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

Seiously; waiting in line at Trader Joe's last night, the place is slammed and I'm behind a woman who just stands at the cash desk fondling her BMW keys whilst the clerk scans her stuff we then have to wait for the same clerk to bag it all. this makes me fume.

Besides if I'm there not only do I want to get out quicker, but I either want to bag my groceries for bike balance or organised by my own ineffable logic as to where it gets stored in the kitchen. What's more, if you go to Giant eagle and they have some spotty adolescent bagging I end up with 30 bags all doubled with three items in each bag.

End this bourgeois bagging nonsense now.

BMW keys. That's all you needed to say.

I instinctively start to bag groceries too, even though my local supermarket handles it. When I use the express lane, it's annoying as hell to watch a customer stand idle while the cashier has to scan items and coupons, plus bag groceries.

Grocery stores used to have BAGGERS, mostly pimply but well meaning high school boys, iirc. Except in New York, where stores have been in the news for things like hiring the impoverished elderly or other at-risk types to bag groceries at NO wages, just tips. Basically using them as free labor.

do you tip your bagger y/n?

Baggers used to ALSO push your grocery cart out to your car FOR you, esp in wet or snowy weather. Obv not the norm in the city.

I can't remember the last time I didn't pay for groceries by credit card, so no, I mostly don't tip. But I also bag my own b/c I take a tote bag w me and want to load it a certain way.

Waiting for someone to pay for groceries by credit card, now that's fuckin' annoying (sorry Laurel)

I bag while waiting for card to clear, cashier to push buttons, etc!

xp rubbish, it's normally much quicker than people fumbling for the exact change, or counting out the contents of their copper jar.

Is it? I haven't timed it tbh!

especially when that bloke on the rollercoaster comes by.

ha, me neither! It takes ages when its a little shop that dials through to the card provider. but in most places, put the card in , tap in the number and you're done, no?

i made good money bagging groceries in the summers back in the day. it was a union job iirc

I was a grocery bagger my junior year of high school (1985-86). The chain I worked out was union-only, so we were required to be UFCW members and as such were not supposed to accept tips. Needless to say we did not generally obey that rule.

i only worked part time but there were older dudes make $17 an hour back in 95 to bag groceries

Baggers used to ALSO push your grocery cart out to your car FOR you, esp in wet or snowy weather. Obv not the norm in the city.

― go peddle your bullshit somewhere else sister (Laurel), Monday, March 28, 2011 9:54 AM (10

My local Giant Food recently remodelled and they introduced this practice, although with normal aged baggers and they didn't accept tips. But the first time I went to the new store, the employees and I had to sort out that they were pretty much gonna force me to not push my own cart out to my car, which sucked because I have long legs and like to walk very fast and the bagger was much shorter/slower than me. He also wouldn't let me put my bags into my trunk! They discontinued this practice after about 3 weeks though.

Also, I won't bag my own groceries. It's their staffing problem, not mine.

In Finland everyone always bags their own groceries, so I feel a bit awkward when I'm in some other country and the clerk bags them for me. But usually I've let them do it, because I'm not sure if it would be impolite to stop them and bag the stuff myself.

Making the cashier bag your shit at busy times of day when other people are in line behind you is a dick move. But I don't believe you would really just stand there and watch people fumble and be rushed because "it's their staffing problem" because I don't think you are a dick iirc.

it's pretty simple - if you've got more than like 5 bags worth of stuff, and there's no bagger in your line, you should help the cashier with at least a bag or two.

In Ireland we bag our own groceries (or pack or own shopping), especially since the plastic bag charge was introduced some years ago. The checkout person will usually help if you're slow, and sometimes people do it for you to raise money for charity. Like Ed above, I like to do it myself in order to optimize the unpacking, but I'll still make a charitable donation in this case.

In Lidl and Aldi it is EXTREMELY bad form to pack your shopping at the till. You do it at the packing shelf or at your car, after you've paid.

You have a plastic bag charge AND a "packing station"?? What is this improbable un-American fairy-land??

sometimes the way the isle is set up makes it not conducive to giving them a hand

I'll help bag after I pay, but I'm watching that scanner and the price screen like a hawk before then. I'm not going to get charged for two bags of dog food or the wrong price on a special because I was sacking my own beans.

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

New name for the Republic of Ireland?

Making the cashier bag your shit at busy times of day

Ah, I try not to go grocery shopping after say, 8 a.m.

I really don't think I've ever seen anyone help a cashier with the bagging. I'm going to have to start paying attention to this.

i bag my own stuff at tj's because they let you, other supermarkets in LA usually don't like this, the minute you start someone comes running over.

New name for the Republic of Ireland?

