As I mentioned in my review for Pacific’s multi-color razors (see above), there are certain things I hate buying when I go to the grocery store.  And it just so happens that trash bags are also among them.  Even though a typical $5 trash bag investment will last my wife and I a good few months, does it really cost that much money to make things that are essentially over-sized plastic bags?  Surely they can be had for much cheaper, right?

So on a recent visit to my local Deal$ store (a place that is owned by Dollar Tree, but also has things that are more expensive than a dollar), I looked for some value trash bags.  And hidden among the nearly-name brand items, which were closer in cost to the Glad’s of the world, I found exactly what I was looking for.  A pack of eight 30-gallon trash bags for the ultra-low price of $1.  As an added bonus, they even came with a  drawstring!  Surely they couldn’t be that bad, right?

I’ll just cut right to the chase on this one:  They suck.  Avoid these like the plague.  The first problem arises right when you take the first one out of the box and realize they are not at all made of the same materials that most thirty-gallon trash bags.  For starters, they are not glossy, but rather a dull, matte black.  In fact, just from picking them up you feel like you’re going to rip them, which is not really a reassuring feeling for something that you’re going to be putting uneaten food and liquids into.

The problem is only compounded when you start putting things into it.  If anything even remotely has an edge to it (like an empty frozen food box), chances are it’s going to cut its way through.  In fact, I had to go ahead and double bag the first load before throwing it away because the original bag looked like Swiss cheese by the time I was ready to get rid of it.  And even then I was sweating the long walk from my condo to the dumpster, checking the ground every few steps and praying that what I thought was going to happen, wasn’t really going to happen.  It didn’t, but no product should really leave you with such heavy doubts.

Overall: 0/10.  I’ve found that many times, dollar stores and discounters will at least offer a product that, even if shy of national-brand quality, is at least a valiant attempt to blend quality and value.  This is one of those rare products that, even at a dollar, are a complete rip-off.  The bags rip at the slightest hint of pressure, and often have to be double-bagged just to get them to the dumpster.  As a huge fan of dollar stores, I tend to have a positive bias toward their products, or at least try to find a silver lining in their attempts.  This one is just a blatant misfire that should be pulled off the shelves immediately.  But don’t just take my word for it.  Check out the 1 ½ star rating (out of 5) of them on Dollar Tree’s own website. (NOTE: Product has since been removed.)