Paper or Plastic

Remember when your neighborhood grocery store gave you a choice? Of course, specialty stores like Trader Joe's, Wild Oats and Whole Foods assume that their customers want paper, but the more-traditional Safeways, Krogers and Giants that I've visited have made just the opposite assumption. Cashiers start packing my groceries into plastic bags before I've finished unloading my cart. And why not? It's significantly cheaper for stores to use plastic, even if paper's considerably more eco-friendly.

I have to hand it to Harris Teeter. That store's cashiers at least ask, "Is plastic OK?" before putting my groceries in plastic bags. When I ask for paper, I feel self-conscious, as if I've asked for too much, even though I know I'm making the right choice for the environment. The cashiers always oblige (was that an eye roll or was it my imagination?), but they tend to stuff the bags too full so they rip.

True tree huggers will tell you that paper and plastic bags are both bad for the environment and that reusable grocery bags are the way to go. I reuse paper bags for recycling newspapers and magazines, so I don't feel as bad about asking for them. And I can't imagine how cashiers at traditional grocery stores near me would respond to requests to reuse bags, when I can barely get them to use paper.