I think I’m gonna have to start bagging my own. Because the baggers never listen to me. I say “Paper bags, and as few as possible.” I follow with 'Fill them up to the top."
Do they do this? No. They half-fill them, at best
It’s almost as if they get a bonus for how many bags they go through. Pretty soon, they’ll give each item it’s own friggin’ bag. Sometimes I refuse the bag altogether. If I’m only buying 2 items, then I don’t need a bag. I tell them this, and they put it in a bag anyway. I take it out of the bag, leaving the bag on the stand. “The fewer bags I have, the happier I am”, I say as I leave.
I never allow B&N or anyone else who’s selling me a small item to bag it; I think it’s extremely wasteful and the damn thing always ends up littering up my car/kitchen/wastebasket anyway. I’ve had cashiers try to bag my cigarettes, for God’s sake…in a bag so huge that I’d be lucky to find them again.
And I’m gonna go with raisinbread about bagging your own at the grocery store. Half the time the store doesn’t have any designated baggers, so the stuff doesn’t get bagged til after I’ve already paid for it, b/c the cashier’s too busy ringing it in, taking my money, etc…and I don’t know, but there’s something about watching someone bag all my groceries while I just stand there, doing nothing…it’s a bit too “Grand Lady Of Leisure” for me. No one has ever complained, or told me to stop, or looked uncomfortable…the only thing the cashier’s ever done is flash me a grateful smile for helping her out.
And seriously, Stofsky, do you think the grand amounts of cash you throw around your local grocery store means you can’t lend a hand to a backlogged cashier? Have a heart. Everybody could use a little extra help and consideration now and again.
I don’t ask the kid at the grocery store to check the database at work. He can bag my groceries.
I live in suburban Chicago, and shop at Jewel. They hire mentally challenged people to do the shagging and bagging. They earn an honest living, have lots of social contact, and have something they can take pride in. Who am I to deprive them of that?
I never fling carts helter-skelter in the parking lot. Always use the corral. Always.
If the store is crowded and the place is short on baggers, I will certainly bag my own if there isn’t anyone available. This is a courtesy to the people in line behind me. I have never gotten a dirty look…in fact, I usually get a thank you. Often, when the bagger finishes with a different customer, they’ll come over and finish the job. The baggers aren’t always available at the places I shop, because they help the elderly, people with lots of kids, and people with huge orders to load the groceries in their cars.
I then go to the parking lot, unload my cart, and return it to the proper location by pushing as hard as I can, hopping on the back and yelling Wheeeeeee! much to the chagrin of my wife and kids.
In my immediate area, there’s a grocery store about every half mile so you get lots of choice about where to shop. I can shop at the super discount grocery with no frills, and where you have to bag your own groceries or they’ll just sit there forever. I also can choose the nicer, upscale grocery where I know the prices are higher but the service and selection is better.
If I go to the discount grocery, I’ll bag my stuff because I know that’s part of the deal and I had a choice. But I when I go pay higher prices at the other store, I expect somebody to bag my groceries because that’s part of the deal they offered to get my business. They offer good service, I’ve paid for it, and I’ll gladly stand there with my hands in my pockets and watch someone bag my stuff. Don’t feel the least bit like a bastard.
Of course, there is the occasional time when the grocery store is way overbusy and the baggers are all elsewhere, and there’s a line of people behind me. In that case, sure, I’ll start helping out with the bagging just to keep things moving. No big deal.
But on a normal basis, I don’t feel bad about expecting people to do the job I’m paying them to do. Small job, big job – doesn’t matter.
And the grocery store where I shop employs a lot of mentally handicapped people as baggers, so no, the impatient jerkwad in line behind me isn’t going to intimidate me into grabbing my groceries and shoving them into bags quicker than the slow bag boy can. I’d get out of your way faster, but how does that make the kid feel about his job?
If I chose to go to a full service gas station and pay $2.10 per gallon for gas because I didn’t want to pump it myself that day, should I jump out of the car and do it myself (and still pay for full service) just because you’re next in line and want me to get the fuck out of the way?
