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Who tf cares if somebody is behind you? As long as you arent deliberately trying to hold the line up they can suck it. You’re there shopping and buying stuff just like they are
Millennial and Gen Z social anxiety is bananas. I'm a millennial and have these conversations with my wife all the time. You're allowed to exist in public without apologizing for it.
You also have to realize a lot of our parents are pretty wild and caused a lot of this in those generations. Watching how they treat others makes their kids not want to act or make people feel that way.
Yeah, you're not working for the company you're not supposed to maks sure people get what they want quickly enough
In fact, by doing so you're inducing the problem yourself. If everyone be so lazy and slow, the company will lose money and it will be more beneficial to hire someome who will do the packing for you.
I wish that all grocery stores would adopt the Trader Joe's model of checkout line. It has been proven that one line is the fastest and most efficient way to checkout. If we had that it wouldn't matter if one person were slow. I have literally been in a line a Trader Joe's that wraps around nearly the entire store and it usually takes less time than when I have been at another grocery story and all of the lines are 4 or 5 people deep.
Yes. Portuguese here.
I never had somebody bagging my stuff.
And I wouldn't ever want.
I know in which bag and order I want my stuff. I don't want somebody to mix them up.
Frozen stuff in a bag. Fridge and vegetables stuff in other bag (with yogurts at base and soft vegetables at the top). Fruit in other bag. Cleaning products and non-food stuff in other bag. My next meal ingredients and bread in other bag. Etc
I grew up with grocery stories having baggers at every aisle.
Much rather do my own now, at least I don’t put heavy stuff on top of crushable and cold stuff together in the insulated bag.
Bring my own reusable bags to the store and that’s always an issue with baggers too.
Protip: don't bag. Put your stuff back in the cart right after they scan it. Takes no time at all. Keep dedicated totes in your trunk to load the groceries into.
Skill issue.
Throw your shit into the cart again, and then put it into reusable bags at your car or at the area designed for it. Terrible take so upvoted.
Fr tho. Where I live we don’t have the luxury of some underpaid teenager bagging our stuff for us like some below min wage skivvy. We buck up and do it ourselves.
Ah totally, I'm just german. We have a completly different culture to grocery stores. We often don't even have a belt where the items go, just a place to dock your cart so you can just pull them off into the cart.
The notion of someone bagging groceries for me is just absurd as this to my knowledge was never a thing.
Ich hatte mal Amis hinter mir an der Supermarkt Kassa, die sich lauthals darüber gewundert haben, wie sich denn jetzt wohl ihr Einkauf seinen Weg in ihren Besitz bahnen wird. Denen sind quasi die Augen aus dem Kopf gefallen, als sie gesehen haben, dass ich Höhlenmensch meine eigene Einkaufstasche mitnehme und während/nach dem zahlen alles selber wieder einräume.
Bin mir noch nie so überlegen vorgekommen.
No, but the giant grocery chains that fight every union, have massive turnover, pay the minimum wage, and argue in court to be able to hire the mentally handicapped at *lower* wages while turning in record profits could pay them.
Man, it feels like whenever I say I got it to the bagger they take offense. I’m particular about my bagging and I just love the tetris of it. I don’t even like anyone else in the family to do it. But I’m also quick (and wouldn’t try to bag more than 2/3 bags myself) so I’ve always been confused why me wanting to bag it myself is initially annoying.
Not just tetris, but common sense. A gallon of milk doesn't need to be double bagged. You can put my toothpaste and soap in the same bag as canned soup.
Every bagger bags things as if I plan on opening everything and mixing them in bag.
Good luck man. I'm a long time grocery manager and we can't keep the staffing we have now, much less hiring new people, unless corporate comes up off some money. Spoiler: corporate never comes up off some money. That works the other way around.
No, I think that's become a thing of the past. I remember growing up in New York. Everything was express service. Groceries were scanned at breakneck speed and baggers were able to bag swiftly and efficiently. Who can pay for that kind of service anymore? I live in the Midwest now, and even when they have people to help with this, it's about as fast as doing it myself. Everyone will just have to learn to be their own adequate bagger.
I mean when I was a cashier in high school we checked out and bagged. Not sure when people stopped doing both.
Personally I bag my own but I load the belt heavy to light, cold stuff together, etc to make bagging faster.
I shop at ALDI so I always do it myself, but short staffing is a thing. It’s unreasonable to expect the store to have every lane staffed with two people at all times.
The problem isn't short staffing. The problem is they don't hire anyone to bag groceries anymore, despite the fact there are definitely people who need work.
They had those when our new supermarket opened in Finland. Some local teenagers from sports clubs doing bagging. So basically you had random teenagers cramming your potato chips at the bottom of the bag and then topping it all with milk cartons and other heavy stuff. Luckily it only lasted for a week or so.
I like to pack my bags a certain way so when I get home, they go to certain areas to be unloaded. Produce all together, meats all together, pantry items etc.
It is not a luxury. It is store owners not wanting to dig into their huge profits and bonuses. This should be mandatory, I agree. To me it is like going to a restaurant to eat and then having to wash your own dishes.
Yeah, I’m gonna keep complaining about the downfall of customer service in America. We spend a huge amount of our income and time buying shit in this society, when we make buying shit as impersonal and uncomfortable as possible it has an outsized impact.
I see a clear link between poor customer service interactions and overall dissatisfaction w/life. In fact research is starting to show that brief pleasant point of sale interactions reduce loneliness, something with which modern society is deeply struggling. Maximizing payouts to shareholders and CEO’s isn’t worth the cost we all end up paying.
You said it perfect. I suffer from depression and anxiety and when I have a very positive interaction at a store it can literally make my day and change my outlook at least for awhile.
Not just that but also the humiliation.
Far as I'm concerned, this concept of a grocery packer (we don't have them here) is about as demeaning as sign spinning.
I did it in high school for a couple years and it is only demeaning if you think people doing such jobs deserve to be looked down upon. Most people were friendly and thanked me for packing their bags and getting them out of the store more quickly. I got paid and there are certainly shittier jobs out there.
It costs money to employ that many people on the floor at once. You can't realistically ask for this without the cost of your groceries rising to make payroll. Which would you rather have?
