Lately when I’ve made a purchase at the Vitamin Shoppe in Mentor, the cashier has asked me whether I want a bag for the product.

I have yet to say yes.

Even though I routinely use durable woven shopping bags, they don’t always make it out of the car with me, and while I try to remember to ask that a purchase not be bagged, I do forget. So, like most of us, I have a never-ending, and growing, supply of wastebasket liners.

That’s why I’m grateful to the Vitamin Shoppe for giving me a choice.

The last time this happened, I asked the cashier whether this was a Vitamin Shoppe policy. It’s not a company-wide policy, he told me, but something the store’s staff have been doing on their own. And about half their customers do turn down the offer of a bag.

That’s a lot of plastic that’s not going into the landfill.

Way to go, Vitamin Shoppe!