At last count, I had 10 of them. They are in my car, my pantry and clothes closet. A couple of them carry the same logo and store name.

If you haven’t guessed by now, I am talking about reusable shopping bags. It took me a while to get used to the idea of carrying my own bags into stores, but I soon learned that I liked the concept.

First I can decide how many bags to use on any given shopping excursion. Second, I will most likely be packing my own bags which prevents the less knowledgeable bagger from putting my chocolate bars next to my bars of Lever soap. There is nothing worse than having my favorite dark Milky Ways being desecrated with the taste and scent of soap.

When a store employee insists on packing my bags, I have to remind him or her that, while they can bench press half their own weight, this senior citizen cannot carry a 50-pound bag of groceries on my best day. No need to stuff the bags to the brim when I brought more than enough of them with me.

I have become a sort of expert on which reusable bags are better than others. The bags made out of heavyweight plastic materials seem to hold most items with little fear of breakage. I have not graduated to the eco-friendly washable cloth bags but have been considering the move. However, I do enjoy a good old paper bag such as those offered at Riesbeck’s.

On any given day my shopping destination determines which bags I will utilize at which store. I have bags from Kroger, Walmart, Dollar General (one of my favorites) and Family Dollar. Sadly, my Save-A-Lot store in Warwood closed and now my bag bearing its logo sits sadly among the other bags.

I often wonder what the thought is of using a Save-A-Lot bag at the Kroger store or interchanging the dollar stores’ bags. Is there some sort of shopping bag etiquette I am not aware of today? Feel free to enlighten me.

One of my other fun bags bears the logo of the Pittsburgh Steelers. I purchased several of those at the Miklas Meat Market. I have even used a couple of the Steelers bags as birthday gift bags. No one seemed to miss all that wrapping paper, plus they got a bonus reusable bag.

More than just retail outlets have shopping bags. We attended a home show and got a very nice cloth bag from a funeral home business. I’ve had to think about where to use this bag. For now it has served as storage for those pesky plastic store bags that I still end up with sometimes.

I keep hearing that most stores will discontinue their plastic grocery bags. I guess I will be ahead of the curve with my collection of reusable bags. Now if I can only remember to keep them in my car before I go shopping.

Heather Ziegler can be reached via email at hziegler@theintelligencer.net.