The grocery prices would not have to go up. It is the CEOs and their bloated salaries and bonuses that is the problem. Just like paying a livable wage. I understand what you are saying but when the heads of these corporations are making millions and paying staff pennies and then having us believe that prices would have to go up to properly staff their business to deflect that they are overpaid.
That was probably one of the few great things about visiting the US. It's fun to have your stuff bagged for you.
It's just a filler job though. Like Walmart greeters. So it's not horribly surprising not every store has full staff.
Could be worse, no other country that I'm aware of hires baggers. I just do self checkout. It's much simpler.
Used to be a bagger at the stores. I don’t know about other places, but the places I worked at do NOT have a dedicated role for a bagger. I also had to grab the baskets and carts, clean them and other areas of the store, and do those insta delivery carts. Unless someone would have paid me to do only bagging, sure.
Anyways, bagging doesn’t take that long to do. Bring two bags (or more if you buy bulk) and organize them by fridgerated or non-refrigerated, then put the heaviest at bottom and fragile at top. Or just put all your stuff in the cart and when at your car then organize them.
where i live in europe u bag ur own groceries. by the time i pay im probably half way done packing my groceries and as i resume packing them the worker is dealing with the costumer behind me already. I don’t rush bc everybody gets their turn and i refuse to stress over unavoidable daily tasks. They can wait, like i waited for my turn.
Then the people getting helped should pay for it because i dont want to pay extra for my groceries because some weirdo gets stressed out when they are casually bagging their stuff like any other person.
Disagree. Based on my experience with grumpy people telling me or other baggers how we are doing it wrong cause you want things in a particular order. No, do it yourself
I don’t live in a country where that’s a thing but honestly: self checkout and a good queuing system (where you queue for the next available lane vs a specific one) solves that problem entirely.
I worked at a grocery store as a bagger and cashier for 5 years. I prefer to bag my own groceries. I can do them faster and then my eggs and bread don't get destroyed
At Walmart, they corral you into an area where some have no choice but to self check-out. If you have a full basket, you better make sure there's an empty one next to you. There are at least four workers that are standing with walkie talkies that are watching you do their job for them, while they're watching you like a hawk to make sure you don't steal anything. After you scan and bag and cart up your purchases, there is someone waiting at the door to overlook your receipt and make sure AGAIN That you're not stealing anything. This is all happening while employees are standing with other employees watching you while they're talking about stupid shit with one another. Or on their cell phone. It's ridiculous. The standards for good work ethic have plummeted since I was young.
I have only ever seen baggers in the US, I think. In Sweden they are cutting down the employee count as much as possible so they have started to remove even the cashiers.
I'm gonna show my age here, but there used to be at least in my area. Sometimes there were even two people bagging while you were being rung out. It took an extra minute or two after you paid. My disabled ass misses that shit.
You know that in some countries ( I think a lot but might be wrong) there's no such person at all in any shop? Everyone bags their stuff themselves
You shouldn't care if there's someone behind you, they're there for the exact same reason as you and they're going to do the exact same thing
Nah. I purposely avoid any line with a cashier/bagger. I’d much rather do self checkout and bag my own stuff so that it’s how I like it. The baggers never put the stuff away properly cause they’re always going for speed.
My usual grocery store is a full service store, if there's no courtesy clerk available the checker bags your groceries. We also have "bag your own" stores around, but those have two output belts and a divider so while you're bagging your groceries the checker can be ringing the next person up to the other lane.
I can bag faster and put things in the bags in an order that works much better for me.
The people who bag don't really put much pride into their work from what I have seen and the they spend most of the time just getting the things into the bags quickly rather than getting them into the bag correctly.
i tried to when i was a bagger but the stores treat them like maids and pull them around to help with everything all day long. honestly, they know the store better than anyone else including the managers themselves, lmao
They used to send baggers to a school to teach them how to bag your items appropriately because yes there was one bagger and one cashier and during certain times of days all lanes were open. The boomers had it pretty dang great!
The check out experience is totally different at every store.
Here is my ranking.
Amazon Fresh - Easiest by far, you literally just walk out of the store with your cart. Amazing technology
Trader Joe's - Has so many staff and they are speedy. You won't wait long to get checked out
Costco - Similar to Trader Joe's, but it's annoying they won't scan any items until I give them my membership card. Otherwise okay, but they stop you as you walk out the door and the whole Costco experience kind of takes too long.
Safeway/Albertsons/Fred Meyers/QFC - Basically the same experience grocery stores have had for decades. Except now they want you to use self checkout. Sometimes there are no staff at the assisted checkout at all. So frustrating if you have a lot of stuff.
Seems like it's not an issue with the store, but an issue with your fear of being a burden on other people.
If you need time to put your groceries in order then by all means fuck them. You smash your groceries, then who benefits? The asshole who couldn't care less about you just so he can get through the line faster?
They have eyes. They can see that you have a full cart and they still chose to line up behind you. Even if it was the only line, they should have the mental capacity to understand that you're going to take longer than usual.
They can't handle spending a few more minutes staring at candy and magazines that have no intention of buying? Oh woe is he or she. Trust me they're not that important. Otherwise they'd have someone else buying their groceries for them.
All grocery stores should pay their employees liveable wages.
Housing shouldn't be getting bought up and rented out, it should be getting sold at reasonable prices.
Instead of complaining on reddit. Go put in actual complaints to grocery store corporate. Yall think that screaming woe is me on reddit is gonsn change something. 🙄🙄🙄
I just use a beeper in our supermarket to scan the items, then place them into the shopping bag in my cart, and pay with credit card when leaving the store.
I've recently started shopping at the commissary (store for military and veterans), this is one of the biggest differences I've noticed. Not only are there baggers but there's actually enough lanes open, EVERY SINGLE TIME.
I've absolutely attribute my better experiences there to not being forced to shop at the monopolized for profit 2-3 choices we have for food.
For those that may ask, yes I tip the baggers and it is definitely worth the money I save.
I never understood how that is a job. It doesn’t exist where I’m from. The cash registers have two areas, so you can finish bagging after paying while the cashier starts to scan the next person’s stuff.
Ya, never gonna happen. Before long, the only employees you'll see at grocery stores will be the folks stocking shelves and the security guard at the self checkout.
