Nah, baggers in the US are provided as a service so that the customers and cashiers can focus on the finance transaction without having to slow up the line. Plus, not all customers are equal in speed when packing food, so having baggers on hand lends a consistent speed to the process. And, in addition to even that, should a bevy of the elderly or disabled hit the store during the day, help in carry-out can be provided without taking away other key grocery store employees.
Sure, baggers are expendable, but they can be useful, definitely. So, there isn’t any implication of grocery-bagging ignorance.
lezlers and even sven-just SHUT UP and let it go, already! You have both worked in customer service oriented jobs, so BOTH of you know what sucky customers are like!
Shit.
20 bucks an HOUR? You’ve got to be shitting me. The most I ever heard of anyone making was 8 bucks.
Look-not every person who doesn’t bag is a jerk. Okay? But those who do are ALWAYS appreciated and those who stand there the whole time and bark orders at you like the Grand High Poobah are usually cursed and bitched about back in the breakroom.
No one’s talking to you. Even sven was making out those who didn’t bag out to be the antichrist and I was letter her know that a good majority of the time it’s not out of vindictiveness. It’s called arguing an issue, you don’t like it, stay off the damn message boards. In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s what we do here.
And yes, 20 bucks an hour. I don’t kid. You don’t wanna believe it? Fine, don’t. Makes no difference to me. Doesn’t make it any less true though.
lezlers I don’t get the idea from Guin’s post that she doesn’t believe you (as in “You must not be telling the truth”) but more like “geez!!! wow!! Damn!!” like I’d be if told I’d won the lottery.
You know, the sucky customers didn’t nearly define my service-industry experiences. I can look back and remember far more good folks than jerks. The jerks that I can remember stand out more for the inadvertent humor they imparted more than any personal mental anguish they caused.
I can’t speak for lezlers, but I’m betting his/her experiences are similarly recalled.
[/hijack]
The reason I even made this hijack was to see if fundamental attitude towards service industry work is influenceing people’s opinion on bagging. Some take the stance that service workers are in a true hell-on-earth, and that patrons should conciously do all they can to spare perpetually on-edge service workers any further indignities. I am having trouble articulating the opposing viewpoint, but a part of it is that service workers are definitely not to be pitied merely because of their occupation.
I actually enjoy shopping; I go late at night - they are all open 24 hours - I like sniffing out a bargain or eyeing up the new products, or dreaming up new things I might do with this or that.
I don’t care who’s right-it’s just annoying to see them snapping back and forth. shrugs They both have valid points, in that some people are asses, but you also are expected to do your job.
And if you’re gonna bitch about it, expect some opposition. What are you, new?
I just think it’s hysterical when people tell others to stop fighting in the pit. If it’s irritating you so much, go visit IMHO or Cafe Society, or any other forum really.
wring,
Yeah, I think I may have taken that the wrong way. It was just the third “omigod 20 an hour??” comment I got. It’s really not that odd for a union cashier at a major grocery chain to make money like that. At least in this area.
Well, I don’t know where you live, but around here, 8 bucks an hour is about average. And I didn’t see even sven having a bad attitude about ALL customers.
Just remember that the next time you start bitching in tipping threads, mmkay?
Take a look at my location, it’s not written in code.
Yeah, even sven had that attitude about all customers who don’t bag their own shit while ignoring the explanations various posters were giving her about the reasons they sometimes don’t. She just kept insisting that the non-baggers were deriving some sick sadistic pleasure out of making her do her job.
And this shit has nothing to do with tipping. I’m not paying her for her service, via tip, so where’s the connection?
I gotta chime in…I work at Safeway in canada, and we have many cashiers making $17.20 an hour (that’s the top rate). I make $12.30 right now. The raises are around .50 to .75 every 500 hours worked. I believe the “top rates” for produce and grocery are around $18 - 20.
There’s also really no way for the customers to bag their stuff at our store…my manager wouldn’t like that anyway. I can bag it as fast as I scan it. (I’m really fast…some people at work purposefully go slow and it bugs me sometimes) The occasional offer to bag is appreciated, but refused.
But please, PLEASE empty your baskets and carts yourself, unless you’re disabled in some way.
Well then, I appologize if I was wrong. However, trust me, I did see some people who got a sick thrill out of running me RAGGED and being extra demanding.
