When at the checkout at the grocery, I’m still trying to figure out the best strategy for the order of the items I place on the belt in an effort to make it optimally efficient for the bagger and register employees.
When placing items on the belt, do put all your cold things together? All your light and fluffy things together? Heavy things first or last?
I put heavy non-refrigerated things first because they make a layer or area that it is safe to put other things on top of.
Big soda/water bottles, canned goods
Cleaning products/other non-food
Cardboard-boxed
Refrigerated
Frozen
Produce
Delicates like bread, eggs, chips
I still put them into these categories in roughly this order even though I just put it all back in the cart with no bags. No bags and my reloading (or self-checkout) has cured me of the frustration of the checker looking at my carefully divided stuff and picking willy-nilly from it.
Cleaning and non-food (e.g. toilet paper) go together.
Frozen/cold stuff goes together.
Chicken, fish, meat together.
Fruit & veg together.
Bread, eggs and anything fragile go last.
Do it the way it’ll get bagged!!
Some heavy, some light.
Repeat…
And do batches of boxed items; cereal, crackers, etc.
Save any fragile items for last; eggs, bread.
Never place glass jars/bottles next to each other on the belt. They will wind up in the same bag banging together and possibly breaking.
Same goes for containers of juice, milk or anything else with sharp corners. If you have more than one in a bag it will tear a hole for sure.
Any alcohol goes on first.
The cashiers around here all seem to be in the 18-24 YO range and it’s hard to tell who can check out alcohol and who can’t. If you put it on first and they can’t check it out they’ll call for help and then go about checking the rest of your stuff while someone comes over. Ft it’s at the back of the belt you have to stand there holding up the line while the cashier twiddles her thumbs and we all wait for someone.
When I check people out, I’ll usually try to get all the cans and jars first. I’ll put the non-food items in a little pile by themselves to be bagged, hopefully, together. Big bulky items I’ll set aside or even on the floor if the order is particularly large. I’ll try to get the eggs and bread, marshmallows, etc together. Whether the bagger will actually bag them that way is a crap shoot.
I vote self check out. Gets rid of the middleman/woman/boy/girl and my stuff gets bagged just like I want it!
Freezer and refrigerator food together for easier unloading at home. Gallons of milk, large soda bottles, paper towels, TP go last. I never seem to bring in enough recyclable bags, and I hate when they get filled with the big stuff, then the smaller stuff is loaded precariously into plastic bags. Most of the larger items don’t need bags so I don’t bring home too many that way, either.
I keep the cold stuff together and the non-cold stuff together. That’s it. Makes it easier for me to unload into the fridge when I get home.