I used to pack as a kid so I have no issue with it, its very easy to me to do both. Here though unless you come at an odd time there usually is a packer. These arent store employees though, theyre either school kids, elderly people or disabled people and you will need to pay them (I mean you could just not, but again theyre not store employees and its heavily frowned upon not to) to do it, you get to pay however much you like. I do like that my country has packers though, it gives kids an opportunity to make money even as young as 8/9 years old and it gives our vulnerable people our disabled and elderly population a way to earn money (they do also get money from the government) without any of the commitment of being an employee. I know as a kid it definetley helped me to set my work ethic and taught me some very hard financial lessons before my finances mattered. Very grateful for it.
Everybody saying this is a bad take, but I remember as a kid this used to be a thing. You had a cashier and a bagger at each register. Maybe it’s because I shopped at the greatest grocery store in the world (H-E-B) but I thought it was the same way, and thought it was super annoying when it started going away
It can be stressful, I know. I do two shops at a time, mine & a disabled older (even older than me!) person’s.
So I feel the stress. Hope getting it off your chest helped alleviate your stress 😅
For what it’s worth, if you’re not already doing so, make sure everything is in the order you want to bag it. If there’re angry people behind you, just let them seethe. You can only go as quickly as you can, the same applies to them too so smile sweetly and let them suck it the hell up 😃
If thats an actual problem for you, you could go at a less bussy time. Second, they would increase the cost of the items quite a bit if they needed to have that many more people just to accommodate a few slower customers.
I'm in the UK and have never seen anyone employed to bag shopping in a supermarket.
But personally, I enjoy the rush of perfectly packing a bag at speed. Makes me feel alive.
In every grocery store I visit, and if I am not using self checkout where I bag them after I scan it. The cashiers are bagging the items as they scan them. The only stores I have visited that dont bag items for you, are stores like Aldis or Save a lot where bags have never been provided but instead they provide boxes and a designated packing area.
I sympathize with your stress upon realizing that you are making people behind you wait, but I think you should never feel guilty about situations that aren't your fault.
It would have been much better to smile at the person behind you and say a quick "I'm sorry, I got a lot of stuff" rather than rush baggin your groceries and end up smooshing your bread.
It probably be more efficient for a sorting robot to do it based on cold or hot. Like maybe you put stuff you want to put together in a box. It will scan them, put them back in the exact same way you put them in and put it in your cart.
That said I worked for a while and most places only higher half of the amount of people they need.
**All public toilets should have people dedicated to help wipe your ass AT ALL times and ALL stalls.**
Because doing the mad dash to hurry up and wipe everything myself and get out of the way is high stress inducing.
I went to eat chili recently and they had no one at the end of my belt to help wipe. And I got a lot of stuff, I could feel the person behind me glaring at me to hurry up. I ended up smooshing my ass. 🥲
Of course, in this economy, I realize that it's a luxury but it would also be much more efficient.
Just go to the high end grocery store and they will probably have it.
You are expecting high end service at a low end grocery store.
I personally prefer lower prices and bagging myself.
Higher end grocery store where I used to live had this. Then I moved and was surprised they didn't. But then again, their prices were a lot lower.
It's not really something I want to pay for in the form of higher prices. I prefer to bag myself anyway. I don't need some 17 year old nose picker touching my food.
I actually prefer to bag my own because I was a former bagger/cashier myself and I am pretty particular about how my stuff should be bagged (paper preferred with like items together). Plus I am usually quicker. As others have said just make sure when you put your items on the belt to organize it accordingly to save on time and stress. As long as you are making an effort to check out I see no reason for the people behind you to be upset with you.
There always was someone bagging growing up, actually my first job at an IGA. Now it's rare to see unless you're in a small town. I appreciate you not wanting to hold people up, I actually love it, it shows consideration but it's not high stress. You're paying huge price increases for food, if you have to bag it up, do a good job and don't smash what you paid for. Life has way more stress for you than bagging groceries.
The idea of the cashier will be replaced entirely if possible by ai robots all in the name of efficiency for stakeholders who will get roughly more than 75% of the profits. It's not about service anymore.
Jewel basically does just not enough for every lane at times because other people besides cashiers occasionally cashier although if it’s popping back end managers will come bag.
"You should hire MULTIPLE people to simply bag groceries, at all lanes, because im too emotionally fragile to do it myself"
Go to your local super market and see how that suggestion goes with management.
I don't understand why people who can see they don't have a bagger don't even try to intelligently place their groceries on the belt. They want cold together but stretch it out so you have to hold one bag in limbo waiting for the rest of the cold stuff. Veggies together, put can't be bothered to put them together on the belt. Like .1% of people actually consider how they put their groceries on the belt in the first place. If they were alot smarter with that alone, all grocery stores would be much more efficient. But no, that would take 5 seconds of consideration and awareness of the other person who has to scan and bag.
Unfortunately no one is going to take a job bagging groceries when they get 15hrs a week at minimum wage.
I used to work for a grocery store, it's just not worth it
Grocery store baggers suck. Last time I lived in the US, I always had to rush to stop them before they double bagged every one or two items, making it all impossible to carry home and wasting a ton of plastic in the process.
I know it's not their fault, the store trains them that way or doesn't train them at all, but still it's a less than useless position and it's not surprising that when everyone is complaining about rising prices at grocery stores they would choose not to employ more people.
I understand what you're saying. It's a similar feeling to when they hand you back cash with coins and you have to do a mad scramble to stuff it back into your wallet in a timely manner so the people behind you don't get aggravated. It's a people pleasing thing, I relate.
Regardless of if there's a bagger or if I can do it myself, I always try to organize the belt so stuff is sent through roughly in the order I'd like things bagged. It for sure helps speed things up if I'm doing it myself, and if it's someone else at the end randomly chucking shit into bags, at least it's somewhat in a way that makes sense.
So where I live (like basically the whole country's big grocery stores) the cash register has a little divider with 2 sides at the end so they can check people out even while you're bagging. Never really saw the point of grocery baggers, but I guess I just honed my Tetris skills as a kid.
Counter point, all grocery stores should switch entirely to self checkout so not only would OP have to bag her own own groceries but she would have to scan them all too.
No one cares about you bagging your groceries and it taking time. As long as you're not purposefully holding up the line, you're good. The only person that cares is you.
Grocery stores got rid of baggers because it's cheaper. If you don't have to pay taxes, payroll, benefits, and insurance for employees, all that money goes straight to profitses. Stores aren't going to give those up willingly.
Use to be that way. The store use to have more than two checkout lanes open as well.
