Could a carrier make the job easier?
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Three concepts to understand handles
Concept 1: Pressure
When a carrier bag is filled with heavy goods handles that are too narrow will cut into your fingers and restrict the circulation of blood. This makes the bag uncomfortable to use. You can alleviate this problem by making the handles wider so that the load on the fingers is spread over a wider area. A load divided by the area over which it acts is usually referred to as pressure. The weight of a small person wearing stiletto heeled shoes gives a pressure greater than an elephant whose weight is distributed over a much larger area.
Concept 2: Tensile strength
If a carrier bag is filled with very heavy goods then sometimes the handles break. The piece of material making up the handle is being stretched by the load. It is being put under tension. The strength of this piece of material is not sufficient to resist the load so it breaks. We can say that the tensile strength of the piece of material making up the handle was too small.
Concept 3: Failure at a join
Sometimes the handle of a carrier bag fails not because the material of the handle is too weak but because the join between the handle and the bag is too weak. You can tell the difference between failure of the join and failure of the material by looking at the point of failure. If the handle is in tact but has become separated from the body of the bag then it is the join that has failed. If the handle itself has broken then it is the material that has failed.