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Sun 6 Apr, 2008 10:35 am
One of my pet peeves has long been the way my groceries get handled by the baggers. I long ascribed the atrocities performed by they to lack of training; perhaps utter stupidity, or lack of professionalism.Turns out, I was wrong, at least in the case of my favored store.
When plastic bagging was introduced, I lost half of my first so bagged purchase. It was dark in the parking lot. I was unable to tell the contents had partially spilled into the cart and so lost the items. Naturally, the manager refused to be responsible. From that day, I have insisted on paper bagging, no matter how large or small the purchase.
For some years now, I have struggled with paper bags filled to capacity, with some splitting wide open in the driveway. Then, my wife met a friend working for our grocery store. She confided that the manager trains the baggers to load the bags as full as possible. If they can get twenty heavy cans into one bag, do it.
My last trip there was wonderful. I asked the bagger to bag lightly, and he did. I was able to safely handle every bag with one hand.
I had the opposite problem -- they loaded my bags too light. I had to ask them to fill the bags so that I don't have to make a thousand trips.
Then I bought the reusuable canvas bags. Lovely! They're really sturdy and even have handles. If your grocery sells these I really recommmend them.
I almost always ask for the bags to be lightly packed, ever since the day I put a heavy bag down on the floor once I got home and twisted my back while doing so. Plus, the paper bags now are less sturdy that before, and the handles tear off and the bags tear, as you mentioned.
Once in a while I get plastic bags - just last week, I failed to give the please pack lightly comment, and had a bottle of wine tear out the bottom of a plastic bag and propel itself to my tile floor, self distructing into a sprawling dark red puddle filled with glass shards. I could take it all back, minus some of the puddle, and talk with the manager, but that grocery store happens to be fairly far away, the one I get my prescription at once a month.
I do have a sturdy cloth bag, but I need to carry more than one.. and even those I don't want heavily packed because of the possibility of potential back sprain.
You can tell this is something of a favorite subject.
I don't mind if a bag is packed full... but I don't want all the heavy stuff in one.
If you shop at Costco no bags are provided!
ossobuco wrote:I don't mind if a bag is packed full... but I don't want all the heavy stuff in one.
Before I spoke up, they were putting bread and potato chips in one bag, forty cans in another, a gallon of milk and a gallon of orange juice in another, and a single newspaper in still another.
Right... that's seems to be the way they are taught.
I make it my business to keep my cold stuff together on the conveyer belt, so that it is bagged together. It SOMETIMES works.
My local Stop n' Shop has an awesome new system. You walk in, scan your card, and grab an electronic handset and some bags. Walk around the grocery store, and scan the items with your handset and bag as you go.
When you get to the register, you just have to re-scan the handset and your card on the register, and you pay. Makes it so much quicker.
Phoenix32890 wrote:I make it my business to keep my cold stuff together on the conveyer belt, so that it is bagged together. It SOMETIMES works.
I try to do that, too, but it only works some of the time. Another peeve, paper is a great insulator, while plastic allows the cold to transfer out much quicker. So, even though I ask for paper, they usually try to put the milk in plastic.
Slappy- That is fantastic. I would love to have a system like that. What IS nice in the Publix where I shop, is that the baggers will bring your stuff out to your car. No tipping is allowed!
When I lived in suburb/soccermom hell, the grocery store would bring your cart out to your car. I hated it...most of the time they'd comply when I told them I didn't want them to, a couple of times they insisted. Drove me nuts.
My experience is that the skill level of the baggers is all over the place. some employees both know how to do it and care enough to do it right, others have no clue and couldn't care less what happens after I clear their line. I always watch, and frequently request that something is changed. I figure that the average person can learn to do this with 20 minutes training, so bad bagging annoys me. I grew up in a town with only independent grocers, where everyone tried to out do the other with added services such as expert bagging, so the incompetence currently found in my stores doubly bugs me.
Our grocery store is very service oriented and I like that the baggers
are either retirees, and/or slightly handicapped. We've got a couple of
baggers with down syndrome and they're such happy campers, always
talking to customers and very smiley. Of course, they bag things as
they come, but no one minds at all, on the contrary.
I will have you all know, that my first "real" job was bagging. I was quickly promoted to cashier(because I could count), where I would always be switched into express when it was busy, since I was the #1 or #2 fastest cashier at the store. This started a long 3 year career at the grocery store, where I also worked in produce and as a deli clerk.
Should I put this on my resume?
I dunno, did you mix up anise and fennel?
My nephew (16)just finished his second full day of training at the country grocery where he starts this week.
He is still clueless
RH
(I think all teenagers have selective synapse function)
Slappy Doo Hoo wrote:I will have you all know, that my first "real" job was bagging. I was quickly promoted to cashier(because I could count), where I would always be switched into express when it was busy, since I was the #1 or #2 fastest cashier at the store. This started a long 3 year career at the grocery store, where I also worked in produce and as a deli clerk.
Should I put this on my resume?
I think grocery bagging is a great entry level job for lots of young people. One of my brothers did it. The boss wanted to enter him in a competition for baggers, but, he declined.
Delicious thread--I'm just back from a "short" shop.
Mr. Noddy likes peaches year-round. He's also partial to tomatoes in the dead of winter. Some baggers handle fruit and vegetables gently--others thump 'em for emphasis.
Bananas should not be put on the bottom of a sack.
If I buy ten bags of Super Cookies for a dear little dog, I appreciate having them put in the same grocery bag. Some baggers like to mix pet treats, cheese and even cleaning supplies.
Every bag should be packed with stability in mind. Re-bagging from the car trunk does not improve my mood.
I'd rather be thoughtfully bagged than cheerfully greeted. Don't chat me up, take gentle care of the groceries I've just paid for.
One bagger used to give me the evil eye whenever I came in. I had watched as he put my eggs in the bag, bringing his hand down in a swift motion and releasing them no less than six inches away from the bag bottom. I knew right away to check. Sure enough. He heard me tell the checker, "He broke my eggs." One day, he made a remark about a disabled person and was dismissed. I didn't mind that he left.
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