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Other Whole Foods stores also recycle the vinyl banners that are used to promote special sales and activities.
Stores on the West Coast, for example, have worked with Alchemy Goods in Seattle to recycle the signs for almost two years.
But for the Whole Foods in Glen Allen, Passchal, located 24 miles away in Richmond, is closer to hand. The firm's cachet as a purveyor of purses and bags that have caught the eyes of Hollywood celebrities was another factor that made Passchal a highly desirable partner.
So was the fact that the predominant material for the Passchal line comes from used truck and tractor tires: the inner tubes from the tires to be precise.
"It's a great partnership," said Alton Murphy, the front end manager for the Whole Foods store in Glen Allen. Murphy said the store had long wanted to find a good use for its used banners. Then last last fall, Linda Thomas, a marketing specialist for the store, approached Passchal co-founders Ken Kobrick and Angela Greene, and asked whether they were interested in working with banners from the grocery.
The upshot is that starting Wednesday, signs that once looked like this:
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Will be available for sale as satchels including ones that look like this:
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And handbags that include ones like this:
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The Passchal Whole Foods Banner Bag line -- in hobo, tote and square clutch styles in addition to the handbag and messenger satchel -- will be available at the Glen Allen Whole Foods and online. The bags will retail for $80 to $120, Kobrick told GreenBiz.com.
In contrast, the listed prices for the current Passchal collection for men and women range from $175 for a foldable tote called the Hampton Travel Bag:
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To $525 for a sleek model called the Downtown Bag:
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Key design features and the functionality of the banner bag line and the existing Passchal line are similar.
Both rely heavily on recycled materials. Like the main line, the handcrafted banner bags will incorporate pieces of recycled inner tube, recycled seat belts for some shoulder straps and "by-product," chrome-free, vegetable-oil dyed leather, Greene said.
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The new line will also have a Passchal signature feature: a small LED inside each bag so the owner doesn't have to fish around in its depths in the dark.
Each bag in the banner line is distinct, however, because of the different lettering and graphics on the signs. "One of the signs, I think, was used for a tailgate party -- there was a football on it," Greene said. "Each bag looks different. But then each of our bags is different."
Even in the existing line, she said, each bag is unique because the markings on the recycled inner tubes "are like fingerprints."
That might be part of the allure the bags have among celebrities.
Passchal's line was in the limelight earlier this year at the "Access Hollywood Stuff You Must Gift Lounge" before the Golden Globes, as detailed on the company's website and by iCelebZ.com.
The sites reported that celebs toting Passchal bags included AnnaLynne McCord of "90210," "Dancing With The Stars" judge Carrie Ann Inabra, actor Blair Underwood of "In Treatment," Melina Kanakaredes of "CSI:NY," James Kyson Lee of "Heroes" and Taylor Lautner of "Twilight," among others.
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If the prices for the Passchal bags seem a little rich, the totes Alchemy Goods makes out of Whole Foods banners retail for $29.
The bags are available wholesale through Alchemy, said Benjamin Ernst, Alchemy's recycling coordinator, and retail at certain Whole Foods stores. "And we'd also be happy to receive more banners," Ernst said.
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