Baggers don't know how to bag

[MaggieTheCat]

It shouldn't be too difficult, but apparently it is because half of the baggers I encounter in grocery stores don't know how to do even a semi-decent job of bagging.

I bring my own, reusable bags. One of them is an insulated bag that is intended for cold food (or hot, but I almost never buy hot food at a grocery store.) It is obvious that this is what it's used for: The bag itself is much heavier-duty than a normal reusable bag, it has foam insulation on the inside, and it says on the outside, "Insulated bag, keep your hot foods hot and your cold foods cold." It's not rocket science to figure out that stuff like frozen food, meat, etc. should be the first choices to go in there.

But no. No, the baggers like to put flour, canned products, cold remedies, and condiments in there, and then stick all my cold products haphazardly in my other, non-insulated bags. Oh, look, there's my raw chicken (not bagged in plastic first) sitting on top of my lettuce. Great.

I shouldn't have to baby-sit them and tell them how to bag stuff in even a halfway logical way but apparently I do. I think I'm just going to start bagging my own groceries from now on, since it'll be easier than having to watch and explain to them how I want it done.

[telecom_goddess]

That is why I prefer bagging my own, I do a much better job than they do. It's like they don't use any sense.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Fortunately, most cashiers/baggers I've run into use some sense.

When I worked in retail and had to train new coworkers in packing customer's carts at the wholesale club, I made a point of teaching them how to load it up:
+ Keep hot foods AWAY from cold/frozen/meltable prodcuts
+ Keep chemical products (detergents, cleaning supplies) AWAY from produce, dairy, and meats.
+ Always load the soft, breakable, and/or smashable products in LAST, and preferably in a place where they'll suffer the least damage.

and so on.

[Ophbalance]

It always amazes me when I put all my frozen/cold on the belt first. And THEN I point out "hey, these bags are insulted". And even THEN they sometimes don't use the insulated bags properly, or just look at them (and these are the SAME STORE BRAND BAGS!) like they've never seen such things before. And that's yet one of the reasons I try and grocery shop around 10 PM. I bag my own groceries then.

[mathnerd]

Honestly, I think there's a lack of training going on. Bagging *seems* like common sense, but a 16 year old kid who's never had to deal with badly bagged groceries might not think of certain things. Granted it was years ago, but when I worked at a grocery store the baggers were constantly griping that they were getting yelled at for things they hadn't even considered might be a problem, and the management never saw fit to give these kids even the slightest bit of training.

[raudf]

And it doesn't matter if you put all your stuff in the "groups," as to how you want them bagged. They can and will wind up bagged all over the place as the cashier/bagger decides "Hey, that's the right size to fit!" I also put the eggs before the bread on the conveyor belt. I want the eggs at the bottom of the bag, with the bread on top. The eggs aren't going to be hurt by the bread and the eggs protect the bread from getting squished. Plus only one bag of squishables to keep track of!

IT'S NOT TETRIS!!! Stop trying to cram things in just because they FIT. And NO, clothing doesn't belong with the BLEACH. Nor does the FOOD!!! STAHP!!!!

Mart of Wals, once upon a time, trained cashiers in how to bag.. or at least had videos. Basically it said, "Pack like with like. Meats with meats. Cold with Cold. Clothing with clothing. Don't pack clothing or food with the chemicals." I don't think they do that anymore, given how many times I've had to repack the bags.

[bainsidhe]

For some truly horrible bagging, I recommend watching customers in the self-checkout lines. Because they're in a hurry, they'll bag two-liters with bread, put raw chicken with their potato chips, etc. It can be quite entertaining.

[42_42_42]

I have a favorite bagger at my local grocery. I choose the lane I'll check out in based on where he's bagging, not on line length.

[Dreamstalker]

For some truly horrible bagging, I recommend watching customers in the self-checkout lines. Because they're in a hurry, they'll bag two-liters with bread, put raw chicken with their potato chips, etc. It can be quite entertaining.

That's why I tend to not bag on SCO duty (generally we're not supposed to unless the customer actually needs help; a few regulars will request that I bag for them because I 'know how to do it right'). I'd like some way of marking the bags that get put on SCO lanes, so if an SC drops one in the parking lot and tries to get another for free we can point to the bag and say "YOU packed it."

[sms001]

Above and beyond the lack of common sense and training, I like bagging for myself because I can pack it to UNpack more sensibly. It would creep me out a bit if my bagger knew that one peanut butter went in the cans bag and the other went in the bread bag.

[ADoyle90815]

For some truly horrible bagging, I recommend watching customers in the self-checkout lines. Because they're in a hurry, they'll bag two-liters with bread, put raw chicken with their potato chips, etc. It can be quite entertaining.

For me, that's the benefit of SCO lanes, but I don't like to use those myself because when stores put those in, cashiers end up losing their jobs because only a single person is needed to watch those lanes.

[laborcat]

Don't even get me started on some of the baggers at the Kroger I usually use. After the third or fourth time of finding fruit, avocados, or tomatoes in a bag with cans I finally took the bags to the service desk and asked them if this was how they trained their baggers, and if this was acceptable to them. Since then it's not happened, but I've learned to get right up there and tell them point blank to put all of my produce in one bag, together.

[Chromatix]

This is another of those differences between America and Europe that I have yet to fully understand.

Over here we do our own bagging, as customers. It means fewer people are needed to man each checkout, there are no arguments over how it should be done, and any problems after leaving the checkout are clearly on the customer's own head.

There is one exception: cashiers will, in my experience, often ask whether frozen foods should be put together in a thin plastic bag. I always say no, because I already put them together in a large bag.

[ADeMartino]

Well, I can kind of see the 'why'. I'm not justifying or rationalizing it, just understanding why. We've seen it before, all of us. Entry-level employees who don't give a shit, coupled with lack of training and managers who don't give a shit.

I do prefer usually to bag things myself, but the grocery store near me actually does have decent people working and they do a pretty good job of it, and if I have an entire baskart full, they usually have it done before I'm even finished paying. They're even good at keeping things properly separated - cold, soft/delicate, non-food, chemicals. My only irritation is that they'll often use too many bags for the job. Yeah, I know - 'first world problem'. But a gallon of milk doesn't really need to be in a bag, and yes, it IS possible to put two cans of vegetables in a bag with the two loaves of bread - you just put the cans at the bottom. It just seems wasteful to me.

[Monterey Jack]

For the record, I am a good bagger, so let's not lump together all baggers as being inept at their job.