origin of the term remains uncertain, with several different attributions. In 1970 a popular Soviet
comedian A comedian (feminine comedienne) or comic is a person who seeks to entertainment, entertain an audience by making them laughter, laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly (as in slapstick), or employing prop c ...
,
Arkady Raikin Arkady Isaakovich Raikin (; – 17 December 1987) was a Soviet stand-up comedian, stage and film actor, theater director, screenwriter and satirist. He led the school of Soviet and Russian humorists for about half a century. He is the father of ...
, explained that around 1935 he introduced a character, a simple man with a netted sack in his hands. He used to demonstrate the sack to the spectators and to say "А это авоська. Авось-ка я что-нибудь в ней принесу" ("And this is a ''what-iffie''. What if I bring something in it..."). The script is attributed to Vladimir Polyakov.


See also

*
Kubi bukuro is a type of string bag used by the samurai class primarily during the Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centur ...


References

{{packaging Shopping bags Culture of the Soviet Union Culture of the Czech Republic Culture of East Germany Ostalgie Packaging