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Post by AussieMeg on Feb 12, 2022 4:19:45 GMT
I just popped into the supermarket to buy a few things:
coat hangers dog food (2.5kg bag) ground coriander
I had two canvas shopping bags with me, and handed over one of them to the woman on the register, to pack my goods into. It was easily big enough to fit all three items. She rang my items up and put the coat hangers and teeny tiny spice sachet into the bag, and left the dog food sitting on the counter. The dog food bag has no handle, so it would be quite awkward to carry on its own. I asked her nicely "Can you please put the dog food into the bag too?"
I have found that cashiers often leave bigger items out of the bags. Things like dog food, toilet paper, big packets of chips, snacks in larger boxes. I always take a ton of bags with me, so it's not like there aren't enough. How do they think I'm going to carry all these loose items into the house if they're not in a bag?
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Post by AussieMeg on Feb 12, 2022 4:24:59 GMT
And whilst I'm complaining about trivial issues........ I try to put my items on the belt in the order I want them packed. All of the cold stuff together, all of the tinned goods together, all of the fruit and veg together, all of the soft things together, all of the toiletries and cleaning things together. But they never seem to stick to my layout! They will put some tins in one bag, then reach over to grab some fruit, then add some bread on top of that..... I even leave gaps on the belt between each 'category' to make it obvious how I want it packed. If I am doing a big shop, I try to get all of my goods on the belt quickly, then tell them that I will pack (and make it seem like I'm doing them a favour, not that I am some kind of OCD freak hahaha!).
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Post by Zee on Feb 12, 2022 4:27:07 GMT
I haven't been in a store with actual baggers since 2019. I'm lucky if there is even a cashier at Kroger; mainly it's self scan with no lines open. Sometimes there might be one bagger at Publix, haphazardly moving between lines to randomly bag and I'm faster. Aldi never had them in the first place.
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Post by voltagain on Feb 12, 2022 4:30:01 GMT
And whilst I'm complaining about trivial issues........ I try to put my items on the belt in the order I want them packed. All of the cold stuff together, all of the tinned goods together, all of the fruit and veg together, all of the soft things together, all of the toiletries and cleaning things together. But they never seem to stick to my layout! They will put some tins in one bag, then reach over to grab some fruit, then add some bread on top of that..... I even leave gaps on the belt between each 'category' to make it obvious how I want it packed. If I am doing a big shop, I try to get all of my goods on the belt quickly, then tell them that I will pack (and make it seem like I'm doing them a favour, not that I am some kind of OCD freak hahaha!). Personally, as a shopper I prefer to do this as well. But, as a cashier I was taught to "balance the bag" so it had some heavy stuff and some light stuff to minimize the amount of plastic bags needed. Which is what is going on in your first post. As a shopper it drives me a big nutz. Because I want to take in all the cold stuff. My canned/box goods are stored in a different area of the house. My pantry is in my laundry room of all the wierd places to put it.
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Post by ntsf on Feb 12, 2022 4:33:27 GMT
my bugaboo is.. I want as few bags as possible as I haul them up stairs.. so put that random bottle of shampoo in with the produce. the other is putting blueberries at the bottom. I am always telling the bagger to please put them on top!!! I do like separating fridge stuff from nonfridge.. sometimes i just leave a bag in the car, cause I can only haul so many bags up at a time.
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Post by katlady on Feb 12, 2022 4:35:24 GMT
But they never seem to stick to my layout! They will put some tins in one bag, then reach over to grab some fruit, then add some bread on top of that I think they are trying to even out the weight. All the tins in one bag will make it heavy. But I get what you are saying. I try to put all the cold items together so they can all go into the cold bag, but some baggers still separate them! And, I actually prefer they leave big stuff out of the bags, like the box of instant noodles, they don't need to go into a bag. Neither does the box of laundry detergent. As for toilet paper (and paper towels) we buy the huge packs at Costco. There is no bag big enough for those!
