Isn't that hypocritical though? You want to assign blame to me for not bringing cloth bags, yet you want to coddle me for making that mistake by offering me free plastic bags when I forget? Perhaps I would be more incentivized to bring cloth bags if I had to suffer some for not doing so. Make me buy some at the register, run to my car to retrieve them, or make multiple trips. (Point in fact, I have cloth bags in my car, but I have not once remembered to bring them into a store. Habits are not easy to form. And I'll be thought rude to run to my car after dumping groceries on the checkout line rather than using the provided bags.)

It doesn't really matter who you blame in this case, because the solution is the same either way: stop allowing stores to offer free plastic bags.

And if anyone would accuse my of rationalizing my inefficiencies, then that is just one more reason why you cannot trust individuals to make the right choices.