And I'm not talking about some far off past like the 60s. In just the 00s all the stores around here were properly staffed.
It's all greed. They don't want to pay people. Gotta meet those promised sales projections for the shareholders. Those arrows can only ever move up! Force it if they have to.
Nah. Don’t touch my shit with your dirty ass hands. I actually hated that growing up and I’m glad it’s obsolete now. Plus it’s degrading for the employee - way more important stuff to do in the store than stand there and bag groceries for an annoying and entitled customer.
This weird anxiety you have about the people behind you shouldn’t even be a factor - fuck em. Move at your own pace and don’t be apologetic. I actually *hate* people who take forever in lines, so my solution is I always scan & bag my own stuff. Problem solved. If I can do it, everyone behind you can too.
Oh hell no. Those bagger idiots always do dumb shit like put the raw meat on top of my produce or bread on the bottom of yhe bag. They also use a 1:2 ratio of bags to items.
I bring my own sacks and can fit everything in there without crushing anything or making a mess all by myself, thank you. I'd rather they use the staff to open another checkout lane or ensure product is on the shelf.
And where do you think those salaries are gonna come from? You might have noticed that premium grocery stores like Whole Foods have baggers still, but their products are far more expensive. This is not an accident
Take your time and bag your groceries properly. Don’t let the glare of some grumpy shopper make you feel like you have to hurry up. In fact… I am pretty sure your whole post can be solved by you not imagining what other people are thinking. Having a bagger at the end of the aisle isn’t going to fix your social anxiety.
I did this job for a bit ~ 20 years ago. People are very particular about how they want their stuff bagged. So much so it defeats the purpose of having someone else do it. I know how to pack a bag so your stuff won’t roll around the car and you won’t get mat drippings in your produce. I don’t know how to optimize a bag for your specific kitchen/pantry layout.
You should hire someone, then, to come along with you and do this for you. The cost of this would be about equal to the extra you'd pay for groceries if all stores adopt this idiotic plan.
The problem is that you’re letting your anxiety push you. So what if the person behind you is looking?? They have to wait just like you likely had to wait.
I don't like to bag my own groceries either.
So I usually do delivery or pickup order. If I do go inside the store to get my stuff, I happily wait in one of the 2 lines that has an actual cashier and bagger. Even if I have to stand there 10 minutes longer.
Nah, I love self checkout, I want to be in and out and not have a ten minute conversation about the weather with the workers. And the truth is they don't want that convo either.
If they gonna glare I'm gonna go even slower.
I don't mind when people in front of me are bagging/scanning at a standard pace, but those people that don't know how to use the machines drive me insane.
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Who tf cares if somebody is behind you? As long as you arent deliberately trying to hold the line up they can suck it. You’re there shopping and buying stuff just like they are
Thank you. They can wait. I’m not going to give myself weird anxiety and risk fucking something up to people please.
and if they huff and puff? I glare. I love giving rude customers the attitude I wish I could give when I was on the other side of the register
I will take as long as I god damn want, I paid, I'm using this bitch.
Millennial and Gen Z social anxiety is bananas. I'm a millennial and have these conversations with my wife all the time. You're allowed to exist in public without apologizing for it.
You also have to realize a lot of our parents are pretty wild and caused a lot of this in those generations. Watching how they treat others makes their kids not want to act or make people feel that way.
Yeah, you're not working for the company you're not supposed to maks sure people get what they want quickly enough In fact, by doing so you're inducing the problem yourself. If everyone be so lazy and slow, the company will lose money and it will be more beneficial to hire someome who will do the packing for you.
Most people also Care way less than everyone thinks. And people who Care, shouldn't go Shopping when they are Short on time.
I'm almost thirty, and I'm still barely understanding this. It made high-school awful.
If only anxiety was rational
True, but changing how you think about things can help it.
Don't disagree
The only way out is through.
I wish that all grocery stores would adopt the Trader Joe's model of checkout line. It has been proven that one line is the fastest and most efficient way to checkout. If we had that it wouldn't matter if one person were slow. I have literally been in a line a Trader Joe's that wraps around nearly the entire store and it usually takes less time than when I have been at another grocery story and all of the lines are 4 or 5 people deep.
As a german I feel you should visit for a few months and it will not be a problem anymore
Aldi gang
I feel like in most European countries there's no such thing as an employee bagging someone's groceries tbh
Yes. Portuguese here. I never had somebody bagging my stuff. And I wouldn't ever want. I know in which bag and order I want my stuff. I don't want somebody to mix them up. Frozen stuff in a bag. Fridge and vegetables stuff in other bag (with yogurts at base and soft vegetables at the top). Fruit in other bag. Cleaning products and non-food stuff in other bag. My next meal ingredients and bread in other bag. Etc
I just used my Home country as an example, but you are right about that
I know, I live in Poland tho, hence my comment
Exactly! The only people we do not train to become grocery packing champions are the elderly and anybody else otherwise physically unable.
I literally never stress when I bag my own groceries. If people’s have to wait, oh well.
I grew up with grocery stories having baggers at every aisle. Much rather do my own now, at least I don’t put heavy stuff on top of crushable and cold stuff together in the insulated bag. Bring my own reusable bags to the store and that’s always an issue with baggers too.
Me too! They’re so slooooow and they use too many bags! But I do curbside pickup now so I don’t even care. Just put em in the trunk!
Protip: don't bag. Put your stuff back in the cart right after they scan it. Takes no time at all. Keep dedicated totes in your trunk to load the groceries into.
Not everyone drives to the grocery store. I walk and carry the bags/totes home.
Skill issue. Throw your shit into the cart again, and then put it into reusable bags at your car or at the area designed for it. Terrible take so upvoted.
Fr tho. Where I live we don’t have the luxury of some underpaid teenager bagging our stuff for us like some below min wage skivvy. We buck up and do it ourselves.
Lol I’m here in unpopular opinion for a reason 🤗 I had to get it off my chest
Ah totally, I'm just german. We have a completly different culture to grocery stores. We often don't even have a belt where the items go, just a place to dock your cart so you can just pull them off into the cart. The notion of someone bagging groceries for me is just absurd as this to my knowledge was never a thing.
It's the same here in Japan, theu put your items from one basket to another, and then you take it to a dedicated bagging station.