I suggest you shop at the discount groceries where everybody bags their own, and that way you can scream “HURRY!” at the customers in front of you to expedite your own transaction.
There’s a difference between what you “have to do” and what you “should do if you want to avoid being a total anus.”
You can certainly wait for whomever to bag your stuff while you stand idly by (a right that our ancestors FOUGHT and DIED for), but if you don’t help out when/if you can, then you, plain and simple, are a testicle tumor.
Here’s a little game. How many bags does it take to bag the folowing:
1 package of chicken thighs, 1 gallon of milk, 1/2 gallon orange juice, 3 bananas, 1 pint ice cream, 1 carton of eggs.
1 bag? If I was bagging my own.
2 bags? Proabably about right.
3 bags? Getting a bit excessive.
4 bags? I hear the environment starting to weep…
But not if you’re a Jewel Foodstore TM employee. In that case you need to use NINE friggin’ bags to get these 6 items safely home.
Cause the chicken thighs have to be wrapped in a bag and put into their own bag. Milk gets its own bag. Ooops, the milk weighs more than 2 ounces. Better double bag it. Ditto for the OJ. Bananas and ice cream get to share a bag, but wait… wouldn’t want them to actually touch, so we better wrap the ice cream in a bag. Eggs, being the delicate flowers that they are, get their own bag.
And I would bag my own if I had the opportunity. But I’m not taking my eye off the scanner/register for one moment, because on almost every trip something scans for higher than the advertised price.
Err… the grocery stores I go to, the checkout person swipes the item across the disco laser thing and then puts it in a bag. They’re on a little contraption right there. To bag my own, I’d have to take them from her hand, and then put them in the bag that is right next to her hand.
JRoot… So when you pay for a service, you always try to do it yourself? Do you pay the exterminator to come to your house and then say “Hey, give me that stuff. I can spray it faster than you can”? Do you go to the Jiffy Lube for an oil change and jump down in the pit to do it yourself? After all, you’re a total anus if you sit in the waiting room and read Sports Illustrated while you wait for somebody else to do it, right?
Do you go to McDonald’s, order some fries, and then just walk behind the counter to grab them? Why not? Don’t tell me you actually stand there like a testicle tumor and just wait for someone to bring them to you! The fries are only a few feet away from you!
Ever had a job where the customer tries to “help” you as you’re doing your best to get the job done right in front of your boss? You seem to think you’re some kind of angel for putting the Cheerios in a bag, but the guy who gets paid to do that might not agree.
I’m in england, and the cashier scans the groceries, and then slides them to a flat area where you can bag them. Sometimes there’s a bagger, but I feel stupid standing like a lemon watching someone else bag my groceries. (Though I’d feel more stupid asking them to watch me do it.)
Did I read right in that some places the cashier bags? Surely that’s slower? I suppose we all get used to what normally happens where we live.
Not grocery related, but I bought 4 ceramic bowls and 2 ceramic coffee cups from Pier One the other day. As I lifted the bag by the handle, the handle came completely off the bag. It didn’t rip off, it just came off, no tears or anything. Thank god I had already grabbed it by the bottom or I would have had broken all of my new stuff.
That happens with grocery bags too. I see the kid putting item after item in the bag and then visibly strain to put it in my cart. Never does it cross his little pea brain that if it’s too heavy for him, it just might be too heavy for me. Not to mention, I don’t enjoy having a bag of shit spilled all over the steps to my apartment.
Yes, do it yourself. It is much better than trying to explain this to the bagger.
I rarely get to bag my own these days, unless i’m using the automated check out system they just installed. My place has the ‘bag as you scan’ system for the cashier.
It does irritate me to just watch someone stand around and do nothing while others wait. It just has this 'I’m too important to bag groceries" feel to it, as if they are royalty and the cashier their humble servant.
