People who don't bag their own groceries are the most irredeemable scoundrels

What is this improbable un-American fairy-land??

We have Aldi here in Chicago, and you have to buy bags — but groceries are super cheap.

i'm not reading this thread because obviously but publix has baggers so it's all cool, more jobs and such -- you aren't allowed to tip them tho

I think I started bagging my own foodz only in NY because the baggers ALWAYS have a bowl out for tips, and I always kind of got the impression that it was an "extra" service and if I let them help me, I would be obligated to tip, and I would just rather not enter into that social contract for additional money, if that's okay...?

If I'm in a restaurant and see my food waiting on the counter, I usually give the waiter a break and just go get it myself. I know where the condiments are and everything.

Why make that couple who just walked in wait to order just because I'm too lazy to get up and get something myself?

'cause waiting in line in the supermarket is just as much fun as sitting in a restaurant. hmmm wonder what supermarket line i will visit with my s.o. next valentine's day?

one of those aldi's is opening up near my office. wtf is it.

I intentionally buy large and awkward items because I enjoy seeing them struggle. Is it cruel? Perhaps.

cheap off brand goods xp

Waiting for food in a restaurant can be more annoying than waiting in line at the grocery store. Maybe not on St. Freaking Valentine's Day, but on a lunch break, sure.

I pretty much don't trust checkout people to bag my shopping properly, last time I tried it I ended up with someone half-arsedly chucking several bottles of wine on top of a box of eggs.

is this aldi stuff quality?

I have absolutely nothing to say on this topic.

But if the fake posters from the "super-ILXor" thread actually started their own threads, this would be one of them.

I'm super-concerned with price accuracy as well; I've learned to strategically sequence my items on the conveyor belt so that even the most idiotic, thoughtless cashier can stack things correctly.

Yeah I put the heavy stuff at the front and save the light but bulky and/or fragile items for last. But a cashier can still let things accumulate at the end and grab any old item.

In most UK shops/supermarkets you bag your own shopping, but if the cashier bags the items as they scan them I let them, otherwse I'm just getting in their way

(I have no car so I am generally only buying at most 2 bagfuls of shopping anyway, in which case there isn't much room for multitasking)

Aldi is v good for stereotypically German things such as cured meats and chocolate imo. but I am not buying fresh veg there again after last time I bought a broccoli which was full of mystery dead bugz which I didn't notice when I washed it

People who use the self-checkout stands for an entire cartload of groceries are even more irredeemable scoundrels, IMO.

I use Aldi for really cheap cereal and pasta stuff, have never bought fresh things from them. I think it varies from store to store though — the one closest by me is kind of dingy-looking, but there's another one on the north side of town that looks like Ikea for food.

Figures this thread would start with a smug Trader Joe's shopper.

At my local grocery if you bag your own they stop you and say "that's what I'm here for."

This dilemma seems totally foreign to me. At the stores I go to, either a bagger is expected at the end of the lane, or there will be a bagging apparatus on a carousel right next to the register, so that the cashier can easily bag the items during the scanning process. In my travels, this seems to be the general way of the modern American grocery store. I don't have a Trader Joe's near me, so maybe they are late to the 21st Century in terms of grocery bagging technology/practices?

Also, as a former teenage grocery bagger, I can assure you that tips are just not part of the equation. Not only are they not expected, but in many cases the store's policy will be to encourage baggers to turn them down if they are offered. Where I worked (a prominent national chain), accepting gratuities was a punishable offense.

The local Walmart tried self-check stands for a year but the combination of scales that couldn't be kept working and the undereducated who constantly needed help using them (cancelling out much of the payroll cost savings) ended that experiment.

Walmart cracks me up because their express lanes are for "25 Items or Less".

It should be "…or Fewer", but I'm not even going to get started on that right now.

the aldi they just put up here is smack dab in the absolute worst part of town.

People in a hurry = worst of the savages. You're alive, you have the privilege of shopping in a grocery store with fresh food and all, maybe take a klonopin before you go shop or something

every Aldi I've seen has been in cracktown xp

I admire any chain that gives the worst parts of town an actual grocery store to shop in.

lol i must live in the worst part of town

xps: I miss the hell out of my WalMart. I would have thought given the working-class skew to my neighborhood that there would have been a Wal-Mart less than a 30-minute drive away, but no. There's a K-Mart, which is like a Wal-Mart but the merchandise tends to be seriously substandard. Then there's a Target not far away which is great, but that's not a Wal-Mart either.

