Identify the source of this quote:
“Nicely packed, bagboy.”
The Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah?
Regards,
Shodan
They seem to have the bagging in hand, and do a good job. Each one seems to have their own system for laying the stuff out as they ring it up, for bagging. Like cold stuff in one pile, boxed stuff in another, delicate somewhere else. If I start grabbing items, I don’t think it would help much.
I used to do this to almost everyone who bought their own bags with them, just because those bags are a huge pain in the ass to deal with. I’m pretty sure every cashier and bagger out there hates them. The cloth bags are harder to pack and handle than the store’s own plastic bags, and there’s no hangers for them, so they’re more difficult to work with. The only reason stores sell them is so they can make more money while appearing to care about the environment. Which they don’t. Yet people hand them to you with this smug “I’m saving the planet!” expression on their face. Baggers get revenge the only way they can, load your bags up and hope they break while your putting them in your car, or mix your meat and soap, or put a bunch of heavy stuff on top of your fruit (bananas in particular bruise pretty easily). Offer to pack your own bags if you have some, it makes life so much easier. Smiling and trying to be nice, then forcing someone to deal with your pain in the ass bags is not going to make them think you’re less of an asshole.
As for bagging instructions, telling me to pack light or heavy was fine, anything else pissed me off. I generally tried to pack all the cold stuff together, soap in non-food bags, meat & ice cream by itself, etc. If you have more specific instructions than that, bag your own stuff.
I’m glad you have more luck with this than I do. I place a cloth bag between each set of things to be bagged in the given bags but the cashier just grabs all the bags and then doesn’t swipe the products in order either.
And the last time I said I would bag and took over, the cashier just stood staring at me (she didn’t have more customers waiting) until I finish. Uncomfortable! But if I don’t take over, I end up having to rebag everything later.
The standards I expect from a bagboy are very different than those I expect from a a lawyer, even though both are “paid professionals”. It’s like complaining because your Chicken McNuggets weren’t hot enough. You may have a legitimate complaint, but given the labor force at that job, what do you really expect?
Bin-packing, in fact. With somewhat different constraints.
Our store has baggers who circulate. If there is no one at our lane, I will bag, at least until a bagger shows up. What I can’t stand are the people who consider themselves too good to bag, so the rest of the line has to wait until the cashier can do it.
I’ve never had a problem with too much stuff in a bag, though the bags go into the cart to our car. I’d prefer fewer trips with heavier bags from car to driveway, but if I were walking I’m sure I’d care more about the balance. The cashiers put out the delicate things (like pie crusts) that come early so they can be put on top. But our store has a fair number of middle aged women as cashiers.
i generally walk or take the bus to the store, for me one heavier bag is easier than multiple light ones. i need one hand free to fend off hooligans, pat doggies, fend off greenpeace people, open doors, get on and off the bus, and the ilk.
at places where they bag, i just let them go at it, places where i bag i just pile it in the cart, pay the cashier, roll outside and put everything into the one bag the way i want it, roll the cart to the cart corrall and walk off.
backpacks do make things easier, but those huge ikea bags are amazing.
My first job was a bagger. I was 15 and it was the most mind numbingly tedious job I have ever had. the reason I, and many other baggers I assume, do this is because the only thing a teenage grocery bagger is thinking about is how many minutes are left until either his break or the end of the shift. The bagging part is on auto pilot
I expect far, far more than Apocalypso would give me.
And I get more, most of the time. He wouldn’t last a week in the store I shop at.
Just a data point. They don’t use baggers. The cashiers do their own bagging. My expectations of them are different from a teenager at the end of the counter.
I estimate that I’ve saved at least 10,000 plastic bags over the years. Not a big deal in and of itself, but there are 100,000,000 households in the country.
That doesn’t always work, unfortunately. I try to cluster my items (cleaning stuff together, cold/frozen stuff together etc) but the checkout person often foils me by reaching across items as I’ve placed them on the belt, to select something he/she thinks should go into the bag next.
We don’t have a different person bagging where I shop and it’s impossible for the shopper to do so him/herself, so vigilance is the only thing which keeps my washing powder from ending up with the bread.
The cloth bags I have all have a little loop on the top edge, and the cashiers hook that on the metal hanger on the holder for the plastic bags. Works just fine. It keeps the bag upright and open.
I think most stores do that as a way to prevent cross-contamination. They’re not supposed to pack non-food items (especially cleaning products or wasp spray) with the food. I know the Giant stores around here are pretty strict about separating things.
The cross-contamination issue is why I add that they will often put things like air freshener candles and laundry detergent each in their own bags. I mean, I can see not putting detergents or air fresheners in with food. But putting them together?
When the local chain Giant Food started this, quite a few years ago, they had leaflets that were handed out to customers, outlining the details. I remember that one of the points was that anything falling into the cleaning or poison-type category got its own bag. If you bought Windex and Cascade, they’d be bagged together, but not with anything else.
