TEXT OF STORY

LISA NAPOLI: Is it paper or plastic for you at the supermarket? I'm not talking about bags, but how you pay for those groceries. Rachel Dornhelm reports.

---

RACHEL DORNHELM: A new study finds 54 percent of consumers use debit cards at the supermarket.

Cash comes in next at 20 percent. Major credit cards and checks follow.

Greg Flemming is with Lightspeed Research which did the survey.

GREG FLEMMING: Consumers like debit cards and credit cards because they're more convenient. Banks actually like consumers to use debit cards and credit cards because it's an electronic transaction.

But the trend doesn't check out so well with the grocery industry.

A spokesman with the Food Marketing Institute says while the electronic transactions may be a little faster, they do ring up fees.

And he says those are absorbed by supermarkets — and consumers.

I'm Rachel Dornhelm for Marketplace.