When I was a kid, there were only paper bags. If you had heavy items, like gallons of milk or lots of cans, they'd double bag. At some point, about 15 years ago, about the time they decreased customer service, they started with the plastic bags. All of a sudden, you had the choice of paper or plastic, and lots of people were taking both. You'd get the security of double bagging, plus handles! What a renovation, people loved it. Plus, you had a bunch of free plastic bags that could be reused over and over and over....
Unfortunately, the cashiers also got in the habit of just putting one or two items in a plastic bag. The double roll of paper towels in a plastic bag all by itself makes me scream. Or the dozen eggs that simply cannot be neighbours with anything else in a bag. And bleach, which actually has a handle and can be 'gasp' carried by the handle is placed into a bag, a plastic bag... Yes, way way too much plastic being bandied about in a supermarket.
Remember when the deli actually wrapped your cold cuts in butcher's paper? Now, it's wrapped in plastic and then placed in a little plastic bag with the weight and price. Produce was placed in little brown paper bags instead of people placing one lemon in a plastic bag. If you wanted a quarter pound of cherries, you simply put them in a paper bag and weighed them on the scale that is always in the produce department. Now, you have to take the size they offer you on a styrofoam tray that is hermetically sealed in plastic wrap. Suspiciously, they do the same thing to the chicken breasts and the sausages. Is butcher paper extinct? Is it on the endangered list? And what's with that little plastic gadget they insist on sticking in those overgrown chickens?
Hey, where was I...?
I invested a buck each in a dozen canvas/cloth bags. They have handles and can hold an inordinate amount of weight. I launder them every now and then, especially the ones I use in the produce market and at the butcher's shop. I put them in the trunk of my car as soon as I finish unpacking my groceries (or whatever else I used them for). That way, whenever I find myself at a store, I have the bags with me. In the extremely rare occasion that I don't have the bags with me, I'll only take paper bags, and prefer little paid stickers on big items like milk, bleach, detergent, toilet paper.