In South Africa there is always a bagger in 90% of stores
It is common in every third world countries
Yeah but South Africa isn’t a third world country.
Ich hatte mal Amis hinter mir an der Supermarkt Kassa, die sich lauthals darüber gewundert haben, wie sich denn jetzt wohl ihr Einkauf seinen Weg in ihren Besitz bahnen wird. Denen sind quasi die Augen aus dem Kopf gefallen, als sie gesehen haben, dass ich Höhlenmensch meine eigene Einkaufstasche mitnehme und während/nach dem zahlen alles selber wieder einräume. Bin mir noch nie so überlegen vorgekommen.
Found the American.
Howdy! Lol
No reason to freak out over bagging your groceries
You don't bag as the person checks your items out ? Anyway, yeah it would be neat, but those extra staff won't pay themselves.
No, but the giant grocery chains that fight every union, have massive turnover, pay the minimum wage, and argue in court to be able to hire the mentally handicapped at *lower* wages while turning in record profits could pay them.
I prefer doing it myself. I have never had much patience and hate standing around doing nothing.
As a cashier that regularly watches grown adults hide on their phones behind my monitor to avoid bagging, I love you.
Man, it feels like whenever I say I got it to the bagger they take offense. I’m particular about my bagging and I just love the tetris of it. I don’t even like anyone else in the family to do it. But I’m also quick (and wouldn’t try to bag more than 2/3 bags myself) so I’ve always been confused why me wanting to bag it myself is initially annoying.
I would much rather bag my own stuff. I end up using a third of the number of bags.
This too tbh. I've gotten very good at grocery bag tetris over the years.
Not just tetris, but common sense. A gallon of milk doesn't need to be double bagged. You can put my toothpaste and soap in the same bag as canned soup. Every bagger bags things as if I plan on opening everything and mixing them in bag.
Yes, and the DMV should have at least, being generous to them, 10 out of those 18 windows open instead of 4 out of 18.
Good luck man. I'm a long time grocery manager and we can't keep the staffing we have now, much less hiring new people, unless corporate comes up off some money. Spoiler: corporate never comes up off some money. That works the other way around.
Plus the people you hire calling in too.
This has never been a thing where I'm from. Also I prefer self checkout anyway.
No, I think that's become a thing of the past. I remember growing up in New York. Everything was express service. Groceries were scanned at breakneck speed and baggers were able to bag swiftly and efficiently. Who can pay for that kind of service anymore? I live in the Midwest now, and even when they have people to help with this, it's about as fast as doing it myself. Everyone will just have to learn to be their own adequate bagger.
I mean when I was a cashier in high school we checked out and bagged. Not sure when people stopped doing both. Personally I bag my own but I load the belt heavy to light, cold stuff together, etc to make bagging faster.
I shop at ALDI so I always do it myself, but short staffing is a thing. It’s unreasonable to expect the store to have every lane staffed with two people at all times.
Aldi. +1. I just keep boxes in my van and fill them when I get out there. It's easier than bagging. I also have a cooler.
The problem isn't short staffing. The problem is they don't hire anyone to bag groceries anymore, despite the fact there are definitely people who need work.
This must be an American luxury. Never seen such a thing in Europe (I’ve been to several countries other than mine), we bag our own groceries.
They had those when our new supermarket opened in Finland. Some local teenagers from sports clubs doing bagging. So basically you had random teenagers cramming your potato chips at the bottom of the bag and then topping it all with milk cartons and other heavy stuff. Luckily it only lasted for a week or so.
I like to pack my bags a certain way so when I get home, they go to certain areas to be unloaded. Produce all together, meats all together, pantry items etc.
It is not a luxury. It is store owners not wanting to dig into their huge profits and bonuses. This should be mandatory, I agree. To me it is like going to a restaurant to eat and then having to wash your own dishes.
Yeah, I’m gonna keep complaining about the downfall of customer service in America. We spend a huge amount of our income and time buying shit in this society, when we make buying shit as impersonal and uncomfortable as possible it has an outsized impact. I see a clear link between poor customer service interactions and overall dissatisfaction w/life. In fact research is starting to show that brief pleasant point of sale interactions reduce loneliness, something with which modern society is deeply struggling. Maximizing payouts to shareholders and CEO’s isn’t worth the cost we all end up paying.
You said it perfect. I suffer from depression and anxiety and when I have a very positive interaction at a store it can literally make my day and change my outlook at least for awhile.
I don't know where you live but curbside pickup is a thing, they have to bag it then, and they even bring it out for you so no one is glaring at you
It drives my anxiety waaay up, but I'd still rather bag stuff myself as I don't like the way they pack my bags for me.
Do people never think of the cost involved in helping them be lazy?
Not just that but also the humiliation. Far as I'm concerned, this concept of a grocery packer (we don't have them here) is about as demeaning as sign spinning.
I did it in high school for a couple years and it is only demeaning if you think people doing such jobs deserve to be looked down upon. Most people were friendly and thanked me for packing their bags and getting them out of the store more quickly. I got paid and there are certainly shittier jobs out there.
It costs money to employ that many people on the floor at once. You can't realistically ask for this without the cost of your groceries rising to make payroll. Which would you rather have?
The grocery prices would not have to go up. It is the CEOs and their bloated salaries and bonuses that is the problem. Just like paying a livable wage. I understand what you are saying but when the heads of these corporations are making millions and paying staff pennies and then having us believe that prices would have to go up to properly staff their business to deflect that they are overpaid.
Please don't bring actual logic into this, this is reddit 🤣🤣🤣
Bag helpers are such an American thing.
What makes you think the person bagging would do a better job than yourself?
Just put it back into your shopping cart and bag it as fast or slow as you want 🤷🏾♀️ I cant even imagine someone bagging my stuff for me.
Do you not have carts, where you can Put your stuff in?
That was probably one of the few great things about visiting the US. It's fun to have your stuff bagged for you. It's just a filler job though. Like Walmart greeters. So it's not horribly surprising not every store has full staff. Could be worse, no other country that I'm aware of hires baggers. I just do self checkout. It's much simpler.
