Bringing your own grocery bags is still optional, rare, and considered a bit "quirky" in the US ~ in my area, anyway. I've read articles and seen TV-news features about how it has recently been enforced in Europe (and particularly in Ireland) and been surprisingly well accepted, surprisingly quickly.

I began doing so a few months back, when reusable bags were first introduced by the more expensive specialty organic grocers in this area. When I brought my bags to other "regular" supermarkets, I got quizzical reactions at first from checkout personnel and other shoppers. Since then, a few more stores have begun selling/providing reusable bags and the practice is gradually catching on.

As a teenager, I worked as a bagboy and have always prided myself on being able to pack a set of standard paper grocery bags properly, apportioning the heaviest items to the bottoms of several bags to keep weights manageable and roughly equal, keeping fragile items on top, etc. Over the years, I'd often pack my own bags when no one else was available to assist the checkout person.

When the small plastic bags came into vogue, the bagger's job was all but eliminated; checkers were expected to drop each item into a bag, which is easily done with the little plastic bags in their dispenser rigs, but not so easily when the customer is allowed to specify "paper," and does so.

What I've hated all along about the plastic bags, and the general bagging practices since their introduction, even when the paper-bag alterntaive is in effect, is the NUMBER of bags used up. It is not at all unusual to purchase four or five items and be presented with four or five little bags to take them home in, one item per bag. With the built-in handles of the plastic bags, it's not difficult to grab a handful and carry them, but it's just so damn wasteful and stupid.

With the large-ish (paper-bag-sized) and heavy-duty reusable bags, there is an occasional tendency to pack 'em extra-heavy. I can live with that, but I can see how someone less able-bodied might have a complaint.

One local supermarket chain that just began selling their own reusable grocery bags is providing smaller such bags than I've seen before ~ the size of the ubiquitous plastic bags ~ for 99 cents each. That seems to be a good idea, and might well be the wave of the future. The checkout workers like them because they fit in the same recess of the counter that is designed for the disposable plastic bags. I haven't bought any, because I already have three of the larger-size reuable bags and don't need any more.