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Post by revirdsuba99 on Feb 12, 2022 4:45:00 GMT
Yes, cold stuff together, and I used to put them all together on the belt. Now with delivery I go through the bags at the door to find all the cold stuff scattered in different bags.
It used to depend on time of year which items could wait in the car to be brought in at another time later.
Yes, to the pea, former cashier, who posted about distributing the weight onto numerous bags. I was also taught to do that too.
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gina
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,305
Jun 26, 2014 1:59:16 GMT
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Post by gina on Feb 12, 2022 4:49:44 GMT
I always pack my own bags.
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Post by pjaye on Feb 12, 2022 4:51:39 GMT
I expect you buy a lot more than I do, so it isn't practical...but I always do self checkout for that reason. Occasionally I shop at Aldi and it drives me nuts when they reach over and pick random things from further back on the conveyor belt...they aren't even packing the bag...so why are the messing with the order?? Some of them will keep reaching around the heaviest item and put all the light ones through, while I stand there with everything piling up because I'm waiting for the heavy thing to put at the bottom of the bag. Self service is just so much easier because everything gets put in the bag in the *right* order.
I keep hearing about the ones where you scan the price as you shop and then just pay as you leave, and supposedly they've done trials but I don't know why those have never been implemented. I'd love to scan and pack my bag as I go.
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Post by ~summer~ on Feb 12, 2022 5:07:31 GMT
I would never ask the lady to put the dog food in my bag, I would do it myself. Actually I would not have handed over my bags at all, I would have packed those 3 things myself.
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Post by myshelly on Feb 12, 2022 5:13:30 GMT
I prefer all those items to be left out of bags 🤷🏻♀️
Don’t y’all have pick up for stuff like that?
I didn’t even do big shops for myself before the pandemic.
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Post by leannec on Feb 12, 2022 5:15:11 GMT
I am actually very vocal about how I want my bags packed My grocery store is pretty good but I do what you do and put things on the belt in the order I want them bagged ... If I don't like how something is bagged (like when the bag is obviously too heavy), I speak up ... My grocery store vent is people who still don't understand social distancing ... we are never going to be rid of Covid folks! Personal space!
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basketdiva
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,649
Jun 26, 2014 11:45:09 GMT
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Post by basketdiva on Feb 12, 2022 5:26:47 GMT
And whilst I'm complaining about trivial issues........ h I try to put my items on the belt in the order I want them packed. All of the cold stuff together, all of the tinned goods together, all of the fruit and veg together, all of the soft things together, all of the toiletries and cleaning things together. But they never seem to stick to my layout! They will put some tins in one bag, then reach over to grab some fruit, then add some bread on top of that..... I even leave gaps on the belt between each 'category' to make it obvious how I want it packed. If I am doing a big shop, I try to get all of my goods on the belt quickly, then tell them that I will pack (and make it seem like I'm doing them a favour, not that I am some kind of OCD freak hahaha!). We shop at store where you bag your own groceries. My husband put items in the belt in the order he wants to pack them. Unpacking at home is easy.
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Post by redshoes on Feb 12, 2022 5:30:09 GMT
I only do self-check out now…I can use as many or few bags as I want and sort it how I like too!
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Post by summer on Feb 12, 2022 5:38:43 GMT
I’m shocked your cashier packs your groceries! I have to pack them myself.
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Post by **GypsyGirl** on Feb 12, 2022 5:45:49 GMT
How do they think I'm going to carry all these loose items into the house if they're not in a bag? I would have tossed the coriander in my purse/tote bag, and just carried the other two items in my arms. The baggers will ask if I want certain bulky items (dog food, drink 6 packs, jug of laundry detergent, etc) in bags. Usually I say no as it is just easier to grab them and put them where they belong at home. No need to have another bag to toss. My vent is with how they pack the bags. They tend to really load up the bags to use as few as possible. However, with arthritis in my hands it's a challenge to lift them at times. And apparently no one has ever instructed them on the proper way to bag bananas, tomatoes and other soft produce (hint, they don't go in the bottom or middle of a bag, and not in the bag with the frozen foods). I've turned into a cranky old woman directing them to spread out the weight and not to bruise my bananas! Unfortunately the store I prefer for produce/fruit is the only one around here that doesn't have self checkout, otherwise I'd use it.