We do have a rubbish health care system, though, so we're not that un-American.

how does the "you should help bag your groceries or you're an asshole" argument intersect with the "if you use the automatic checkout lanes you're an asshole" argument? seems like if you do the bagging, you're allowing cashiers to help more customers, thus making additional staffing seem less necessary, thus depriving potential workers of jobs, just like when you use the automatic checkout lanes. whereas if you don't help with bagging and the lines get really long, managers will see they risk losing customers unless they hire more cashiers

People being lazy make my groceries more expensive.

The real assholes are the ones who leave their shopping carts scattered around the parking lot.

The "we have to make it worse before it gets better" argument is never really a good idea in human cost, though, is it? People who refuse to tip waitstaff b/c "it's the establishment's responsibility to pay them" vs people who want to let public schools turn into un-funded holding cells so they can pressure the system? NAGL.

Here it depends on the supermarket. Some bag, some don't. It even depends on the cashier.

I would say I help out with the bagging but the cashier does about 2/3 of it. Because the cashier is way faster than me and the cashier's bags are always much better packed than mine. I do it out of a sense of duty to keep the line moving but I'm always annoyed about the poor arrangement of the bags I packed myself.

I'll help bag after I pay, but I'm watching that scanner and the price screen like a hawk before then. I'm not going to get charged for two bags of dog food or the wrong price on a special because I was sacking my own beans.

― http://tinyurl.com/vroooo0ooooom (Pleasant Plains), Monday, March 28, 2011 10:20 PM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark

^^

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100227205505AAMQXrb

I'm so confused by the cashier who thinks that taxpayers pay her minimum wage.

yeah around here the baggers are right on top of things, if you bag your own they shove you out of the way and smack you with a sack of potatoes

yahoo answers, you are a traet

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?

sorry, i mean YOU are A TREAT

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.

buying butt cream is what self-checkout lines were invented for

they dont have those at CVS.

They actually do at many CVSs.

Embarrassment at the checkout line

not at mine.

The thing that bugs me about Trader Joe's friendly cashiers is that it's so obv a corporate-ordered faux friendliness. I like spontaneous, genuine friendliness, I really do.

I suspect that it's a combination of hiring gregarious people and training them to be friendly and outgoing. As a long-time customer service worker I don't care whether another service worker loves me to shreds and REALLY wants to chat or if they're doing their job. It's their job to be welcoming, and I for one appreciate it. Their eagerness and friendliness is done well - they don't seem to have scripts like a Chili's waiter or something.

people that still write checks for groceries are the real irredeemable scoundrels imho

Just wave your tampons at him and glare. He'll back right off. The married ones know the score.

― trishyb, Tuesday, March 29, 2011 11:59 AM (1 hour ago)

hahaha, yes, pwned

My local supermarket still has the sweepy divider but they never use it, they just stare you down while you pack and the person behind you huffs.

I am used to the Aldi/Lidl way now there are plenty of both across Britisherland, but my first trip to a German Aldi was confusing as I didn't realise you had to pick up a bag before the checkout if you wanted one and pay for it, and my German was almost non-existent so it took a few goes to determine that that was what I was being told

so if anyone reading this was held up one morning by a clueless English woman buying armfuls of Ritter Sport minis in an Aldi-Süd in the student quarter of Duisburg, I am very sorry

Is the Aldi way the same as ours, in that

1) Scan as fast as possible, all items.
2) Payment card takes ages to go through

actually, it's Lidl. carry on.

Dunno if it was fact or urban myth, but when I was at uni everyone said that the checkout staff at Aldi had to memorise the prices of everything in the store because Aldi were too tight to buy scanners. Actually this is patently bullshit. I never got around to going in Aldi because my boyfriend bought a bunch of microwave meals and some wine from there, and the plastic boxes melted all over the meals and the wine was like blackcurrant squash :(

I have vague memories of Aldi and/or Lidl not having scanners and everything being typed in by hand from memory. I think they've got scanners now though, I don't really pay attention, I'm too busy stressing about how I'm going to get everything over the shelf to pack it and will they have any boxes or will i have to spent 5p per extra carrier bag.

The memorising of prices definitely *was* the case until they introduced scanners into stores. IIRC the checkout staff got paid a lot better than their equivalents in regular supermarkets because of this. Now that they have modern scanner technology I doubt this is still true.

2) Payment card takes ages to go through

Weirdly, the Lidl round the corner from me has just about the fastest card machine I've ever used. Processes that business in the blink of an eye.

On topic, for as long as I can remember I've always done my own bagging. Although we've recently started doing the "big shop" online after a few too many dispiriting supermarket visits, so it's one of Ocado's order pickers who pack my bags now - their colour-coded system for Fridge / Cupboards / Freezer is brilliant.

i like the self-scanners because the cashiers often don't notice that i have obsessively picked the cheapest produce out of the all the different variations. that is not a SWEET ONION that is a YELLOW ONION, there is a FORTY-CENT PER POUND PRICE DIFFERENCE!!!!

anyway i've never really seen this "bag your own groceries" business in American supermarkets like Albertsons or Ralphs or whatever. there's a little station at the end of the lane for bagging, but 99% of the time it's got a guy in it. i wouldn't want to get all up in that guy's station, it would seem presumptuous.

