Supermarkets are finding a little bit of green doesn't make a big difference in breaking shoppers of the "paper or plastic?" habit.
Some chains including Kroger and Safeway are starting to move away from the pennies-per-bag rebates, saying they don't do enough to keep customers from forgetting reusables at home or in their cars.
Grocers save money when customers bring reusable bags. They also want to stay ahead of plastic-bag bans and taxes that could cost them or their customers more money.
Kroger Co., the nation's largest supermarket chain, had been giving three- to five-cent rebates or fuel discounts for each reusable bag. But it ended the bonuses this year in some regions. Customer feedback indicates most want to use reusable bags, company officials say; it's a matter of making it a habit. So Kroger officials say they're focusing more on promotions and educational efforts, investing in signs and other visible reminders.
Now, many Kroger parking lots are dotted with signs asking "Are your reusable bags still in the car?" Messages around stores tout the environmental value of bag reuse. A reusable bag replaces hundreds of disposable bags, one says; another: "Less Plastic? Fantastic." Kroger also sent shoppers coupons for reusable bags, holds bag design contests and giveaways, and puts out containers for recycling plastic bags.
Kroger spokesman Brendon Cull says the company has found no significant difference between reusable bag frequency in markets with rebates and those without them.
Safeway Inc. also has been phasing out cash rebates such as 3 cents per bag in some regions. It's still dangling discounts, but making them more occasional and targeted. Shoppers who use Safeway's "Bright Green" reusable bags get 10 percent off Safeway's line of environmentally geared household products.
Moral appeals and trendiness are more powerful than small discounts, said Ted Brown, a consultant who helped develop one of the earliest reusable bag programs two decades ago. Make reusables fashionable and fun, and shoppers won't forget.
About 95 percent of food retailers offer reusable bags, the Food Marketing Institute says. In 2010 half of shoppers said they "try" to bring reusable bags, up 10 percent over the prior year. However, half reported their use as never or less than monthly. That figure isn't falling much.
"Getting consumers to change their habits is difficult under any economic conditions," said Joel Makower, a consultant and executive editor of Greener World Media Inc. "Stubbornness is recession-proof."
Some governments have decided that sticks work better than carrots.
San Francisco in 2007 banned plastic bags and was followed by more than dozen other cities and counties. Washington, D.C., last year began taxing shoppers 5 cents per disposable bag. Disposable bag use fell by 80 percent in some stores, officials say.
Several states are considering bans or fees on disposable bags. Countries from Ireland to China have also restricted plastic bag use.
Some people see paper bags as preferable because they are renewable and biodegradable, but their use takes its own environmental tolls. Retailers are wary of paper-bag domination because of higher costs, about three times more than plastic.
Still, some miss the small but noticeable incentive. Andrea Deckard of Monroe, Ohio, says Kroger's rebates saved her about 20 cents a visit.
"I don't know what it would have hurt to continue it," said Deckard, who shares bill-cutting tips on her blog "The Savings Lifestyle." "It was just like a coupon to a lot of people."