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Post by pjaye on Feb 12, 2022 5:49:00 GMT
I would never ask the lady to put the dog food in my bag, I would do it myself. and we're off...
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twinsmomfla99
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,087
Jun 26, 2014 13:42:47 GMT
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Post by twinsmomfla99 on Feb 12, 2022 6:04:23 GMT
my bugaboo is.. I want as few bags as possible as I haul them up stairs.. so put that random bottle of shampoo in with the produce. the other is putting blueberries at the bottom. I am always telling the bagger to please put them on top!!! I do like separating fridge stuff from nonfridge.. sometimes i just leave a bag in the car, cause I can only haul so many bags up at a time. NOOOO! No self-respecting bagger is going to put shampoo in with the produce! I was a cashier in high school. We had to type all the prices into the cash register because we didn’t have bar codes yet. I had to take a test once every few months that was timed. We had to ring up an order within a certain amount of time and with a pretty high level of accuracy on the price. This included entering items as food or non-food because one was taxed and the other wasn’t. I rocked that test every time LOL. But then we also had surprise observations of our bagging skills. 1. Heavy items on the bottom; bread, eggs, and chips on top 2. Put cold items together 3. Ice cream cartons in the heavy ice cream bags 4. Produce, meat, and dairy separate from toiletries and cleaning products. The boss did not want customers complaining about something leaking onto the broccoli. We kept a supply of boxes in the front because some customers would ask for one instead of bags. Again, no putting those fresh food items into a cardboard box that had contained any of those items. This was a family grocery store that operated in my hometown for probably 80 to 90 years before the last owner retired a couple of years ago. Their prices were a little higher than the A&P, but they were always busy because they had such a good reputation. I learned a lot about customer service in that job! I don’t think you get that same sense of pride in a job well-done with the modern grocery chains. The closest I have seen was Ukrops in VA before the younger generation sold to a large chain. I still prefer to box my own groceries at Costco because they often pack my cheese and produce in cleaning supply boxes. Fresh items will pick up the odors if left in the box too long.
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quiltz
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,840
Location: CANADA
Jun 29, 2014 16:13:28 GMT
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Post by quiltz on Feb 12, 2022 6:25:39 GMT
I put the food/stuff on the conveyor belt and the cashier rings it up. I pay the bill, do the points thing and bag my own.
OR
I use PC pickup and let them simply put the stuff in the trunk of my car.
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Post by Legacy Girl on Feb 12, 2022 8:22:12 GMT
When we vacation in Virginia, I love the fact that our Food Lion has different color bags for cold food (blue) vs. non-refrigerated items (white, I think). I always load the belt with all cold items together and all non-refrigerated together but when I'm at home, they all get mixed in together. Drives me crazy, especially in the summer when I'm on the run and really only want to stop by my house to put the cold items in the 'fridge before they spoil. And yes, I'm sitting on the "old lady complaining about her grocery sorting" bench.
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Post by stargazer on Feb 12, 2022 8:44:56 GMT
Self service is just so much easier because everything gets put in the bag in the *right* order. I keep hearing about the ones where you scan the price as you shop and then just pay as you leave, and supposedly they've done trials but I don't know why those have never been implemented. I'd love to scan and pack my bag as I go. We use the scan & pack options all the time these days (UK); we even have apps on our phone for various stores. DH is the one who’s most picky on how things are packed so he loads it into the “right” bag as we go. It’s so much easier.
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Post by gar on Feb 12, 2022 9:20:28 GMT
I don't think I've ever had a cashier bag up for me - it's not the norm here.