IIRC the checkout staff got paid a lot better than their equivalents in regular supermarkets because of this. Now that they have modern scanner technology I doubt this is still true.

Their staff are still amazingly quick though.

Yeah, they're so quick in Lidl that one has no choice but to put stuff straight back into the trolley and then bag it over to one side so that the queue can flow.

Something that impresses me with Lidl etc is also that they manage to run the stores with a real skeleton crew; the one I go to has about six staff in total.

It's also the only supermarket I know where people don't actually mind queuing!

Also, they do still pay well.

First time I was in a Dutch grocery store (not to be confused with the sexual act "Dutch Grocery Store"), I noticed the cashiers were sitting on stools (because why not? It's a shitty job, and there's no reason for them to be standing), and not only do they not provide bags, but you have to bag your own shit. I was down with this, but wish I'd known it before I had to walk four blocks carrying an armful of bagless groceries.

Do you also pay for your own bags? We have to: five cents per plastic bag.

i like the self-scanners because the cashiers often don't notice that i have obsessively picked the cheapest produce out of the all the different variations. that is not a SWEET ONION that is a YELLOW ONION, there is a FORTY-CENT PER POUND PRICE DIFFERENCE!!!!

Christ, I haven't noticed whether the checkers notice this or not, but I am totally obsessive about buying exactly such things as the onions that cost $1.49 vs. $1.99. This might push me over the edge into total self-checkout territory.

Which would be doing the checkers at my local Giant a service, apparently, based on this thread.

i like the self-scanners because the cashiers often don't notice that i have obsessively picked the cheapest produce out of the all the different variations. that is not a SWEET ONION that is a YELLOW ONION, there is a FORTY-CENT PER POUND PRICE DIFFERENCE!!!!

I don't ever really look at the prices of produce (I'm bad at money :() so I haven't noticed that from a price perspective BUT I'm sometimes baffled by what the people at the checkout don't know. Like, I've been asked what a zucchini is before.

I went through a similar thing with Jicama once, but you've got me beat.

Yeah well those are sorta ~exotic~ (and delicious - my dad makes a salad with Jicama which is out of this world) so they're excused but it's the reg veg confusion that happens every once in a while that's sorta mind-blowing.

OTOH you could be hassling the local Asian grocer with what's that veg queries... So used to shopping on a grad student's income and buying loss leaders or BOGOF specials that I've become really good at adding up my basket to avoid being overcharged. Also my mom's 11th Commandment is 'thou shalt not buy anything in a supermarket that's not on special'. The only place I wait in a trusting way for my total is the local butcher.

Tell 'em its a courgette.

lol

"But that's not in the book!"

Their heads would probably explode.

Parsnips are the most common sort of confusion with me and cashiers in the states.

Yeah - those too! Tbh though I get confused by root vegetables sometimes too. I have had to consult the internet on more than one occasion when I wasn't sure exactly what something that came in the delivery box we used to get was.

parsnips, turnips and some radishes all sort of look alike to me

"Is that a parsnip or are you just happy to see me?"

Do you also pay for your own bags? We have to: five cents per plastic bag.

― Nathalie (stevienixed), Wednesday, March 30, 2011 6:19 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

It was a long time ago (I was there for a couple of months in 1994), but I don't remember any disposable bags being present at all. I think I had to buy a reusable tote bag or two.

i like the self-scanners because the cashiers often don't notice that i have obsessively picked the cheapest produce out of the all the different variations. that is not a SWEET ONION that is a YELLOW ONION, there is a FORTY-CENT PER POUND PRICE DIFFERENCE!!!!

This EXACT thing happened to me last week, same onions and price diff! Obviously being English I didn't say anything, just looked a bit grumpy about it when I realised.

Me too, a couple weeks ago. Picked the Jazz apples explicitly because they were 79 cents/lb (and I'd never had them before), got charged for Fujis at $1.79/lb. Not that big a deal with ~2 lbs, but still pissed me off.

it adds up.

i've entered organic apples as regular ol apples on "accident"

The thing that bugs me about Trader Joe's friendly cashiers is that it's so obv a corporate-ordered faux friendliness. I like spontaneous, genuine friendliness, I really do.

I've wondered about this too but whenever I encounter the TJ cashiers out and about in the neighborhood they seem just the same.

it's the implanted microchip

The Manchurian Cashier

"OH HAI EEPHUS! HEY I SEE YOU'RE WEARING LEVIS, HAVE YOU TRIED THE NEW CORDS THEY CAME OUT WITH? THEY'RE REALLY COMFY! OK NICE SEEING YOU, COME AGAIN!"

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_D1ZZyTOG7tQ/SPe79j-_U3I/AAAAAAAAC3E/AxtnFvTrnfE/s400/The_Stepford_Wives_1975_Grocery_Store.JPG

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