I guess somebody failed checkout school

[smileyeagle1021]

Again, true. But sometimes changing to another store can pay off. Certain items might be available at the other store that weren't available at the first store, their home brand might be better quality, their fresh food might be better quality and if the staff are treated well, they might also provide better service.

seconded. I switched from Smith's to Reams. Their name brand stuff is more expensive, but the store brand, which BTW is at least as high of quality as Smith's, is a LOT less expensive than Smith's... so if I buy name brand then my cost goes up, but if I buy store brand the cost goes down, and for the most part I've evened out. And the customer service there is a lot better and is easier to get to and from than any of the local Smith's.

[bainsidhe]

Yes your baggers sound like idiots. As a cashier myself, I must say some things in my defense however. Customers bring in their mesh bags and make certain assumptions about how things "should" be bagged. Because of the size of these bags, most customers expect items to be mixed together, including dry goods/frozen/raw meat/chemicals/bread/produce. When I bag with our store's regular plastic bags, I bag very well, but those mesh bags throw me for a loop.

Customers tell me to go ahead and bag everything together, then start nitpicking how to make an exception for this and then for that and then why am I bagging it this way, etc. As long as the customer is polite, I just shrug and make the necessary changes. If they're rude, I do the same, but with a bit of teeth grinding. I do take pride in that I normally bag very well, but people with their own bags each have their own way of doing things and it very seldom is in a way that makes sense to us common folk.

As for regular day-to-day bagging, I agree that some common sense is required. Don't put raw chicken with deli meat, for example. Yet I have to laugh reading some of these stories. I've trained quite a few people where I felt like a parrot. "Raw meat with raw meat. Chemicals with chemicals. Cold stuff with cold. No, that's raw meat, keep it with raw meat. No, don't mix the chemicals with the ice cream. Etc". It's really sad how I can keep saying the same phrases over and over for a few hours. So many trainees assume bagging is just dropping it in however it falls.

[Kogarashi]

So many trainees assume bagging is just dropping it in however it falls.

One reason why I make sure to sort things when I put them on the belt, so the cashier doesn't have to fret over it so mcuh. I've been on the cashier end of things where I've had to reach all over the pile on the belt, or hold twenty different bags at the bagging rack because there was no sense of order to how the customer dumped their stuff on the belt. Otherwise, they would've ended up with chemicals mixed with meat mixed with veggies mixed with frozen goods.

So now, when I go shopping, I like to arrange things to make it as easy on the cashier/bagger as possible. Heavy stuff goes first so it can go right back in the cart without squishing fragile stuff, and things get grouped how I want them bagged.

When I bring my own cloth bags, I usually make a request at the beginning of the transaction what I would like bagged. Usually something to the effect of, "Just put it all in. Yes, all." or "all the cold stuff in there please, and everything else in this bin I'm buying." I've found that if I don't even mention the cloth bag at the start, the cashier will often not notice it (or reach over it completely) and just start bagging into the plastic store bags. ::sigh::

[katie kaboom]

I've found that if I don't even mention the cloth bag at the start, the cashier will often not notice it (or reach over it completely) and just start bagging into the plastic store bags. ::sigh::

Last week i had a cashier that saw my cloth bag on the belt, asked me if it was mine, and when i said yes then proceeded to put my stuff in a plastic bag anyway.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Last week i had a cashier that saw my cloth bag on the belt, asked me if it was mine, and when i said yes then proceeded to put my stuff in a plastic bag anyway.

Which then was dropped into your cloth bag? If so, EPIC FAIL.

[katie kaboom]

Which then was dropped into your cloth bag? If so, EPIC FAIL.

Actually no. I made quite the show of putting the stuff in the cloth bag myself. Not that this woman bothered to notice.