I've been doing a lot of Click and Collect (order online and collect in the supermarket carpark from the refrigerated van into the boot of my car) and what pees me off with that is that I opt for no bags. I have tons of my own which I take and I pack everything as I want from the crate into my bags...but they will insist on putting things like a garlic bulb, shampoo, cold meat etc in small, thin plastic bags. I could understand fresh meat as it might leak but not ham or smoked salmon. And why can't they go in together? Last time I had 7 of these little bags (which are no good for using for anything else really) each with one thing in. Cooked cold meat can at least go together.
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Post by sleepingbooty on Feb 12, 2022 9:31:25 GMT
No baggers here either. The cashier rings everything up like it's the Olympics and you're just trying to keep up and get everything packed in time and with the heavier stuff at the bottom of the bag. I don't have a car so it's usually just the one larger shoulder bag when I go shopping on my own. As long as I put everything on the belt in the correct order, it'll end up on the bagging side how I want to pack it.
My biggest difficulty is not having the fragile produce slide from the top of the bag where I put it to the sides and get smooshed as I walk back home. The walk from the grocery is not that long but accidents still often happen. How many times have I gotten home only to find some cherry tomatoes or raspberries in a poor state because of this? Ugh. I don't like to play produce archeologist.
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Post by imkat on Feb 12, 2022 10:41:09 GMT
Another minor annoyance: when I provide a boxy grocery bag (like from Trader Joes) and it is packed like a shapeless plastic bag. Everything is topsy turvy instead of neatly organized inside the bag. I don't know why it bugs me, but it does!
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Oct 7, 2024 17:31:36 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2022 11:11:10 GMT
I don't think I've ever had a cashier bag up for me - it's not the norm here. I've been doing a lot of Click and Collect (order online and collect in the supermarket carpark from the refrigerated van into the boot of my car) and what pees me off with that is that I opt for no bags. I have tons of my own which I take and I pack everything as I want from the crate into my bags...but they will insist on putting things like a garlic bulb, shampoo, cold meat etc in small, thin plastic bags. I could understand fresh meat as it might leak but not ham or smoked salmon. And why can't they go in together? Last time I had 7 of these little bags (which are no good for using for anything else really) each with one thing in. Cooked cold meat can at least go together. I agree about the small bag thing but I think it's either laziness on the person that does the order. They can't look for the one they have there already. It's probably quicker for them to grab it off the shelf and grab a new bag. But whichever, it's infuriating. As for the meat I've had both Cooked meats together and raw meat together with chicken being the only one in another separate bag. Then I have also had each item in their own bag! I think they are trained to " pack the meat separately" and some have no common sense or use their initiative and take the instructions literally. I can understand what the cashier does in AussieMeg 's post though. Don't put the dog food with the human food (the coriander) and also to balance the load on the tins. A bag full of tins is very heavy to carry. What really annoys me the most is if they put, for instance, bread in first and put other heavier things on top ! I usually packed my own anyhow pre pandemic when I actually went to do a weekly shop in store. At that time if they were very busy they did offer someone to pack your bag for you to get the line moving quicker. That doesn't happen now though as they are very rarely that busy. So many had home deliveries or click and collect during lockdown that most have carried on doing so, me included.
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Post by monklady123 on Feb 12, 2022 11:35:50 GMT
When we vacation in Virginia, I love the fact that our Food Lion has different color bags for cold food (blue) vs. non-refrigerated items (white, I think). I always load the belt with all cold items together and all non-refrigerated together but when I'm at home, they all get mixed in together. Drives me crazy, especially in the summer when I'm on the run and really only want to stop by my house to put the cold items in the 'fridge before they spoil. And yes, I'm sitting on the "old lady complaining about her grocery sorting" bench. Have you been in Virginia lately? We've just put in place that bag tax law so now we have a whole new set of issues, lol. If you don't want to pay a tax per plastic bag you have to bring your own. The cashiers aren't happy because so many people bring an assortment of reusable bags. Then they either hand them to the cashier first and the cashier has to deal with that -- the biggest problem is that some of them don't fit will on the metal thingy that holds the plastic bags so they have to deal work with a floppy cloth bag. At my regular grocery store though some of the cashiers often don't even bother to bag the groceries, they just push them down to the end and expect the customer to do it. I don't really mind unless I've gotten a cashier with an "attitude". We have a few of those and I try to avoid them when I can. I just go about bagging my groceries and if they think I'm going too slowly they can just help. ugh I SO much prefer self-checkout and that's what I do most of them time if I can. Or, if I have to take a cashier line I'll often just tell them no bags and I load the groceries back into the cart like they do at Aldi. Then when I get to my car I pack them up into boxes and bags. I'll often leave non perishable things in my car for a few days if I don't want to haul it all in at once.
