Arkadia's distinguished reputation has always been associated with quality, be it through respected food products, award-winning services or novel concepts within the market. Their most recent, standard-raising concept is their multi-purpose, designer shopping bag, designed by local artist Luciano Micallef.

The new image moves away from the typical image of food products printed on the bag and heads towards the idea of embellishment by reproducing artistic paintings.

"We always wanted to distinguish Arkadia from others as a foodstore with a difference in quality; from our flagship brand Waitrose to our fresh food counters, for example," said General Manager Antoine Portelli. "We aim to cater across the spectrum from your usual groceries to high-end brands, organic and allergy-free products. Our shopping bags need to reflect this image, hence the decision to have it designed by brand names on the local art scene. This brought about the concept of people wanting the bag for its design and not necessarily to carry their shopping."

When approached to design the new bag, artist Luciano Micallef was intrigued by the idea, "since this was not the standard attitude that most requests come with, I was keen to discuss such a commission."

Generally, similar bags have a graphical image advertising both the brand name, as well as the product being sold in that specific outlet. However, artist Luciano Micallef intentionally kept away from reproducing evident images of supermarket products, allowing the brand name to float over a colourful, abstract image.

"The abstract image still carries the various connotations related to food products, particularly their colours like the greens of the vegetables, and  the yellows and reds of the fruit," said Mr Micallef.

The shift from flimsy, environment-threatening plastic bags to heavy duty shopping bags is one which Arkadia have taken into their stride throughout the years. "We are enhancing this shift further by creating the designer heavy duty shopping bag which is not only more eco-friendly material-wise, but will be a bag which customers will want to use for other purposes, therefore increasing its practicality and overall environmental-sustainability," said Mr Portelli.

"Such bags are often used to carry items, outside the supermarket purposes, when the need arises, yet we often hesitate to take such bags because their appearance in some places is not so congenial," said Mr Micallef. "I wanted to specifically avoid such a hesitation so that the bag can be carried anywhere because it is somehow neutral and more prestigious. I wanted to make an ordinary bag appear extraordinary".