Paper bag customers

[ShinyGreenApple]

I'll be frank. When customers want their groceries in paper bags, it gets under my skin. Badly. Today was one of those times in which I had to remind myself that it is *not* ok to tell people where I'd like them to stick their purchases.

A bit of background - I have recently been started on the service desk at my grocery store. I'm still a bit unfamiliar with a few aspects, and I don't have numbers to do Western Union yet, meaning I need to call someone who does, usually a manager. If the register lines are backed up, we will take people to ring up at the service desk.

Me:

SC: 40-year-old whining brat

SC rolls up to the counter, and I notice she has a few of our paper bags in her cart.

Me: *usual spiel about reward cards, bla bla bla*

SC: *hands me a package of meat* put that in plastic and then hand it back to me.

Me: *complies and starts ringing her other items* Would you like these bagged in plastic as well, ma'am?

SC: No, just hand them back to me.

Now, to say we were 'busy' today would be an understatement. We had someone quit this week, today had two call-ins, and also a brand new manager that doesn't really know what he's doing yet, so at the time, we only had one MOD to rely on. I had two people waiting to get money transfers, and about a half dozen lottery monkeys with tickets in hand waiting to be checked. I was not really having the best day in the world, and to be honest, the last thing I wanted at the moment was an "I want PAPERRRRRR" customer.

I am a creature of habit, and, being such, I absent-mindedly started putting her canned goods into the plastic bag that sits right beside my scanner.

SC: *exasperated sigh* Why are you putting them in plastic?!

Me: Hehe, whoops, sorry about that. Habit.

SC: NOOOO-UH!

Yes, I had started trying to put her crap in plastic again, just like I do for 99% of people who shop here.

While I admit it was my fault and I should have been paying better attention, the childish attitude she copped with me did not help matters in the least. I hope the bottoms of the bags fell out -_-

Ever notice you don't get one of these chuckleheads that ask for paper until every last line in the store is at least ten people deep?

[Despina83]

I have to say that my mom is one of the people who prefers paper bags, and whenever she buys several items she requests paper and they pull them out of hiding to use. She hates plastic bags because apparently they've ripped open and spilled her groceries all over more than once before. But she's very polite about it and thanks them. And if they don't have any bags, she doesn't bitch, she just accepts the plastic (and grumbles about the bags later on while unloading them ). But she's the last person in the world who would be a SC.

[mattm04]

I hate the old people who DEMAND paper in plastic because the plastic will rip and they bitch when you put more than 3 cans of cat food in one bag. It is such a waste and I wish we cold charge them for excessive bag use. I prefer paper in plastic and stuffed as full as possible, the less number of trips from the car the better.

[powerboy]

I prefer the paper in plastic method also.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I prefer plastic bags. The handles on the paper bags at the grocery store tend to rip after you've been carrying them for a while. On the plastic bags the handles are part of the bag.

[MinimaMagistra]

I have a thing: BYOB. Bring Your Own Bags. My family does it, we've always done it, and once I get a collection of my own, we always will. Nice, sturdy, large canvas bags.

What do you think, maybe it'll catch on? ....? No, yeah, probably not. Still, probably the only option that actually IS better for the environment.

[TKPsycho]

Even better: At WinCo, they don't even have baggers. Customers have to bag their own groceries. It saves the cashiers the grief of dealing with the super picky customers. If they want their crap bagged a specific way, then they have to take care of it themselves.

[ColonelInTheKitchen]

I cannot trust paper bags after working at the chicken giant for years now. Every time I take out the bag I either A) give myself a cut, thank you genetically thin skin B) rip it somehow whilst putting ANYTHING into it, or C) have the bottom fall out on me.

And if you think the bottom falling out is sad, I once had to replace a customers ears of corn (what we still sell) three times because the paper bags at our store are so damnably thin.

[Mark Healey]

This is a morons in management issue.

They buy the cheapest thinnest plastic bags they can. At the grocery store where I shop the baggers are told not to double unless the customer ask them to. This sucks. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that a couple of two liter bottles of soda needs to be doubled. If I don't ask they don't do it and I have to ask after the fact which makes it difficult for everybody.

And of course there are a lot of people who routinely ask to have everyting doubled.

All of this could be prevented if the stores simply bought decent bags.

[Broomjockey]

Apparently there are some places now that charge for bags, mainly in the UK, I guess? I think that's a great idea, as people aren't going to be "bag everything seperately, please" and may even *gasp* start bringing their own bag!

I recently picked up a reuseable grocery bag, and it's great, because it can usually carry my weekly grocery run without any extra bags. Though sometimes I'll leave it behind on design or accident, but that's okay, from time to time as I use the plastic bags in my garbage can, so it's still not a waste

[queenbb]

i hate paper my self. not only do i hate the fact that they rip when ever you try to carry them, but the smell of brown paper bag and boxes makes me ill.

i like plastic, they may not be enviromentally friendly, but they are handy, you can carry more of them at one time and they make excellent kitty litter trash bags

[cinema guy]

The Republic of Ireland taxes plastic bags, to discourage their use and encourage environmentally friendly alternatives. (It is only a cent or two though).

[bigjimaz]

At the store I used to work at, one of my least favorite phrases was "Paper in plastic packed light." I can kind of understand if the customer was elderly or physically challenged somehow, but being lazy isn't an excuse. The store gave you a 5¢ rebate per paper bag that had the store logo on it when you brought them from home, Which was good except for the suckiness that ensued when someone brought in unmarked paper bags or ones from other stores.

Did you give me my rebate?

Sorry but we only rebate on bags with our store logo.

I want my rebaaaaaaaaaaaaaate!!!!

It's a nickel bitch, deal with it. (if only)

[Seshat]

I have a thing: BYOB. Bring Your Own Bags. <snip>
What do you think, maybe it'll catch on? ....? No, yeah, probably not. Still, probably the only option that actually IS better for the environment.

It's catching on in Australia. At least in my part of it.

[Boozy]

There's a huge environmental campaign in Ontario now to encourage people to bring their own bags.

It's caught on in a big way. Its getter more and more rare to see someone leaving the grocery store with an armload of plastic bags.