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Post by Basket1lady on Feb 12, 2022 11:58:10 GMT
I’ll sit on the old lady bench. I do my big shop at the American commissary here. We have baggers there. I’m not sure how they are trained, but it seems to be “put all the heavy items in one bag, put produce on the bottom, and add some fresh meat on top of the produce bag.” The other day they were training a new cashier and there wasn’t anyone behind me in line. I taught him to make change and then how to pack a bag. The cashier training him didn’t know how to do either task and kept saying, “no one taught me that”. She had to have been at least 40 and has been working there since we moved here 2 1/2 years ago!
None of the local grocery stores bag your items here. They just scan them and then pile them up in a tiny little area for you to bag. I swear that I break into a sweat when bagging a big shop. But we do have great produce since we are so close the the Netherlands. And even the big chain grocery stores have good bread and better than decent croissants!
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Post by mollycoddle on Feb 12, 2022 12:14:54 GMT
I also put items on the conveyer belt the way that I want them packed, but if I have anything fragile like bananas I put them at the very end of my stuff so that they have to go on top. Better out of order than bruised or squashed. The baggers seem to figure it out pretty quickly.
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Post by AussieMeg on Feb 12, 2022 12:32:34 GMT
I expect you buy a lot more than I do, so it isn't practical...but I always do self checkout for that reason. If I'm not doing a big shop I always use the self serve checkouts. But today I went to a dinky little Coles near home. It doesn't even have self serve registers! It used to be a Bi Lo. Personally, as a shopper I prefer to do this as well. But, as a cashier I was taught to "balance the bag" so it had some heavy stuff and some light stuff to minimize the amount of plastic bags needed. Yes I probably learnt to do that as well, back in the 80s! But if I'm doing a big shop, I have to put bags on top of other bags in the trolley (cart) so I don't want a bag with tins and bread sitting on top of another bag with bottles and donuts. I want all the tins in the bottom bags and the soft stuff in the top bags. My bags aren't plastic, I use the bigger cooler bags that zip up. I would never ask the lady to put the dog food in my bag, I would do it myself. Actually I would not have handed over my bags at all, I would have packed those 3 things myself. It's not the norm here for people to pack their own bags. It's part of the job of the cashier at most supermarkets, except at Aldi. It was that way when I was a check-out chick back in the early 80s, and it still is now. I have been packing my own bags recently though. I started during COVID, in one of the lockdowns. We had to pack our own bags for a while, and I have continued to do it (sometimes). I swear that I break into a sweat when bagging a big shop. Yes, that's why I dislike shopping at Aldi! They scan everything so quickly, I can't keep up. It's stressful.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Oct 7, 2024 17:31:36 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2022 13:07:05 GMT
Once upon a time, my job was a bagger at a grocery store. We even took them out to your car! (I hate winter parking lots)
We were taught to keep produce together, separating the heavier/harder stuff from the easily bruised or squished stuff. Cold stuff together as much as possible. And to keep bags under 5lbs unless the customer says otherwise. Reusable bags in this era was more for the people with money and were often random tote bags, not the mass produced with the store logo on them.
I became very particular about how I wanted my bags packed to a point where I would piss the cashier off by telling them I would do it myself. This was before self scans but after stores started to do away with baggers in general. Aldi's was not in the area yet either.
Now I have a stack of reusable bags and use Meijer's shop and scan on their app. I will use the self scan whenever I can. My experience with pick ups have been all terrible so I won't use that option.
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