The Worst Thing You Can Buy for Your Kitchen

Lisa Freedman
Lisa FreedmanExecutive Lifestyle Director
Lisa Freedman is the Executive Lifestyle Director at The Kitchn. She has never met a cheese or a washi tape she didn't like. She lives in New York state with her husband and their pup, Millie.
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updated May 1, 2019
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(Image credit: Susanna Hopler/vincent noel)

Hello! You clicked on this post because you thought the “thing” I referred to in the title could be any number of, well, things, right? You might have guessed paper towels. Or wine charms. Or a coconut opener. All of those things would technically be correct-ish. (See what you should use instead of wine charms.)

The actual answer (at least the one I had in mind): fold-top sandwich bags.

(Image credit: Amazon)

No offense to Glad and all those other companies out there, but I just have to know — what is the point of these baggies? I started a mini rant about this the other day during a staff meeting and everyone agreed with me, so I’m not alone on this.

I didn’t always feel this way. In fact, when I was in school, it seemed like all of the cool kids (read: any kid who wasn’t me) had these bags in their lunch boxes. I always felt so lame opening my zip-top bag and would seriously beg my mom to buy the fold-top bags. (You’d think I’d have other things to care about, but this was a big deal to 8-year-old me.) My mother, the logical woman that she is, refused. She told me what I wanted was a terrible waste of money and that I’d have to come to peace with her preferred style.

When I got to college and started buying my own groceries, the first thing I got was a box of fold-top baggies (followed by a boatload of junk food!). I learned quickly — my mom was totally right. These bags are the worst!

The Problem with Fold-Top Sandwich Bags

If you put a sandwich in one of these bags, the bread will dry out and your whole lunch box will smell like salami by 10 a.m. If you fill a fold-top bag with pretzels, chances are, when you go to pull them out of our lunch bag, you’re probably going to send pretzels flying all over the place — no matter how many times you’ve gingerly folded over the top.

Bags need zip tops! Or twist ties, at the very least! What could someone possibly put in one of these bags that makes sense or wouldn’t benefit from a bag with a more secure top?

Now that I’m a full-fledged adult, I try to stick to reusable containers as often as possible, but whenever I need to pull out a bag, you can bet it’s gonna have a zip top.

Who’s with me? Agree — or, if you must, disagree — in the comments.