For the last four years, grocers have offered consumers an alternative to the "paper or plastic" dilemma when carting off their goods — reusable cloth or synthetic bags.

But getting customers to embrace the reusable bags has been an effort.

"I think in today's world, ‘sustainability' and that kind of feel-good issue associated with living lighter doesn't seem to have the same impact or priority when compared to prices and all that kind of stuff," Bill Bishop, a grocery industry consultant, said.

About 95 percent of food retailers offer reusable bags, according to the Food Marketing Institute. Last year, half of shoppers said they "try" to bring reusable bags, an increase of 10 percent over 2009. But half also reported their use of the reusable bags as never or less than monthly.

Local retailers, though, continue to try, if not necessarily for the sake of the environment, then because it is costly to not recycle or reuse bags.

Mr. Bishop, Willard Bishop Consulting of Chicago, said bags and supply expenses account for 1 percent of a supermarket's sales. "That is huge," Mr. Bishop added.

Kroger estimates one reusable bag can replace 1,000 plastic bags over its lifetime.

Customers at Walt Churchill's Markets get a nickel rebate for every reusable bag they utilize.

"We've done that for a long, long time. The bags costs a certain amount of money, but it encourages people to avoid using bags that end up in a landfill and it works out for everybody," said store owner Walt Churchill, Jr. "If you have three or four reusable bags, at the end of the year, you've saved some money, but you've also saved using some bag that will go to the landfill."

Candy Gremler of Perrysburg has been using reusable bags for four years. She not only saves such bags that she gets free from some stores and other businesses, she makes reusable bags out of spare fabric.

"We recycled when we lived abroad [in Holland]. It was kind of the way everybody does it there. Now I do that at home," said Mrs. Gremler after the leaving the store yesterday with her recyclable bags filled with groceries.

Another Walt Churchill's shopper, Linda Myers, bought her own reusable canvas shopping basket because it is superior to the reusable bags she could buy at the stores. However, she does have several canvas reusable grocery bags that are good for toting water and other heavier items.

"We try to keep them in the car so they're right there when we need a bag," she said.

Nearly all local retailers, including small independents and giant chains such as Wal-Mart, sell reusable bags for between $1 and $2.

Frank Guglielmi, a spokesman for Meijer, said the retailer has had an increased use of the bags. The store used to pay an incentive for customers to use them but has discontinued the practice.

"It is not unusual to see a customer go to checkout with a shopping cart full of groceries and hand our cashier 10 of those blue bags," Mr. Guglielmi said.

Amy McCormick, a Kroger spokesman, said the retailer tried a cash incentive — 3 to 5 cents — for customers who used reusable bags in its Cincinnati district. However, the pilot project was discontinued and never was tried in Toledo.

The grocery giant has attempted to encourage the use of reusable bags by tugging on the heartstrings of its customers: Kroger ties reusable bags to local charities by selling bags with the charity's logo on them. The bags cost $1.49 and the charity gets 50 cents of the purchase price.

"You can do something good for the environment and help local organizations at the same time," Ms. McCormick said.

But Kroger saved more than 200 million plastic bags in 2009, she added. The chain sold 7 million reusable bags companywide in 2009 and now provides "bagging technique" tips to its employees so they can better load reusable bags.

Contact Jon Chavez at: jchavez@theblade.com or 419-724-6128.

First Published March 18, 2011, 4:30 a.m.