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Astring bag,net bag, ormesh bag is an open nettedbag. Mesh bags are constructed from strands, yarns, or non-woven synthetic material into a net-like structure. String bags are used asreusable shopping bags[1] and as packaging for produce.[2]
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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.[3]
In Czechoslovakia, the production of string bags dates back to 1920s to the town ofŽďár nad Sázavou in former Czechoslovakia, present dayCzech Republic, when a salesman Vavřín Krčil, representing Jaro J. Rousek company,[citation needed] began to produce string bags under the trademark Saarense (EKV) at the local chateau Žďár. They formerly madehair 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 ofartificial silk yarn, woven by women working at home (this was often their second job) or by using child labour,[citation needed] 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 toCanada,France,Switzerland,Germany,Austria, and North African countries.[4]
The classicEast GermanEinkaufsnetz (shopping net) has leather handles and multicoloured netting made fromEisengarn, a strong, starched and waxed cotton thread.[5]
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.[6] 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.[7][8] 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.[9] In the 1960s and 1970s net bags were also made out ofDederon, the East German trade name forNylon 6. The oil crisis of the mid-1970s meant that GDR could no longer produce Dederon in such large quantities andEisengarn was then more often used for the manufacture of net bags.[8][10][9] Environmental concerns,[11]Ostalgie (nostalgia for East Germany), and a general fashion forretro products from the mid-20th century have led to the resurgence, in all parts of Germany, of what was once considered the frumpyOmas Einkaufsnetz (Grandma's shopping net).[9][12] TheDDR Museum in Berlin has a collection ofEinkaufsnetze, and the bags are now often sold asDDR kult Klassiker.[8][12]
String bags were popular in Russia and throughout theUSSR, where they were calledavoska (Russian:авоська), which may be translated as "perhaps-bag".[13] Theavoska was a major cultural phenomenon of Soviet daily life.Avoskas were manufactured using various kinds of strings.[citation needed] With the advent ofsynthetic 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 ofplastic bags (which had the same important trait of convenient foldability)avoskas gradually went into disuse, but recent political trends in support ofbanning plastic bags may bring it back.[14]
The name "avoska" derives from the Russian adverbavos' (Russian:авось), 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 ofconsumer goods in the Soviet Union, when citizens could obtain many basic purchases only by a stroke of luck; people used to carry anavoska in their pocket all the time in case opportunistic circumstances arose.[13] The exact origin of the term remains uncertain, with several different attributions. In 1970 a popular Sovietcomedian,Arkady Raikin, 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 awhat-iffie. What if I bring something in it..."). The script is attributed toVladimir Polyakov.[15]