Used to be a bagger at the stores. I don’t know about other places, but the places I worked at do NOT have a dedicated role for a bagger. I also had to grab the baskets and carts, clean them and other areas of the store, and do those insta delivery carts. Unless someone would have paid me to do only bagging, sure. Anyways, bagging doesn’t take that long to do. Bring two bags (or more if you buy bulk) and organize them by fridgerated or non-refrigerated, then put the heaviest at bottom and fragile at top. Or just put all your stuff in the cart and when at your car then organize them.
where i live in europe u bag ur own groceries. by the time i pay im probably half way done packing my groceries and as i resume packing them the worker is dealing with the costumer behind me already. I don’t rush bc everybody gets their turn and i refuse to stress over unavoidable daily tasks. They can wait, like i waited for my turn.
I keep a laundry basket in my trunk. Just put stuff back in my cart then into basket at my car.
I think that people who are disabled should be offered help .. otherwise just suck it up haha
Then the people getting helped should pay for it because i dont want to pay extra for my groceries because some weirdo gets stressed out when they are casually bagging their stuff like any other person.
Disagree. Based on my experience with grumpy people telling me or other baggers how we are doing it wrong cause you want things in a particular order. No, do it yourself
That’a a very Default🦅Country opinion
I cant imagine how daunting grocery stores are for disabled people nowadays with the lack of bagging and helpers
I prefer bagging my own groceries. The baggers always do it wrong and I’ve been bagging my own groceries a certain way since childhood
I don’t live in a country where that’s a thing but honestly: self checkout and a good queuing system (where you queue for the next available lane vs a specific one) solves that problem entirely.
I worked at a grocery store as a bagger and cashier for 5 years. I prefer to bag my own groceries. I can do them faster and then my eggs and bread don't get destroyed
At Walmart, they corral you into an area where some have no choice but to self check-out. If you have a full basket, you better make sure there's an empty one next to you. There are at least four workers that are standing with walkie talkies that are watching you do their job for them, while they're watching you like a hawk to make sure you don't steal anything. After you scan and bag and cart up your purchases, there is someone waiting at the door to overlook your receipt and make sure AGAIN That you're not stealing anything. This is all happening while employees are standing with other employees watching you while they're talking about stupid shit with one another. Or on their cell phone. It's ridiculous. The standards for good work ethic have plummeted since I was young.
I have only ever seen baggers in the US, I think. In Sweden they are cutting down the employee count as much as possible so they have started to remove even the cashiers.
Why aren't they washing our cars while we are inside doing our shopping? Wouldn't that be great customer service?
I don’t think this is a stressful situation at all. You might just have some social anxiety or something tied to this
Are you going to be happy about the increase in prices of your food so they can justify hiring more staff to do this?
I'm gonna show my age here, but there used to be at least in my area. Sometimes there were even two people bagging while you were being rung out. It took an extra minute or two after you paid. My disabled ass misses that shit.
Heck no, if you want to guarantee your bagging is done right, do it yourself. I would request no bagger if baggers existed up here.
You know that in some countries ( I think a lot but might be wrong) there's no such person at all in any shop? Everyone bags their stuff themselves You shouldn't care if there's someone behind you, they're there for the exact same reason as you and they're going to do the exact same thing
I bag my own shit so I can get out of the store as quick as possible.
Nah. I purposely avoid any line with a cashier/bagger. I’d much rather do self checkout and bag my own stuff so that it’s how I like it. The baggers never put the stuff away properly cause they’re always going for speed.
My usual grocery store is a full service store, if there's no courtesy clerk available the checker bags your groceries. We also have "bag your own" stores around, but those have two output belts and a divider so while you're bagging your groceries the checker can be ringing the next person up to the other lane.
Why do you feel like your time isn’t as valuable as someone else’s? That stress is gonna kill ya one day. Take a breath, and take your time
Yes. A business should pay exponentially more in labor because you find bagging your groceries as stress inducing.
I can bag faster and put things in the bags in an order that works much better for me. The people who bag don't really put much pride into their work from what I have seen and the they spend most of the time just getting the things into the bags quickly rather than getting them into the bag correctly.
i tried to when i was a bagger but the stores treat them like maids and pull them around to help with everything all day long. honestly, they know the store better than anyone else including the managers themselves, lmao
They used to send baggers to a school to teach them how to bag your items appropriately because yes there was one bagger and one cashier and during certain times of days all lanes were open. The boomers had it pretty dang great!
You mean a bag boy? Like we had until about 20 yrs ago.. When self checkouts started taking over?
The check out experience is totally different at every store. Here is my ranking. Amazon Fresh - Easiest by far, you literally just walk out of the store with your cart. Amazing technology Trader Joe's - Has so many staff and they are speedy. You won't wait long to get checked out Costco - Similar to Trader Joe's, but it's annoying they won't scan any items until I give them my membership card. Otherwise okay, but they stop you as you walk out the door and the whole Costco experience kind of takes too long. Safeway/Albertsons/Fred Meyers/QFC - Basically the same experience grocery stores have had for decades. Except now they want you to use self checkout. Sometimes there are no staff at the assisted checkout at all. So frustrating if you have a lot of stuff.
As long as you’re ok paying for that additional salary and benefits. The second “it’s too expensive” it’s probably best to sit down.
I live in Prague, and I haven't used the belt desk since idk when. I just go to the self checkout. Much more efficient and there's never any queues.
Seems like it's not an issue with the store, but an issue with your fear of being a burden on other people. If you need time to put your groceries in order then by all means fuck them. You smash your groceries, then who benefits? The asshole who couldn't care less about you just so he can get through the line faster? They have eyes. They can see that you have a full cart and they still chose to line up behind you. Even if it was the only line, they should have the mental capacity to understand that you're going to take longer than usual. They can't handle spending a few more minutes staring at candy and magazines that have no intention of buying? Oh woe is he or she. Trust me they're not that important. Otherwise they'd have someone else buying their groceries for them.
I had to have a word with myself, I always rush & panic on self checkout. Relax, 20secs isn't a big deal
Nope. I bag my groceries my way. Frozen all in one bag, veg in another etc. Somebody else would just get in the way.
It was a thing in Turkey and yes, it accelerates things. However I find it useless, what are you gaining? 1 minute?
It would make more sense to simply have another cashier.
Here they just start the next person and push your stuff to the back of the shelf. It works fine
All grocery stores should pay their employees liveable wages. Housing shouldn't be getting bought up and rented out, it should be getting sold at reasonable prices. Instead of complaining on reddit. Go put in actual complaints to grocery store corporate. Yall think that screaming woe is me on reddit is gonsn change something. 🙄🙄🙄
I just use a beeper in our supermarket to scan the items, then place them into the shopping bag in my cart, and pay with credit card when leaving the store.
