Business owners have made use of promotional items for decades as a way to create goodwill between them and their customers, and to keep their company name in front of the public. But oftentimes, those promotional items are quickly locked away in a cabinet or discarded, because people don't want to use a coffee cup with a corporate logo blazed across the front of it, or wear a baseball hat with the name of a company printed across the front of it.

“Business owners are taking promotional items up a notch with reusable tote bags," says an independent retailer of the items. “And what's changed is that they no longer have to ruin the bags by putting their company names on them. The promotional items go inside the bag, and that what makes these eco-friendly promotional items so unique."

The retailer says that his bags are colorful and shaped like fruit, so company owners are using them to hold their promotional items, and the bags won't simply be discarded. For example, he says that some business owners create their own wine label and use his grape shaped bag to “wrap" it in. 'This allows the business owner to convey a gift that still has their corporate logo—on the wine label—but because it's presented in a nice bag that isn't overly promotional, it's viewed as a nicer gift. Plus the recipient will be able make use of the bag free of corporate advertising. It's a win-win situation for everyone involved."

According to the Advertising Specialty Institute, promotional products represent a $20.5 billion industry, and almost every business in America makes use of them. But times are changing, and both the business owners that give the gifts, as well as the people who receive them, seem to want to items that are more usable and less focused on advertising.

“If someone is going to give a gift, whether it's for promotional reasons or not, it just makes sense to give something that the recipient is actually going to use. And while a pen with a company logo on it is nice, a box of fruit flavored jelly beans with a company logo on them tucked inside a colorful fruit shaped reusable tote bag is just so much better."

And the timing couldn't be better for this type of promotional product. With cities across the nation banning plastic bags, consumers are having to purchase their own reusable tote bags in order to shop. “That's what makes this such a good idea," says the retailer. “Recipients will appreciate the promotional product being wrapped in a bag that they have a need for. And every time they carry it to the store to do their shopping, they'll think of the business that gave it to them."