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

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.

Pro tip: just avoid the line with the elderly shoppers. They are slower and you know they'll be paying by check.

I don't think you can pay by cheque any more here. It's like we live in different countries or something.

I avoid the self-service stations since they trigger what may be my only social -- I don't want to say panic attack, but it's something like that.

With the checkout lanes, you get into Aisle 1 or Aisle 2 or Aisle 10. If your line is slow, you're stuck. But at the self-service kiosks, you've got these four stations grouped together and no one is really sure who gets to go next. Half of the people are waiting, bank-style, for "the next available station" while some customers are trying to line up at individual stations.

Some stores manage this better than others, but when it's out of hand, I start to lose it.

http://www.freshdirect.com/media/editorial/site_access/images/FDlogo.gif

Trader Joe's is owned by Aldi, FYI.

it was bought by one of the aldi brothers but it is an entirely different operation separate from the aldi north american chain

What the fuck happens at other places, everything is scanned and put to the side, and then bagged?

Yeah, in some places it's exactly like this!!

Anyway, there have def been NYC scandals where stores were having baggers work for little or no wages, and only being paid in tips. Pretty sure it's not legal to do that, but whatever they're getting paid, tipping still isn't unusual here, and management sure as HELL doesn't discourage tipping because there are tip-buckets right there on the counters.

So maybe it's just different in other places. MAYBE. You all are still disgusting irredeemables.

one of the grocery stores i go to has baggers, also has a sign saying, 'please do not tip the baggers'

you know what's awesome is that Boston-area Super Stop & Shops have handheld scanners which you can use if you have a S&S card that allow you to scan and bag your groceries as you go, and then just scan you S&S card at the checkout counter

POOF all your shit pulled up at once, then you pay and GTFO, I kind of refuse to shop anywhere else now

that is so civilized!

they prob body-scan you on the way out tho

probably a nudist supermarket

I don't use the self-checkout unless I'm shopping late at night and only have a tub of icecream,

they keep the self-checkout open late at night? they don't do that where i live, probably due to theft potential

when self-checkouts first got going here they were full of loopholes and bugs - so many people got so much free stuff. i was a poor student; it was a sweet time. that was also before bags cost 5c each. and before the body scans.

boston u so nude

the 24 hour Safeway here between 11pm and 3am is really enlightening in terms of the true base nature of humanity.

I try to get my shopping off the checkout area and leave within a few seconds of getting my change and it really pisses me off when someone is sighing and rolling their eyes and barging into me even within that short time. (Especially since checkout staff like to give you yr change in the least conducive arrangement to putting it in your wallet, it seems.)

Last week I was paying by card (again, I try to pay by cash, but I can't always - this shop is in an area with no cash machines) and I'd just typed in the first digit of my PIN and the woman behind me decided to barge past and drive her trolley RIGHT into me, even though all her shopping was still waiting on the conveyor. I'm p. easily startled because the spell of PIN-typing was broken and I completely could not remember the other digits, thereby holding her up a hell of a lot more than if she'd just waited. Felt pretty fucking dumb though.

We have Aldi

Ek. I went to one recently for the first time in my life. (This is weird, cause most of my friends tend to shop there.) Guess I am a snob. It's freaking depressing there. No wonder we have a song here "Crap from the Aldi" in Flemish though).

It's freaking depressing there.

Is it 'cause there's no music? I actually like being able to shop somewhere and not hear fucking "Drops of Jupiter"

i resent the expectation, or even the suggestion, that I am supposed to be bagging my own groceries most of the time. Particularly when I've just spent $120 on three fucking bags of food for my family and my 4 year old is yelling at me and all I want to do is leave. There are baggers at the store for a reason. TJs doesn't have enough of them, no, but they should have more.

S- otm , sounds like the setup in our supermarkets is unusual but the actual cashier does the bagging as they go here. It's quick, efficient and part of the flow, and I hate Aldi cis they shove all yr shit down a little conveyor thing an no bags and I was v confused and annoyed. Also the aldi staff were the most zombified dgaf staff I've EVER been served by ugh.

So is Aldi the only grocery chain in the US, Europe and Australia?

i like people to work for me sometimes when i am paying way too much for things

hahah

Wmc I wonder if it might be yeah! Well, there is safeway but I think those are diff safeways in each country.

Wait, no Tom Thumb in England??

I was flat-out amazed to see IGA's smack-dab in the middle of suburban Sydney. Where I'm from, they're in the middle of the sticks, probably sell grape Nehi in bottles and possibly have a bait vending machine out front for pre-dawn service.

they keep the self-checkout open late at night? they don't do that where i live, probably due to theft potential

At the 24-hour giant Tesco in Drogheda the self-checkout is the only one open after 10pm, and if you avail of the "24-hour" service you spend your whole shop being tutted at by shelf stackers.
Oh, and while we're on the supermarket subject, I am the customer. You step out of my way, not the other way round, staff member. I'm not saying you have to tug your forelock or anything, just get out of my way.

There is this grocery store in the Northwestern U.S. called WinCo, which is cheap and great and I <3 and miss it. You bag your own groceries, though, to keep your groceries ¢heap. I had applied for a job there when I was 17, and a few days later, I found a WinCo uniform polo shirt for sale at a thrift store. I had what I thought was a brilliant idea, to dress in it and go to the WinCo and start bagging people's groceries to show I was a "highly motivated self starter," as they say in the classifieds. This did not go over well. I got a manager called on my immediately, and they threatened to ban me from the store forever if I didn't leave right away. Didn't get the job. This is the anecdote I tell to cashiers when I stand around bagging groceries for myself.

"You're not going to kick me out of the store now, are you? lololol have a nice day"

S- otm , sounds like the setup in our supermarkets is unusual but the actual cashier does the bagging as they go here. It's quick, efficient and part of the flow, and I hate Aldi cis they shove all yr shit down a little conveyor thing an no bags and I was v confused and annoyed. Also the aldi staff were the most zombified dgaf staff I've EVER been served by ugh.

― Borads of Candida (Trayce), Monday, March 28, 2011 3:21 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

its amazing they can replicate this experience thousands of miles away. fuck bagging your own if the cashier is right there.

ps I was a bag boy and cashier. pps always thank your bagger.