Shade: It goes quickly. Same speed as putting it on the counter, really. The bags come off a little dispenser that holds the one on the end open, so they just plop the stuff in there, and then when it’s full, they pull it off, toss it in your cart, and the next bag is ready to go. They usually pull things off the conveyor in an order so that they can scan things that get bagged together.
It has been a while since I’ve seen dedicated baggers at a grocery store.
In my local supermarket, the bagger (if there is one) does a fine job of completely blocking my access to the empty bags. So even if I wanted to, I couldn’t easily bag.
OTOH, the people who go to a cashier without a bagger, and then force the cashier to bag everything and slow the line down, they should rot.
Not picking on you specifically, but on this general concept. How on earth can you tell who is a testicle tumor and who is not? I do not and usually cannot bag my groceries because of my back. I look young and healthy. So am I an asshole because I LOOK fine enough to bag and don’t? I’m just wondering. I know not everyone has a medical issue and some people are lazy fucks, but how can you (collective) tell the difference and know who to get mad at? Or is it easier to just be pissed and not worry about those kinds of things?
No, guess you can’t tell who is not bagging for valid reasons and who is just stubborn. And I’m sure that many supermarket clerks harbor ill will towards customers that actually can’t bag their own groceries, just because they don’t know that they can’t. It shouldn’t happen, but it does because we all (people, that is) make plenty of unfortunate assumptions. But I wasn’t really saying that if you’re not bagging, you deserve to deal with someone’s anger. Even if you’re refraining for no good reason, then you’re just being a jerk; a good clerk should still not treat you like one.
And in response to GregAtlanta:
First of all, those were poor examples. In those situations, you couldn’t do the job without training, the professional does not want you to jump in and do their job for them, or the system is clearly set up to keep you from doing so.
Bagging your groceries meets none of those criteria. Little training is required to put things into a bag (although I do wonder if there’s a secret to separating and opening the plastic bags that are stuck in a huge lump on the rack), I guarantee you that store clerks and their bosses would not mind if you helped them out while they were doing other things (such as ringing up the customers behind you), and the bags and items are right there in front of you. Checkout lines were clearly designed so that you can do things to your items while you are standing there.
So I stand by my judgment. If you are prepared to do some of the bagging, and there is not someone else keeping you from doing it, and you don’t, then you are a jerk.
I usually won’t bag my own groceries. I like to watch the prices as my groceries are scanned. About once a month I catch a wrong price or the cashier codes a veggie wrong. By the time the groceries are rung up and I have paid then either a bagger or the cashier is already bagging the groceries. At that point I feel like I just get in the way if I try to help and it is quicker if I just let them do their job. They are much better at bagging groceries then I am.
For me that would take at least three bags. More likely four. The chicken has to go in it’s own bag. I don’t like my raw meat to touch my other food. You can’t put 1 gallon of milk, 1/2 gallon of OJ and ice cream in just one bag. The bags are too flimsy and will certainly break while I am trying to walk up my stairs causing my OJ to roll under my front porch. Perhaps I should use paper bags, but I find the plastic bags very useful around the house.
Shit. If I wanted to bag my own groceries, I’d go to the discount supermarket where one is required to do that. I choose to pay a bit more because I don’t wanna bag 'em and I’m willing to pay extra for that service. I also never use the self-scan lanes—even if I’m only buying a couple items. The rest of you can just wait your goddamned turn. If you’re in such a hurry, that it’s a major inconvenience to wait a few lousy minutes while my groceries are bagged, you should have planned your day little better. As for helping out the bagger, he can get right on the next guy in line behind me, since I don’t have him push the cart out to my car.
Maybe I should wash my shirts before taking them to the cleaners to be pressed, too? That’d save those busy, underpaid folks a few minutes labor. Bullshit. I’m paying for a service and I expect to receive it.
Can I repeat my statement that I and other clerks I knew in high school would have gotten in trouble had we let customers bag their own? Look around the store; if other customers are bagging their own, then do it. If none are, just let the girl do her job.
Have a heart. Everybody could use a little extra help and consideration now and again.