Yeah, it’s my job-does that mean you get to be a fuckstick?
However, if something was too heavy for me to lift, I asked for help. “Here, I need to get that out of the cart-could you grab one end and I’ll get the other?” If someone had insisted I do it alone, is that not rude? I shouldn’t have to injure myself to do my job.
(However, no one ever refused.)
A question for Carl_A_Norris or any other Brit that cares to answer:
You’ve said that all customers routinely bag their own groceries in English groceries. Does that apply to other types of stores, too? I mean, if you buy some shirts and a half-dozen pairs of socks, does the clerk/cashier just enter the prices and leave the goods lying there for you to stuff into a bag by yourself?
I can’t think of a single ‘non-bagging’ type store here in America. In fact, even if you’re buying something like a single bottle of soda, you have to speak up quickly if you don’t want a bag.
Oh…just thought of an exception: news agents. It doesn’t matter how many papers or magazines you buy, they don’t bag them. OTOH, they don’t have bags, period, so you can’t bag your own unless you came prepared.
I work at a grocery store, and the majority of our baggers are not trained to run a register. A few are cross trained to fill in when things get busy, or we are shorthanded, or whatever. I’m not sure about other stores, but it may be the case for your local stores as well.
That said, I work in our store’s office, but I did my time as a cashier and still run a register once in awhile to fill in. I work in a store where we’re expected to do everything for the customer- bag, carryout, etc. etc. Customers bagging is very much frowned upon- not because they’re helping, obviously, but because we’re supposed to do it for them.
I don’t think people who don’t bag are jerks. They’re just used to having it done for them. It does help a cashier out if a customer bags- the issue is not our hourly rate, but getting that customer out quickly, as well as the people waiting in line behind them. However, I don’t expect it of them. If they don’t do it, then I just do my best to bag it up as quickly as possible.
Just another service worker’s perspective…YMMV.
Hijack, but this reminded me of a cashier in my old supermarket. I would go with my roomate, we’d buy a good sized cart full of food at a time, he paid, I bagged. No joke, even as a dedicated, motivated, bagger, I could not keep up with this woman. Cans, boxes, produce, the works would come flying down the belt at a furious pace. Bagging as fast as I could, there would still be a pile left over after my roomie paid.
Watching her, it looked like all she was doing was transferring the products from one belt to the other, with no thought to scanning at all, yet every product scanned… How often do you run into a cashier who’s skill still impressed you 5 years after moving away?
Hey that’s part of being in a service business ASSHOLE (enough of the stupid SD profanity already). Sorry if life dealt you a shitty hand and you find yourself bagging groceries for $5.50 an hour. People are going to come into the store and be pissed off about work or the kids or shit that has nothing to do with you. They are going to be in a hurry or no hurry at all and sit there reading the Enquirer while you ring up their stuff. Some will be helpful. Some won’t. Some of them are not going to know every procedure for using coupons or food stamps or they are going to fumble with shit for an hour because they are old. Doesn’t matter though because YOUR JOB is to serve them and be PLEASENT about it.
If that’s too much for you, ask to be transfered to the stockroom.
Now is there an actual answer (as in store policy) as to what we shoppers are SUPPOSED to do? I always went under the assumption that once I place my groceries on the counter, they are in the possession of the cashier until they are bagged and returned to the cart.
Whatever. Be offended.
Juniper200, Cerri, Esprix - You may also continue to feel offended if you like. Or learn how to express yourself more eloquently than “Fuck You”.
No one is talking about people running you ragged and being extra demanding. They’re talking about bagging groceries. I don’t think anyone would argue that a customer who is intentionally making you run back and forth is an ass. Thing is, that’s not what this thread is about.
How am I being a fuckstick when I’m watching the items on the screen vs. rushing behind the counter to bag my own groceries?
Of course no one’s refused. You’ve got to be a real dick to do that. Again, not what this thread is about. This thread is about the customer doing something without being asked in circumstances where it’s not normally required, nor expected.
Oh, and thanks, Alexxandra and Second Star to the Right for your posts.
Funny how the only people on this thread who’ve actually worked in a grocery store are the ones who aren’t getting all huffy about customers not bagging their own shit.