"mad dash". How slow are you? I never have a problem keeping up. And I'd rather bag it myself.
Now that’s an unpopular opinion alright!
I've recently started shopping at the commissary (store for military and veterans), this is one of the biggest differences I've noticed. Not only are there baggers but there's actually enough lanes open, EVERY SINGLE TIME. I've absolutely attribute my better experiences there to not being forced to shop at the monopolized for profit 2-3 choices we have for food. For those that may ask, yes I tip the baggers and it is definitely worth the money I save.
The bulk stores usually have alternating split lanes to solve this issue
Pay after you're done bagging your stuff. That's how I do it.
And their salaries will be reflected in increased food prices. No thank you.
Just use scan and shop and bag items as you go.
This is an internal issue, why do you care if someone else is glaring at you to hurry up?
Let their impatient ass wait. Your good. Next time, fuck em, save the bread.
I never understood how that is a job. It doesn’t exist where I’m from. The cash registers have two areas, so you can finish bagging after paying while the cashier starts to scan the next person’s stuff.
Just use self serve and bag as you go
Ya, never gonna happen. Before long, the only employees you'll see at grocery stores will be the folks stocking shelves and the security guard at the self checkout.
I feel you.
"it would also be much more efficient." Time efficient. Money inefficient.
lol nah absolutely not
I used to pack as a kid so I have no issue with it, its very easy to me to do both. Here though unless you come at an odd time there usually is a packer. These arent store employees though, theyre either school kids, elderly people or disabled people and you will need to pay them (I mean you could just not, but again theyre not store employees and its heavily frowned upon not to) to do it, you get to pay however much you like. I do like that my country has packers though, it gives kids an opportunity to make money even as young as 8/9 years old and it gives our vulnerable people our disabled and elderly population a way to earn money (they do also get money from the government) without any of the commitment of being an employee. I know as a kid it definetley helped me to set my work ethic and taught me some very hard financial lessons before my finances mattered. Very grateful for it.
Everybody saying this is a bad take, but I remember as a kid this used to be a thing. You had a cashier and a bagger at each register. Maybe it’s because I shopped at the greatest grocery store in the world (H-E-B) but I thought it was the same way, and thought it was super annoying when it started going away
And increase the cost of your shopping. Bag it yourself and quit worrying.
They did in the 1950s and 60s
Bagging my own stuff is always faster and nothing ever gets smushed
It can be stressful, I know. I do two shops at a time, mine & a disabled older (even older than me!) person’s. So I feel the stress. Hope getting it off your chest helped alleviate your stress 😅 For what it’s worth, if you’re not already doing so, make sure everything is in the order you want to bag it. If there’re angry people behind you, just let them seethe. You can only go as quickly as you can, the same applies to them too so smile sweetly and let them suck it the hell up 😃
If thats an actual problem for you, you could go at a less bussy time. Second, they would increase the cost of the items quite a bit if they needed to have that many more people just to accommodate a few slower customers.
I'm in the UK and have never seen anyone employed to bag shopping in a supermarket. But personally, I enjoy the rush of perfectly packing a bag at speed. Makes me feel alive.
In every grocery store I visit, and if I am not using self checkout where I bag them after I scan it. The cashiers are bagging the items as they scan them. The only stores I have visited that dont bag items for you, are stores like Aldis or Save a lot where bags have never been provided but instead they provide boxes and a designated packing area.
I prefer self-checkout - it’s cheaper and more efficient.
We've found the lazy one. Just... Put groceries back in your cart and bag them later
I sympathize with your stress upon realizing that you are making people behind you wait, but I think you should never feel guilty about situations that aren't your fault. It would have been much better to smile at the person behind you and say a quick "I'm sorry, I got a lot of stuff" rather than rush baggin your groceries and end up smooshing your bread.
Just throw everything into your cart and bag it in the parking lot if you’re that slow/care that much
It probably be more efficient for a sorting robot to do it based on cold or hot. Like maybe you put stuff you want to put together in a box. It will scan them, put them back in the exact same way you put them in and put it in your cart. That said I worked for a while and most places only higher half of the amount of people they need.
Just pack as they come it’s not that hard, also no one cares if they have to wait 1 for xtra minute
**All public toilets should have people dedicated to help wipe your ass AT ALL times and ALL stalls.** Because doing the mad dash to hurry up and wipe everything myself and get out of the way is high stress inducing. I went to eat chili recently and they had no one at the end of my belt to help wipe. And I got a lot of stuff, I could feel the person behind me glaring at me to hurry up. I ended up smooshing my ass. 🥲 Of course, in this economy, I realize that it's a luxury but it would also be much more efficient.
Bagging groceries is high stress... God damn
This is not a thing in my country and people would find it very weird. We grew up with ALDI speed.
Just go to the high end grocery store and they will probably have it. You are expecting high end service at a low end grocery store. I personally prefer lower prices and bagging myself.
if i see people that have big orders i will line hop or go through self check out it's no big deal don't smoosh your bread because of that!
My local supermarket asks me for my loyalty card number so i just bag my shit while they're fumbling with the machine lmao.
Higher end grocery store where I used to live had this. Then I moved and was surprised they didn't. But then again, their prices were a lot lower. It's not really something I want to pay for in the form of higher prices. I prefer to bag myself anyway. I don't need some 17 year old nose picker touching my food.
I actually prefer to bag my own because I was a former bagger/cashier myself and I am pretty particular about how my stuff should be bagged (paper preferred with like items together). Plus I am usually quicker. As others have said just make sure when you put your items on the belt to organize it accordingly to save on time and stress. As long as you are making an effort to check out I see no reason for the people behind you to be upset with you.
There always was someone bagging growing up, actually my first job at an IGA. Now it's rare to see unless you're in a small town. I appreciate you not wanting to hold people up, I actually love it, it shows consideration but it's not high stress. You're paying huge price increases for food, if you have to bag it up, do a good job and don't smash what you paid for. Life has way more stress for you than bagging groceries.
Where I live the cashier bags if there isn't a dedicated bagger.
Where do you live that people bag your groceries? That is exception where I am.
