Are your arms broken?
Do you not understand the simple concept behind “don’t put the eggs under heavy items”?
Are you just that damned lazy?
Do you enjoy standing in line waiting for someone to do an anachronistic job for you that you can do yourself?
Bag your own groceries. You seem healthy enough and intelligent enough to hold down a job which enables you to afford your groceries.
You pump your own gas, don’t you? Why don’t you bag your own groceries? Perhaps the bagger should hitch a ride home with you and help carry the items into your house so you don’t strain yourself.
Yes, it’s petty to get irritated by a strapping young man waiting for some harried high school girl to pack his hundred and twenty dollars of groceries never lifting a damned finger to help or even speed up the process but are you that fucking lazy and useless?
I think I get the gist, but what exactly happened?
The guy was lazy. He didn’t bag his own. Twenty minutes to bag everything while he stood there doing absolutely nothing or playing pocket pool.
I just wish more people would bag their own groceries, it’s not that hard and I know when I bag my own (I never had a job of a grocery bagger) that unpacking everything goes smoother since I know which to unpack and where to put it and the line moves quicker.
If I go to Barnes & Noble and buy a $8 paperback, they put it in a bag for me. If I go to the crap-ass jewelry store in the mall and buy a pair of tin earrings for my daughter for $2.94, they put it in a bag. If I buy one can of beer at the convenience store for $0.85, they put it in a bag (well, it’s a brown paper bag, but that’s another story). Why then, if I’m spending $120, should I bag it myself?
Because you slow it down for everybody else. Not that there should be an expectation of speed when you’re in anything but the express lane, but it’s the courteous thing to do if there’s no dedicated bagger and a line of people behind you.
The OP didn’t specify that there wasn’t a dedicated bagger, though. Though I’m surprised that it could take 20 minutes to bag any amount of groceries - if the bagger was that damned slow I probably would push him or her out of the way and bag them myself.
It’s courteous, certainly, but by no means to be expected. And even though he was “strapping,” there is always the chance that he had a bad back.
As a former grocery clerk peon, I am shocked that it took 20 minutes to scan and pack a mere $120 worth of groceries. That girl didn’t know what she was doing.
Hell, I only shop att he discount place that doesn’t take credit or debit cards . . . and requires I bag my own groceries.
In so doing I save approximately $40 a month for a family of three.
So there, too.
Let’s see - I can keep an eye on my purchases as they’re scanned to make sure the prices are right, then I can write my check or swipe my card, or I can stand where I can’t do either of these things and bag my groceries.
Decisions, decisions…
I occasionally try to help bag my own groceries, especially if I’m buying a lot of food. When I do I get mean looks from the checker.
Maybe I just don’t bag right. Nothing gets crushed anyway.
This has been brought up here before, but since no one has mentioned it in this thread yet: Some places would prefer that you do NOT bag your own groceries. I don’t know why, but I do know that as a grocery clerk in high school, I would have gotten into trouble had a customer bagged his or her own groceries. My manager would have taken it as me not doing my job. And, no, we didn’t have baggers.
From what I can tell of groceries in my town, our store’s policy was not unusual.
lard2000, I missed your post. It is possible that the checkers are taking it as you implying that they aren’t doing their jobs properly or fast enough.
I was thinking of writing this rant on the way home tonite.
When your groceries are all rung up. When they have been totaled and you have your amount to pay in hand/pocket/grubby little paw. When there is no bagger. When you do NOT have a physical condition such as a bad back, osteoporosis, arthritis that requires you to refrain from physical activity for fear of exacerbating said condition OR makes bagging difficult or painful. If you do not bag your groceries YOU ARE LAZY .
These are the same people who leave the grocery cart in the middle of the fucking parking lot because ’ the corral is too far away’ (read maybe two lines of parked cars.) No, you are not going to put someone out of a job by walking 5 extra yards. I have said this to my husband, and to my mother in law. If they don’t want to do it, I will - I need the bloody exercise anyways.
Yes, you paid 120 dollar FOR THE GROCERIES. Why does that mean you should inconvenience everyone else who might be behind you? Would it KILL you to make a grocery clerk’s night a whit easier?
Jesus.
Hmm, working at a discount retailer, no one helps me to bag any merchandise. What the fuck is your problem if you can’t quickly scan and bag groceries? Bad training, lack of motivation, or an inefficeint setup? Yes, you make shit for money. So do I. I call it being in college, and try to take it for what it is. Don’t expect the customer to go out of his or her way to do something that EVERY OTHER RETAILER DOES FOR THEM.
Cripes.
Whoa, this is a surprise. Bagging my own groceries never even occured to me. I can’t recall ever seeing someone do this, or even being in a store where it was possible to do without crawling back there with the cashier. Not that I would mind, some of those checkout girls are rather cute.
Am I the only one who has never bagged their own groceries? I thought I was Mr. Courteous by carefully arranging my food by category on the conveyor to make it easier to bag.
All this time I had no idea that I was a total bastard.
At most of the places I do my grocery shopping, the cashier scans the item and then bags it. They don’t really have a place for you to bag your own groceries. Hell, the only place I shop at that would let me bag my own groceries also lets me scan them myself.
Of course, I remember going to a Eukrops that actually had people whose job it was to push the cart to your car and help you load the groceries in the trunk. That always made me feel a little awkward, especially since they weren’t allowed to accept tips.
That’s where being a little old lady would come in handy – hand them a pocketful of change and whisper, “Don’t tell your mother.” 
I always bag my own groceries, if for no other reason than that if I let the bagger do it, it always ends up in five plastic bags rather than one backpack, one cloth bag, and possibly a paper sack. The only time I let someone else pack my groceries is if I’m having them delivered.
Well, I shop at Co-Op, which, apparently, is like Eukrops.
There’s a person to scan, 2 people to bag (one on the express lane), and a person to take the cart out to your car for you, and load the stuff into the trunk.
If you try to tip, they say “No, no.”
Frankly, my pityful, fumbling attemts to bag my own groceries would just slow the line down at my place - the Bag Boys are like automotons. It’s very impressive.
Did I forget to mention that at the end of every year they send me a cheque for about $65 - my dividends for being a “part owner” in the company, apparently.
I love Co-Op. (Their produce rocks too!)
There’s No E in Ukrop’s - the Finest Grocery Store on Earth! 
I wish they’d open one down here, I’m stuck with Farm Fresh and Food Lion, bleah.
Where I shop (a commissary) the baggers work for tips only. I think they might get a bit miffed if I bagged them myself. At any other store I usually only get one or two bags full, so by the time I’m done with the debit card machine the clerk has them done.