Bag Shortage Hits Area Food Stores By JEFFREY ALFORD Post Staff Writer A shortage of brown paper sacks has hit South Florida supermarkets and the day may arrive soon when customers will be forced to bring their own bags when they shop for groceries. Feeling the pinch associated with the nationwide shortage of paper products, one area supermarket chain has initiated a return-a-bag program and offers trading stamps or cash refund for every bag its customers bring back for reuse. One Grand Union official explained: "The demand for paper sacks has simply outstripped the supply.' As a result. 567 Grand Union stores from Maine to Florida are asking customers to reuse the sacks. According to company officials in their New Jersey headquarters, the nationwide shortage probably will get worse before it gets better. •We are down from four types of sacks in our inventory to three." said Ned Meara, national paper and packaging buyer for Grand Union, "and all our 10 warehouses throughout the nation are short of stock. Sellers used to knock down our doors before - now we have to go looking for them." Grand Union supermarkets use five to six million paper bags per year and Meara says the shortage is expected to last at least until 1977. Most of the heavy brown paper used in making grocery sacks is made in mills in Florida. Georgia. Alabama and Louisana, Meara said. Floods, discontinued operation of marginally profitable mills and a shortage of pulp have reduced production. he said. Many older paper mills recently were required to install costly pollution control equipment which forced the shutdown of less profitable mills, he added. "There will be a two million-ton shortage in the next two years and it's probably to get worse before it gets better, Meara said. Similar problems face nearly every supermarket operation in the nation. the Grand Union official said, and chains such as Publix and Winn Dixie have also begun bagsaving measures such as eliminating double bagging and asking customers to take their groceries home in cardboard boxes. The Grand Union return-a-bag program has been in effect locally for two weeks and store managers say it is too early to judge if customers are responding favorably. Grand Union shoppers in West Palm Beach and other South Florida stores, except Stuart, receive five trading stamps for every bag they return for reuse. Geers and other managers say less than 25 per cent of their customers are returning bags. The store in Stuart. which does not offer stamps. pays one penny for every reuseable bag. There are 53 Grand Union supermarkets in Florida.