Supermarket Sleuths: The change costing shoppers an extra $104 per year and making supermarkets $170m
By Jo Abi|
Cast your mind back to 2018; supermarket bags were free, made from plastic and Aussie shoppers didn't give them much thought.
As environmental awareness grew, we ditched free plastic for reusables or paid a fee to help curb our excessive plastic use.
These plastic bags were later replaced with paper bags at a cost of 15c each (now 25c each), alongside a range of fancier reusable shopping bags at 99c or $3 for a fun one that keeps groceries chilled.
During this time, we became diligent at bringing reusable bags to the supermarket for our weekly shop.
Then, we started to forget them.
Fast forward to 2026, and it has become common place for many shoppers to pay for bags each and every time. We also pay for bags when we shop for groceries online for collection or delivery.
The average weekly grocery shop in Australia is ?around $240 per week, which would need approximately eight paper bags at 25c each. That's an extra $2, which could by two bags of carrots or a kilo of a kilo of bananas or apples when they are in season.
Across the year, that's $104 on bags alone.?
READ MORE: Coles customers react to recent change to shopping options
READ MORE: Shake Shack comes to Australia for the first time?
?READ MORE: 'Jeez': Aussie shoppers met with shock sight in supermarket
And supermarkets are making a huge profit on them.
QUT retail expert Professor Gary Mortimer estimated that the major supermarkets make around $170m a year by no longer providing approximately six billion free single-use plastic bags and charging for paper and reusable ones.
But recently, there has been a lot of renewed chatter about the cost of bags, likely due to the recent steep increase in grocery prices. You just have to glance at Reddit tor see multiple posts discussing this. ?
"I think it's BS we have to pay for grocery bags," one Redditor recently said on the forum's 'Complaints' thread, likening it to how we now pay for water, when this too used to be accessed for free.
"It's bizarre having to pay for a bag at the supermarket," another Redditor added.
They labelled this "institutionalised cheapness".
?Clearly, paying for shopping bags in supermarkets and all retailers, is here to stay. The only solution being that we bring our own reusuable bags each and every time.
RMIT Finance and Marketing expert Dr Nadja Dollisson tells nine.com.au paying for shopping bags has become normal through "a mix of habit change, social copying, and the behavioural conditioning described by psychologist B.F. Skinner".
"In simple terms, Skinner showed that behaviour is shaped by consequences. When an action brings reward or removes a problem, it tends to be repeated, and we tend to avoid actions that bring penalties or discomfort," Dr Dollisson explained.
She said when supermarkets first began charging for bags, it felt like a "breach of an unwritten contract".
"Bags had always been free, so the change triggered frustration and pushback. But once every major chain adopted the same rule, shoppers had nowhere else to go. A change that initially felt like a shock quickly settled into 'just how grocery shopping works'."
She said from a behavioural perspective, the bag charge was meant as a punishment, a small deterrent to reduce the use of single use bags.
"But 25c cents was too weak to override convenience. People quickly habituated to it, the irritation faded, and once something is repeated often enough, it begins to feel normal.
"The new rule was further reinforced through both repetition and social norming. When everyone else is doing the same thing, it becomes easier to comply than to resist."
Our initial feelings of outrage soon faded, as it has with other retail changes such as self checkouts.
"Outrage burns hot but dies quickly when it achieves nothing," Dr Dollisson said.
"People complained loudly at first, but supermarkets did not reverse the policy. The charge was trivial, and everyone still needed groceries.
"At the same time, habituation kicked in. The more often people encountered the same small annoyance, the less emotional power it held. And humans are masters of adaptation.
"People complained loudly at first, but supermarkets did not reverse the policy, the charge was trivial, and everyone still needed groceries."
"According to adaptation level theory, we repeatedly reset our sense of what feels 'normal'. What once felt infuriating gradually became part of everyday life.
"Taken together, extinction, habituation, and adaptation, they explain why outrage that once seemed intense can fade so quickly."
This is the same psychology behind why those of us who were once so diligent about bringing our own bags to the supermarket, soon stopped.
Dr Dollisson explained there are different types of shoppers.
Firstly, there are those for whom the reward for remembering to bring our own bags faded. Initially there was a moral satisfaction of doing something environmentally responsible, the financial saving and social approval.
"But those reinforcers dulled over time," Dr Dollisson said.
Then there are those who see purchasing shopping bags as a "quick and easy fix" to a problem of their own creation จC forgetting to bring bags.
"Forgetting a bag used to spark guilt or mild embarrassment. Now, buying one instantly removes that discomfort. That immediate relief strengthens the behaviour, a classic case of negative reinforcement: when removing an inconvenience reinforces the action that removed it."
The grocery shoppers more likely to remember to bring reusable bags are those who are in a routine of shopping on a schedule, usually weekly.
It's the occasional or "top up" shopper who tends to pop in for a few items here and there that ends up paying for bags most of the time, and this group is increasing.
?"Because many households now shop in smaller, more frequent trips, forgetting bags, and buying new ones, has become more common."
So I begin this year with a renewed commitment to bring my own bags to the supermarket. I have borrowed my colleague's idea to place one in my work bag, in case I pop in for groceries on the way home.
And I have placed the rest of them in the boot of my car.
A quick survey of the nine.com.au office revealed many diligent shoppers who remember to do just that.
"I have a million tote bags and always remember to bring them when we do groceries! We also just have totes that sit in the car so we never forget," one said.
"I always bring them. I get annoyed if i have to buy more as I have 1000 tote kind of bags at home," added another.
"We always bring bags for our big grocery shops and have a bunch that live in the car," said another.
One nine.com.au staffer keeps one in their work handbag so they can "swing by the shops after work if need be".
"If I forget or end up at the supermarket unexpectedly, my local store has a little section (like a book street library) where people leave their unwanted shopping bags so I can usually grab a couple of those to use," they explained.
Another said they'd "rather juggle every grocery item in my hands or pockets than buy a bag."
?"I BYO bags, always. Or use my brute strength (and pockets) to carry everything to my car," another said.
"BYO bags if it's a full shop. If I'm grabbing a couple things I do the juggle. The paper bags are annoying and I never know what to do with them after one use," another said.
I use them for my recyclables as often as I can, but usually end up with a surplus.
I find paper bags barely make it through one grocery shopping trip and are hardly likely to last long enough for multiple, so they can't really be reused.?
Clearly, I am part of the group of shoppers who often forgets to bring reuseable bags, and pays for them more often than I would like.
But after doing a deep dive and listening to opinions, it's definitely something to be more mindful of in future.
FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE: Stay across all the latest in celebrity, lifestyle and opinion via our WhatsApp channel. No comments, no algorithm and nobody can see your private details.?