I mean, sure, candles and detergent can go in a bag together, but maybe it’s their policy to separate all the non-food items.
Maybe the clerk bagged the candle in its own bag to cushion it a bit? To keep the glass from chipping or cracking?
The only place I’ve ever shopped where the bagger did a great job AND smiled AND took the bags to my car AND never accepted a tip was Publix in Florida.
At least here in the midwest, I’ve never been expected to bag my own groceries. The stores I shop at either that those round bag carriers used by the cashiers or they have baggers at the end of the scanning belt to bag them.
I bring my own bags and seriously, it is not rocket surgery to learn how to properly bag groceries. I don’t blame the baggers. I do, however, blame the store for not providing proper training.
Barely. Plastic is still much easier. Much easier. Much faster too.
Another reason bags aren’t all evenly balanced is that speed is an issue. They’re trying to get people through the checkstand as fast as possible, taking the time to balance the bags slows the line down. Also, it’s not always obvious that there will be plenty bags to cover the whole cart of groceries, so stuff them as full as possible to make sure that as many of the groceries get into the cloth bags as possible. Sure, you can take the time to get an even distribution, but no one wants to slow down the line for this.
Grocery person checking in,
The reasons for getting your bag stuffed farther than what YOU think is neccessary are many:
-During a rush it is a BIG DEAL to run out of bags and have to go to the back room to get more. So stuffing the bags saves bags which saves time which kills a rush faster.
-You the customer haven’t said not to, so why not?
-Customers more often bitch about using too many bags (from packing light) than too many from packing heavy. Trust me on this.
-Customers often give shitty answers like “I don’t care…whatever!” when you politely enquire if they would like it bagged a certain way, I have also heard “It’s not MY job, do you want me to do your job FOR YOU!!!” when asking if a bag would be too heavy for their tastes. So consider this the next time your cashier at the grocery store acts like a drone…it’s due to the boringness of the job and the lack of human decency from the vast majority of the public.
-I have never, ONCE had a bag break on me, I know exactly how much weight is safe for the bags. IMO unless you have a physical disability where you can’t pick up the bag or you don’t look like a withered old lady, you should be able to pick up the bags. They aren’t that heavy, and if you want them light, JUST ASK!
Like some of the others, I tend to choose a middle aged woman if I’m at a store where the cashier does the bagging. I also do the thing of placing each bag with the group of groceries that goes into it.
Alas, sometimes none of this works. 
One store where I shop tends to hire middle aged and older men to bag. I’d rather have a high school kid. I have a pretty good eye for how much stuff I can get into the bags that I’ve brought with me, but these guys want to package the cloth bags like they would plastic ones. To top it off, once they’ve put a measly two items each into the cloth bags, they want to load up the rest in plastic. :smack:
Where the high school kids will usually follow my instructions of how to pack, the grown men just want to tell me that I don’t know how to pack groceries.
That’s OK, I just tell them that I’m their special challenge for the day. 
With one in particular, after our usual disagreement, he does do it my way and tells me to have a “blessed” day. :D:D
Where appropriate, I do bag my own. It usually saves time and hassle.
I can pick up most grocery bags, but I can’t pick up 2-liter bottles in bags. I don’t really have a disability, nor am I a withered old lady, but I have a bad shoulder. I don’t want the bottles in bags, I just want them in the cart. That way I can pick them up by the necks and put them in my car. I can’t tell you what kind of looks I get from the cashiers and baggers when I request this. They make me feel as if I’ve made the most outrageous demand they’ve ever heard.
I am a nice and pleasant person and I don’t make bossy demands, but I am very clear about what I want done in the checkout line. Nobody at my store seems to care. They’ll do it their way if nothing is said, but they don’t seem to mind instruction.
I shop once a week for a family of five — which includes two teens — and believe me, my cart is full. I get a lot of canned goods, bottles of juice and milk, half ‘n’ half, large yogurt tubs; in other words, heavy things. These I put on the belt first, so they’ll end up in the bottom of the cart after they’re bagged. That’s my bottom layer. It all goes in the back of my car or van, where I can redistribute with heavy stuff to one side or the bottom. I do not want each bag done with heavy/midweight/light … so I tell them! “Get all my heavy stuff in first, thanks!” It seems to make sense to them, and there’s this one cute teenage boy who totally gets it and if he’s working, I always go to him (at my store the checkers bag the stuff in a plastic-bag carousel). Second choice is a sensible looking woman.
I watch as all this is done and if something doesn’t meet my satisfaction, I just rearrange as I go. The couple things that do gripe me is nonchalance with my fruit (do NOT crush and manhandle my peaches, PLEASE!) and throwing cans into a sack. Place them upright in a group, please! All this, by the way, while keeping an eye on an active 5-year-old.
Speaking of the peaches, I have in fact said this to a cashier who was being a complete rough idiot: “Could you slow down and be careful please? This is my food and I’m going to be eating it this week.”