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The biggest challenge we have is people forgetting them,” said the Hannaford Bros. Co. district manager as he stood near the checkout at the company’s Central Avenue store.

The Maine-based grocer’s latest jab at conquering the “darn-I-left-my-bags-at-home” syndrome is a pocket-sized nylon tote that folds to a 2-by-4-inch pouch ?about the size of a cellphone. It can be slipped into a purse or a glove compartment, and can be clipped to a belt or a handbag.

“It’s easy to keep with you,” Merrow said.

But even if they can’t always remember them, customers are increasingly committed to grocery bags they can use over and over, say grocers.

According to research sponsored by the Food Marketing Institute, an industry trade group, 44 percent of consumers say they use “permanent” shopping bags at least a few times a month.

And Hannaford figures that 13 percent of items purchased in its stores now are toted off in reusable bags.

Aimee Steiniger, a 22-year-old Albany Medical College student, was among the shoppers at the Albany store carrying out groceries this week in a collection of polypropylene fold-a-tote bags bearing the Hannaford logo.

The credit for buying the four bags Steiniger had in her cart goes to her roommate and fellow med student, Angela DiPoto, she said. But she’s also on board with the effort to reduce use of plastic bags.

Environmental considerations were the main driver for the roommates’ decision, Steiniger said, but she also is glad she no longer has to worry that a box will poke a hole in a plastic bag and send the rest of her groceries tumbling out.

“I like that they are sturdier than the plastic bags,” she said.

Hannaford, with nearly two dozen stores in the Capital Region, has been offering reusable bags since the early 1990s. But the company stepped up efforts to encourage customers to try them about three years ago, said Scott LeClair, Hannaford’s director of purchasing.

The company sought out new suppliers and began looking for ways to lower the price of the bags.

At the time, canvas bags cost $7.99 and the cheapest bag available was $3.99 ?generally more than customers were willing to spend.

Once they started looking, Hannaford’s buyers found the fold-a-totes, which sell for $1.50 each, and introduced a lower-priced canvas bag for $3.

Incidentally, store officials say, the lower prices have helped address the forgetfulness problem.

Hannaford’s most popular bag these days is a woven polypropylene available for 99 cents, LeClair said, and it has turned out to be a handy option for folks who forget their bags and don’t mind picking up another one for less than a buck.

Hannaford will pack groceries in just about any bag a customer prefers, but when company officials are shopping for new designs, they say a few features have emerged as essential.

Big problem: There is a world of difference between 1773 and 2009. Two hundred-plus years ago, Americans risked life and limb protesting a distant and oligarchic system of government that did not represent the good people of Massachusetts.

In 2009, the federal government is dysfunctional because, if anything, Washington is too representative of the American voter, who has come to expect both more government and lower taxes.

The Tea Day agenda - www.teapartyday.com - is a call to arms to Americans who are fed up with a president and Congress who “are spending trillions of borrowed dollars, leaving a debt our great-grandchildren will be paying” and expanding the size and scope of the federal government. It plays to the anger felt by taxpayers who resent the runaway growth of government - for good reason. Too bad it is inconsistent to complain about the deficit and taxes.

No doubt many who show up at the Tea Day rallies will argue that they didn’t vote for Obama and should not have to pay for his programs. I have news for you folks: Conservatives lost. American voters elected a big spender and, one way or another, Americans will have to pay for his agenda. The Obama tax hikes on Americans earning more than $250,000 have yet to materialize - but when they do, they’ll be taxation with representation, a campaign pledge made good.

Do I like it? Absolutely not. I believe that Obama’s soak-the-rich approach will be bad for the economy. And so apparently does Obamaland, it seems, as the administration has decided to postpone Obama’s promised tax increases until the Bush tax cuts expire.

Sorry folks, but the Democrats have co-opted the anti-tax cause. The result isn’t lower taxes or smaller government. The result is that Democrats use the power of the White House and Congress to push for bigger government, which Democratic constituents don’t bankroll. Thanks to Obama’s “Making Work Pay,” about half of American households will pay no federal income tax at all. Those families have every incentive to support bigger government, secure in the knowledge that only others will pony up.

Folks who aren’t likely to show up at the April 15 protests have benefited most from anti-tax fever.

Former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich has hit the airwaves to advocate for the Tea Party. When charlatans like Gingrich climb on the bandwagon, you should always check the wheels.

This is the same guy who, along with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, appeared in global-warming ads, and told Americans, “If enough of us demand action from our leaders, we can spark the innovation we need.” Now he’s leading a protest against proposed carbon taxes. He ping pongs from one side to the other like the American voter - for a cause, until it bears difficult consequences.

Tea Day organizers are telling supporters to send tea bags to Washington. You can sponsor a tea bag for $1. On the one hand, it’s great that citizens want to participate and let their views be known - as long as conservatives don’t equate their protest with that of patriots who risked it all for their revolutionary beliefs in pursuit of democratic representation.

The Tea Day’s list of woes includes the government wanting “to take your wealth and redistribute it.” Good, I just wish the list included tenets that call for some sacrifice or responsibility on the right. But the list does not call, as former Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer did in the Wall Street Journal Monday, for Congress to reject Obama’s pledge to decrease taxes for 95 percent of the country, out of the conviction that every American should pay income taxes.

I don’t like the new Obama programs either, but political leaders must recognize that someone is going to have to pay for them, and patriots can’t tout an agenda with no sacrifice.

The Secret Service says a suspicious package thrown over the fence and onto the White House’s North Lawn was not dangerous.

Tax protesters threw what appeared to be a box of tea bags toward the White House on Wednesday, prompting officials to lockdown the compound. The Secret Service also used a robot to inspect the package thrown in an apparent act of defiance meant to echo the rebellion of the Boston Tea Party.

Demonstrators said they disapproved of government spending since President Barack Obama took office. They organized protests across the country, including outside the White House.