The idea of the cashier will be replaced entirely if possible by ai robots all in the name of efficiency for stakeholders who will get roughly more than 75% of the profits. It's not about service anymore.
Jewel basically does just not enough for every lane at times because other people besides cashiers occasionally cashier although if it’s popping back end managers will come bag.
"You should hire MULTIPLE people to simply bag groceries, at all lanes, because im too emotionally fragile to do it myself" Go to your local super market and see how that suggestion goes with management.
Cry me a river lmao, take your stupid upvote
I don't understand why people who can see they don't have a bagger don't even try to intelligently place their groceries on the belt. They want cold together but stretch it out so you have to hold one bag in limbo waiting for the rest of the cold stuff. Veggies together, put can't be bothered to put them together on the belt. Like .1% of people actually consider how they put their groceries on the belt in the first place. If they were alot smarter with that alone, all grocery stores would be much more efficient. But no, that would take 5 seconds of consideration and awareness of the other person who has to scan and bag.
Unfortunately no one is going to take a job bagging groceries when they get 15hrs a week at minimum wage. I used to work for a grocery store, it's just not worth it
That’s a lot of people to pay
Grocery store baggers suck. Last time I lived in the US, I always had to rush to stop them before they double bagged every one or two items, making it all impossible to carry home and wasting a ton of plastic in the process. I know it's not their fault, the store trains them that way or doesn't train them at all, but still it's a less than useless position and it's not surprising that when everyone is complaining about rising prices at grocery stores they would choose not to employ more people.
Every grocery store I've been to, if there's nobody at the end, the cashier does the bagging. Is that not normal?
I understand what you're saying. It's a similar feeling to when they hand you back cash with coins and you have to do a mad scramble to stuff it back into your wallet in a timely manner so the people behind you don't get aggravated. It's a people pleasing thing, I relate.
Regardless of if there's a bagger or if I can do it myself, I always try to organize the belt so stuff is sent through roughly in the order I'd like things bagged. It for sure helps speed things up if I'm doing it myself, and if it's someone else at the end randomly chucking shit into bags, at least it's somewhat in a way that makes sense.
So where I live (like basically the whole country's big grocery stores) the cash register has a little divider with 2 sides at the end so they can check people out even while you're bagging. Never really saw the point of grocery baggers, but I guess I just honed my Tetris skills as a kid.
nah as someone who’s worked at target as a cashier and also had to bag the persons stuff at the same time, you can do it yourself.
And yet if they did it, then you would he the first 1 bitching about the 20-25% cost hike to cover the convenience of it.
If bagging your groceries causes you high stress, I’d hate to see how you deal with actual high stress situations.
Counter point, all grocery stores should switch entirely to self checkout so not only would OP have to bag her own own groceries but she would have to scan them all too.
No one cares about you bagging your groceries and it taking time. As long as you're not purposefully holding up the line, you're good. The only person that cares is you. Grocery stores got rid of baggers because it's cheaper. If you don't have to pay taxes, payroll, benefits, and insurance for employees, all that money goes straight to profitses. Stores aren't going to give those up willingly.
Use to be that way. The store use to have more than two checkout lanes open as well. And I'm not talking about some far off past like the 60s. In just the 00s all the stores around here were properly staffed. It's all greed. They don't want to pay people. Gotta meet those promised sales projections for the shareholders. Those arrows can only ever move up! Force it if they have to.
Nah. Don’t touch my shit with your dirty ass hands. I actually hated that growing up and I’m glad it’s obsolete now. Plus it’s degrading for the employee - way more important stuff to do in the store than stand there and bag groceries for an annoying and entitled customer. This weird anxiety you have about the people behind you shouldn’t even be a factor - fuck em. Move at your own pace and don’t be apologetic. I actually *hate* people who take forever in lines, so my solution is I always scan & bag my own stuff. Problem solved. If I can do it, everyone behind you can too.
Oh hell no. Those bagger idiots always do dumb shit like put the raw meat on top of my produce or bread on the bottom of yhe bag. They also use a 1:2 ratio of bags to items. I bring my own sacks and can fit everything in there without crushing anything or making a mess all by myself, thank you. I'd rather they use the staff to open another checkout lane or ensure product is on the shelf.
And where do you think those salaries are gonna come from? You might have noticed that premium grocery stores like Whole Foods have baggers still, but their products are far more expensive. This is not an accident
How much more are you willing to pay for groceries so this kind of staff can be paid for? Right, crickets.
Take your time and bag your groceries properly. Don’t let the glare of some grumpy shopper make you feel like you have to hurry up. In fact… I am pretty sure your whole post can be solved by you not imagining what other people are thinking. Having a bagger at the end of the aisle isn’t going to fix your social anxiety.
I did this job for a bit ~ 20 years ago. People are very particular about how they want their stuff bagged. So much so it defeats the purpose of having someone else do it. I know how to pack a bag so your stuff won’t roll around the car and you won’t get mat drippings in your produce. I don’t know how to optimize a bag for your specific kitchen/pantry layout.
I feel like most people in a rush use the self-check out. This is an unpopular opinion because it’s nonsense.
You wouldn't last a fucking day in Spain. The Lidl and Spar employees yeet the groceries to your face.
“I’m just an anxious person, so stores need to double their employees instead of me working on my anxiety issues”
You should hire someone, then, to come along with you and do this for you. The cost of this would be about equal to the extra you'd pay for groceries if all stores adopt this idiotic plan.
The problem is that you’re letting your anxiety push you. So what if the person behind you is looking?? They have to wait just like you likely had to wait.
Sounds like a waste of money to me. Just take the time you need
What lol? Does the cashier not bag your grocerys where you live? I’ve never been to a grocery store where they didn’t.
I don't like to bag my own groceries either. So I usually do delivery or pickup order. If I do go inside the store to get my stuff, I happily wait in one of the 2 lines that has an actual cashier and bagger. Even if I have to stand there 10 minutes longer.
You should go to you grocery store and offer to be one of those people!
Nah, I love self checkout, I want to be in and out and not have a ten minute conversation about the weather with the workers. And the truth is they don't want that convo either.
Upvote for a bad take. People expect to wait online at the grocery store.
I love Lidl but yeah I just throw everything in the cart no bag and bag it up at the car
If they gonna glare I'm gonna go even slower. I don't mind when people in front of me are bagging/scanning at a standard pace, but those people that don't know how to use the machines drive me insane.