I was the semi-sucky customer.

[Tsiyeria]

everyone is aware you eat spiders and bugs in your sleep right? And the FDA allows for a certain amount of insects to be in food? You could eat a black widow in your sleep and die

Untrue. This link is to a column of the Straight Dope, and explains why it isn't true.

As for bagging chemicals with foods, I don't believe it's a personal preference. It's not about whether or not it's ever happened to you, it's a precautionary measure put in place so it never does happen to you.
Perhaps it could have been handled better, but I believe you were correct to call the bagger out on it.

[Jay 2K Winger]

I learned when I cashiered at a "Huge" grocery store not to put chemicals with meat/produce/dairy products, and also not to put heavy stuff on top of fragile or smashable items.

I use the same rules as a cashier at the wholesale club, just without bags. Don't put the chemicals next to the meat/produce/dairy products if you can avoid it, etc. I get plenty of customers compliment me on my packing skill.

Except for that guy who apparently worked for the health department. No matter how meticulous I packed his items so no two meat items were touching each other, he still re-packed it. Didn't chew me out or lecture me or otherwise be a SC, just re-organized it in a way that seemed to be more or less the same way I did it, just in a slightly different pattern.

[Mytical]

As somebody who has mild flares of OCD, no putting chemicals in with my food. Ever. I don't really care if they are each individually triple bagged and those bags are all tied..nope..wouldn't touch the food after. I don't mean things like baking soda (which yes I've had somebody pitch a fit about that)..but drain cleaner..bleach..etc no..nope no way. I will bag it first . So I can sympathize with the OP.

I even went SC once when somebody tried to put Decon into a bag with my hamburger..could have handled that much better. (For those who don't know Decon is rat poison).

[Andara Bledin]

My B, I take that one back. The one about the FDA approving a certain amount of bugs in your food.. however..

Don't forget the rodent hair.

If the bagger was posting here, everyone would agree the OP had no reason to yell and was out of line.

Considering that everybody including the OP has said that, I think you might be preaching to the choir.

^-.-^

[roguesqd]

When I was trained as a baggermany moons ago(was my first job in high school) we were trained, chemicals and food do not go in the same bag at all

[Sapphire Silk]

And no, I've never had anything leak on anything before.

I have, though not chemicals. Had a pinprick hole in the bottom of a milk jug. Looked fine when I picked it up, but by the time I got home I had a small puddle of milk in the bag.

Fortunately, the bag did not leak. Sour milk smell in the car would not have been good.

[Primer]

Yeah, I recognize that I was tired, hungry, and irritable, and under normal circumstances would NOT even have thought about a grocery run. Usually, if somebody else does the bagging, I just say, "Thank you," and re-bag it the way I want it when I get to my truck.

[Whiskey]

*Sigh*no you don't....

SNOPES to the rescue!

Sorry it just bugs me when people repeat things as fact when they have obviously not researched at all......

My B, I take that one back. The one about the FDA approving a certain amount of bugs in your food.. however..

My only point was IT IS A PREFERENCE. There are people like me who couldn't give a shit less. There are people who do. There is still no reason to yell at the bagger. If the bagger was posting here, everyone would agree the OP had no reason to yell and was out of line.

[BlaqueKatt]

everyone is aware you eat spiders and bugs in your sleep right?

*Sigh*no you don't....

SNOPES to the rescue!

the whole "you swallow 8 spiders per year was MADE UP to show the totally absurd things people will believe if they read it on the internet....in other words IT'S NOT TRUE!!!!

Sorry it just bugs me when people repeat things as fact when they have obviously not researched at all......


And considering the toilet cleaner I use is an acid(I have to wear gloves or it will eat my skin off-and I handle HCL or hydrochloric acid daily in the lab without gloves), and lids can come loose if jostled enough....yeah do not put that by my food....


And considering I usually have one or more of the following in/on my hands at least 4 times a day-yeah
Salmonella
E-coli H:0157-Lethal
Listeria
Campylobacter
Shigella
Typhoid-good god
Botulism-lethal-classified as level II bio hazard-most toxic substance known to man
Fecal Coliforms
unknown number of unidentified yeasts/molds

We grow all of these in the lab-as in we have active cultures of them

and yes I've eaten while handling the above-meh-I still don't want chemicals in with my food.

[Andara Bledin]

Toilet cleaner is one of those things that really shouldn't be going into a bag with foodstuffs of any sort. You can't really compare it to Lysol; they're very different things since they expect people to be putting food where the Lysol was sprayed..

The correction was warranted, the teacher voice not so much. I'd mark this as a half-suck, in line with the title.

^-.-^

[Sleepwalker]

Unless it's ant poison, I don't care.

[Treasure]

a couple of weeks ago i went grocery shopping for mom and dad - now my first mistake was going to the store closer to my house that i hate... I feel a bit pale for shopping there, also it caters to a certain community, w/ little regard to others that shop there too...

my second mistake was not doing the bagging myself - the bagger and the cashier were too busy chatting with each other to pay attention to what they were doing... when i was loading the bags into my car, one of them had ripped, b/c the bagger had loaded it improperly - yes, i am aware that box corners can tear a paper sack easily, how ever, if nothing but boxes had be loaded into that particular bag, then they'd've held each other tight (leave that alone!) and the box wouldn't have had the wiggle room to tear the sack; also i was asked if i wanted my 10lb sack of sugar bagged - if she were packing the paper sacks properly there would've been plenty of room, and no need for her to ask... but i figured if she's to lazy to do her job correctly i'm not going to bother... told her no it was fine.

I rebagged my groceries in the parking lot as I loaded them into my car...

[Whiskey]

And you've never had a container of something liquid have a pinprick hole in it from unpacking/manufacturing, that could leak over everything? The default training should always be to never pack cleaners with food.

I know what the default training is, I used to be a bagger/cashier. I'm just saying it [b]is[/s] a personal preference.

And no, I've never had anything leak on anything before. If it has a pinhole prick from manufacturing itd leak all over the box it was packaged in, the shelf it sat on, my grocery cart, or the conveyor belt. I also look at the things I pick off a shelf. There is also water, to clean chemicals off stuff. I don't know how many people I've seen lysol a counter then chop something right on it.

dear lord you people are paranoid as hell. Apparently, I'm more adventurous than I though. Me and my not fearing washed things. o_O

everyone is aware you eat spiders and bugs in your sleep right? And the FDA allows for a certain amount of insects to be in food? You could eat a black widow in your sleep and die

[sevendaysky]

On a recent Walmart shopping trip (I know, I know) I bought several things including a small jug of laundry detergent. I think the other items packed into the bag with that jug were some plastic cups and a bottle of shampoo. By the time I got home (about 10 minute drive) and got the bag in, the detergent had leaked all over everything in the bag to the point where I had to marinate the cups and rinse them over and over until all the slipperiness and suds were gone. I still haven't brought myself to drink out of them yet for fear of detergent poisoning. There was no obvious leak in the bottle, but as it turns out the cap was juuuust so slightly loose, enough to coat the inside of the reusable bag. Yay. At least I could just toss the bag into the wash and it self-cleans? :P

[Arcade Man D]

^it is a personal preference, actually. I couldn't care less if the capped and sealed toilet cleaner goes in with my produce. I bike home from the store and the less bags, the better. I've never had toilet cleaner magically combust and leak on my food.

And you've never had a container of something liquid have a pinprick hole in it from unpacking/manufacturing, that could leak over everything? The default training should always be to never pack cleaners with food.