Do you think that you have an obligation to bag your own groceries at the supermarket?
The grocery store I go to does have baggers, however many times there is not a bagger at the register I am at. This means that the cashier bags them all, or I help out and bag some as well.
I figure that the wages for the baggers is figured into the price of the products, so why should I have to bag my own groceries?
(Note that even though I feel this way, I am a pushover and end up helping to bag my own groceries anyway )
Well, if you don’t want to, you don’t have to. The person working the register will bag them for you, so it isn’t forced. It would be considerate of others in line behind you, however, to speed up the process by beginning the bagging yourself.
A better debate might be: “Am I a bad person because I always get my groceries paper in plastic.” I keep waiting for some environmentalist to yell at me in the supermarket, but it hasn’t happened yet
It depends on where you go. Here in NoVa, we have Giant, Trader Joe’s, Fresh Fields, and Shopper’s Food Warehouse (There’s also Harris Teeter, but I don’t shop there.) The first three stores are fairly pricy, and thus the cashiers bag the groceries for the customer. At Shopper’s the prices are much lower, and the customer is expected to bag his/her own groceries.
When I go to one of the national chain supermarkets (Kroger, Farmer Jacks), I usually throw my stuff in bags if there is no bagger. I don’t feel like waiting for the sloth-speed cashier to get to it.
I generally shop at local farmer’s markets, bakeries, butchers, etc. It costs a tad more, but the quality and service are far better then at the supermarkets. But at 2AM (when I get off work usually) I don’t have much of a choice.
So…I don’t think that you are obligated to bag your own groceries, but in the name of expediency at the big places, go for it.
Well, I must say, as a Swede, the fact that you have people who actually bag your groceries for you seems somewhat odd.
Now, if you were to demand that they bag your groceries for you, and they didn’t provide the service, even if they demonstrate that they will do so, then I would see it as “breach of contract” (and I mean this is a non-technical non-lawyer term, they claim they would do smth but didn’t). But if you didn’t request that someone bag them, the easiest way would be to just bag the groceries yourself, and spare everyone else some trouble. So if you didn’t request it, I would say you’ve passed up your chance and should bag the things yourself.
/Bom
who has never had anyone else bag his groceries, but wouldn’t mind it
The grocery store is presumably saving a little money on labor by not having baggers available at all times. I do not know whether these savings are passed on to you, the consumer, in the form of lower prices, or are realized in other ways, such as more help in the aisles or a cleaner store or some other benefit, but let’s just assome that no bagging help means lower prices–but I do not think that the situation is as black and white as you imply in the OP.
You have to chose from a spectrum of different grocery-store bagging strategies:
When encountering the third situation, you have several options. You can pitch a fit and wait for an employee to bag your groceries for you, which, although it makes you look like a first-class tool, is certainly your right, since the store has offered this service for free in the past, and it really shouldn’t matter what time you go to the store. Or you can accept this inconvenience as a reasonable trade-off for lower prices and bag your own. Or you can decide that the stress of having to bag your grocieries, and the unbearable empty feeling of not knowing whether your grocieries will be bagged for you or not is too high a price to pay, and go to a different store.
You must ask yourself, is bagging a priority for you?
Aside from cut-rate or “super discount” places, I don’t know anywhere that you would need to ask to get your groceries bagged. The cashier will always do it if no stock clerk is around.
OTOH, like Eve, I always bag my own unless there is some likely lad standing at the end of the counter grabbing my stuff off the conveyor. I’m faster. I stack things better. I get out of the way of the next customer faster than if they have to wait for my groceries to be bagged.
As a former bagger, i’d say, yes, yes you are!! At least you aren’t that “Double paper in double plastic, put everything in one bag but don’t make it heavy” moron i had back in Rock Island.
here in NZ most supermarkets have done away with the idea of packers. sure a few still have them, but its mostly the checkout op who packs.
the checkout set up is design so that as one hand scans the item the other is putting another in the bag. customers couldnt help pack even if they wanted to because the product doesnt have a chance to stand anywhere they could get to it.
the whole paper plastic debate is also a non issue… its plastic or nothing. actually some places will pack your product straight back into your trolley and its up to you to do what you want with it.
It’s worth mentioning that, in many places in Europe, not only are you expected to bag your own groceries, you’re expected to provide your own bags, too. If you don’t, and need the store to give you bags, they’ll charge you for them. It certainly encourages recycling.
At SAMS they don’t even give you a bag. And…on top of that they charge you to shop there. They have some items that are considerably cheaper but most of their products are priced in line with other stores.
I’ll let the cashier or stockperson or whomever do it nearly every time. I’m not as good as they are - I’m the kind of dimwit who’ll put the bread on the bottom and the ice cream on top, the hot foods with the cold foods, and so on. They have experience, and most of the ones I get are pretty fast - again, much faster than I would. (I remember seeing a champion bagger on the Tonight Show once. Man!)
Then again, I usually go when the lines are the longest, so there are rarely people behind me.
Here in Japan (where I live, anyway, although I guess most places are the same) there are bagging stations away from the checkout, and you have to bag your stuff yourself.
Also, the cashier decides how many bags you need; she (mostly always she) will give you your bags, and you take everything to the bagging station and pack them up yourself.
If you take your own bag, many supermarkets will give you vouchers for being environmentally sound.
I like this system. There is less plastic trash to deal with, and I get a freebie too.
However, it IS appreciated. People who just stand there and watch as I bag, on a busy day, with lines out to the back of the store, with a huge order, and complain that it’s taking too long do NOT get my sympathy.
Oh-however, if you don’t want to bag your own grocceries, or you have back problems, I won’t get upset! I’m just talking about the people who act snooty when there aren’t any baggers. This isn’t a problem at Kmart, so much as it was when I worked at grocery store.
If the store doesn’t have a separate place for the customers to bag their own groceries, then the store needs to act in its own best interest to keep the line moving by having groceries rung up and bagged simultaneously. Nothing irrates me more than standing in line to give someone money.
Of course the baggers they hire are clueless and think the job is several stations below them [but I guess that is a Pit thread.]
I recycle paper bags and notice a double bag will usually last 4 or 5 trips to the store.
If I am with my husband, I bag while he pays. If I am alone, I help bag, but sometimes the cashier gets it done before I am finished paying using the card reader machine thingie.
Never would have occured to me not to help bag. But I guess a lot of people don’t, because the cashier usually thanks me for doing it.
I would say that it is not an obligation for the customer to help. It is part of the cashier’s job to do it. But I think it’s really jerky not to help unless you have a good reason.
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