The local Walmart tried self-check stands for a year but the combination of scales that couldn't be kept working and the undereducated who constantly needed help using them (cancelling out much of the payroll cost savings) ended that experiment.

Ours still has them but I have the feeling they'll be gone soon. In the defense of the undereducated, they are not very intuitive and are a big hassle if you're buying a lot of fruits or vegetables. Plus, it seems like it would be pretty easy to cheat them.

This is usually my favorite part of shopping at Kroger on Saturday:

EMPLOYEE: Attention, everybody! We have three stations open with no waiting in our self-service aisle!
CUSTOMERS: [continue to stare straight ahead.]

xpost -- oh yeah, I could always make note of the PLU# of a cheaper variety of apples or whatever and take the Bentonville billionaires for a few cents per trip

so you stole from the market

the aldi here is in the projects.

oh wait, I got my verb tense wrong -- I meant to say "I could have made note..."

haha, okay. i just thought it seemed out of character.

::whistles tunelessly, walks to car with apples::

macintosh under your hat

http://www.phlmetropolis.com/2011/02/by-roz-warren-bagging-your.php

At the stores I go to, either a bagger is expected at the end of the lane, or there will be a bagging apparatus on a carousel right next to the register, so that the cashier can easily bag the items during the scanning process.

This. There's a metal thing that keeps the bag open, the cashier scans it and it goes straight in the bag. What the fuck happens at other places, everything is scanned and put to the side, and then bagged?

xpost

Er, the point about self scan is you can put pretty much *anything* though for the cheapest weight price, not saving a couple of cents on some apples.

Well, I was never that bold -- or, er, I would never have been that bold.

Co-sign to other posts upthread, staff at our grocery store don't like you to bag your own groceries, and a bagger will usually come over and take it off your hands. They have floaters who rotate around for that purpose.

I don't use the self-checkout unless I'm shopping late at night and only have a tub of icecream, or if the lines are crazy and I only have one or 2 items. I don't want to give the supermarket corporation the impression that I would prefer one of those machines over their staff...because I like the kids who work at our grocery store and I don't want them put out of jobs because I'm in a 'hurry'.

Plus self-checkouts are a total trap -- because most of the people going through it are MORANS who try to check whole carts of groceries, have no idea what they're doing and make it 900 times slower than going through the checkout.

people who decry minor quotidian inconveniences on the internet

and much as I love Trader Joe's cheap snack foods, I don't love it enough to go there because the whole experience is about as annoying as shopping can possibly be for me. too crowded, parking lots invariably suck ass, carts are spindly and annoying, too crowded, too crowded and too crowded

too much unhealthy food masquerading as nutritious

people who take meaningless hassles personally

this is why i have just have the help do the shopping for me

oh god i hate the impatient behind-you-in-line key-jangling impatient sighers

i also hate that i used the word impatient twice

if I ever heard someone doing that I'd turn around and call them on their shit

I hate the impatient dick-ahead-of-me who berates the cashier. I never, ever do this sort of thing, but one guy in front of me was so irrationally dickish that I just blurted out, "Knock it off, asshole." He didn't say anything, and the cashier mouthed "Thank you" to me.

Line waiting behavior is an execellent litmus test for pesronality. I once called off a date after the girl got pissed off at the cashier who didn't have her brand of cigarettes.

The memorising of prices definitely *was* the case until they introduced scanners into stores.

...and I guess putting price tags on stuff wasn't an option for some reason.

Price tags and guns are expensive. Also, I wonder if having to remember all those prices actually keeps you more alert while you're working the till?

Ok, so I did this today. I took the plunge. And it wasn't so bad! Just another way in which ilx has improved my life, like enjoying the music of Ashley Simpson or making fun of people in cargo shorts.

i don't bag my own groceries, but there's no shame in my game cuz in Publixs in America it's nearly impossible to do that

Did this again yesterday, even though there was a bagger, because it looked like he needed some help. Then when I got home, it turned out that bastard had put my kale on the bottom of a bag of much heavier stuff. I don't think I'm going to let anyone bag my groceries again.

People who let incompetent buffoons bag their groceries are the most irredeemable scoundrels

http://i.imgur.com/iltZs6j.jpg

I support this

Make bagging great again