life’s little irritations #8
Today’s topic of irritation: grocery store baggers.
Most of the time I bring my own bags to the grocery store. (Well, I bring them when I remember them, and you all know what my memory is like!) I usually have more than enough bags for all of my groceries. Why do I bring those bags? Just like everyone else, I’m trying to reduce my waste, and I hate having all those plastic bags around.
So. Here’s irritation #1: When the baggers try to bag items in plastic first, and then put them in my bags, I get a little, shall we say, pissed off? I sort of understand putting the raw meat in a plastic bag to keep the fabric one clean, but they certainly don’t need to be wrapped individually. And guess what? Those fabric bags are washable! Imagine that! But the dry goods and other stuff? What’s the point of double bagging? I just don’t get it.
I complained to a manager once about how many plastic bags a bagger had just used inside all of my fabric ones. I jokingly (not) told her I had more plastic bags in my cart than I would have if I had just had them bag in plastic in the first place. She looked shocked and said that most of their customers wanted them to do that. Really?! I bet they don’t, they just don’t tell you otherwise!
Okay. Checkout bagger irritation #2: jumbling up my carefully placed items!!! Gah! When I put items on the belt I always put my frozen stuff together, canned goods together, etc., and fragile (eggs) squishy (bread) and crushable (chips) items all together last. I put them together because I expect them to be bagged together! It’s not that hard a concept people. It should make it easier for them to bag, and it definitely makes it easier for me to unload in my kitchen.
Instead, I get home to find the bread squashed between boxes of cereal, the eggs buried under cans, and my dairy products spread out over all six bags. Hey, and did you know if you put frozen things together they stay frozen better? As my boy would say, it’s called science.
Bagging science – I’m gonna call it bagology and I’ll be traveling the US giving lectures on it. I’ll also do one-on-one workshops for those in greater need of bagging knowledge. One of my lessons will be to break down a poorly packed bag while singing “one of these just doesn’t belong here…” Feel free to let your local grocery store know my tour schedule so I can make their baggers better too.
Oh, and one last irritation: YES, I really do want the milk in a bag too! They’re slippery suckers after the humidity condenses on their handles and I’d really prefer to get the gallon into the house without dropping it. Just bag it, preferably with the cheese and my coffee creamer, k? thks.
Comments
13 Responses to “life’s little irritations #8”
Okay so I am not the only student of bagology. I even stack items in my cart by category, so that its easier to put them on the belt in order.
I guess consider the source of who’s bagging… if they understood the “science” that the boys does, then they probablly would not be baggers.
What ever am I going to do without my daily catnip & coffee for 5 days? Talk to you when I get back!
I popped over from Tapdancing on the Edge of Reason. Hi!
The mental incapacities of bag persons must be universal! We have the same problem in our little town. I try not to look, much, because it makes my blood pressure go up, and that’s just not good. I don’t want my obituary to say “Disgruntled shopper strokes out over squashed veggies, local authorities investigating bag boy as possible suspect.”
chandas last blog post..Scar Tissue
I’ve noticed the jumbling by baggers by a local grocery store too. And it does seem that they have a penchant for using as many plastic bags as possible. My ground beef and sirloin tips can go into the same bag.
It’s just another reason I avoid the stores in town and head south for my groceries even though that store doesn’t have those cute Dunkin Donuts shopping carts.
Wow, I’ve never had any bagger bag in plastic then my bags.
I always get comments on my bags though, because apparently I’m the only one who used Envirosax bags and not just the flimsy grocery store reusable bags.
Margarets last blog post..Whirlwind and the case of the missing tomato plants
Oy! Another Irritant that is sadly, universal. I’m of the sexist opinion that bag BOYS are far bigger incompetents than bag GIRLS are. I think it’s because women in general understand the concept of grocery division and packing according to where it goes when it gets home. Don’t get me started on the pimply faced buffoon who puts my bananas or tomatoes in with the canned goods – although I have no problem raising hell about it and rebagging all of it in front of him. Yeah, they love me at the grocery store – I think they might call me the Produce Nazi behind my back.
What ever – as long as my over priced foodstuffs make it home in the shape I bought them in!
I love this theme, btw!
Who knew so many of us were suffering with bad baggers this way!! I love you people.
@we_be_toys – I didn’t even get into the whole produce thing, cause lord have mercy on my blood pressure!
I totally share this sentiment. I think grocery store baggers have the least common sense in the world. Typically I push them out of the way and do it myself. I’m such a brat.
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I always kind of thought my husband was crazy when he very carefully arranged items on the belt in categories. I’m glad to find out that there’s more than just him that does it. I tend to just throw things on there.
oohhh that makes me so mad! We have a very good supermarket who train their baggers to put similar things together. However, this can also be a problem when you have 6 one liter bottles in one bag and Q-tips and cotton balls in another. I would really love to have them use common sense.
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I agree. I can’t stand bad baggers. On the bright side, you could learn how to crochet the bags into rugs or even shopping bags. A bag made of bags! Perfect!!
sometimessophias last blog post..Buzz
That is one of the things I will miss about Vancouver/Portland: There is a super-cheap and awesome grocery chain called Winco and you bag your own stuff. LOVE. Have wanted to beat down many-a cashier in my day and sometimes, I just say, ”Hey! Will do it myself! Thanks!” and stand so close they have no option but to move or dare me to not bag my own.
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My grocery has self scanning aisles now and it is the BEST because I can BAG MY OWN!!!! Seriously, I would rather bag my own stuff than let them do it. And when I take my own bags (when I remember), I don’t have to deal with those sighs and looks of annoyance because it requires slightly more thought on their part.
Once I was self-checking and some employee came over and started bagging my stuff – I was actually angry! LOL.
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I’ve been meaning to get reusable bags for sometime now. I store up all the plastic ones, then bring them back to the store after a month or so, but then it takes me forever to stuff them into that bag recycling bin. My store is good at bagging. They put everything together just right and they even bring my groceries to the car for me! I am paying a small fortune every time I buy groceries so I expect some good service, darnit…
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