Customers who get two to three cart orders and don't help you pack

[digilight]

I wouldn't call this a whiney post. I would say its more one out of frustration. When corporate cuts hours and only allows a skeleton crew and there are no baggers it causes the lines to get longer and the waits to get worse. When this happens who gets to face the brunt of it all, why the cashier of course.

Since being on this board and seeing how it is on the other side of the fence (from the grocery store employee's side) I have no problem helping to bag or load the bags in the cart. Normally when the wife and I hit the store, if theres no bagger I'll start bagging our order so the cashier can get done with us quicker and get on to the next bunch of folks. I figure it helps him/her out and might just help make their day or night a little easier. More people should do this I think, but unfortunantly I don't see it happening. But at the same time I think that the same holds true here as in handicape spots, the person may not be physically able to bag up all the order, or they might not be able to physically transfer the bags into the cart. Although thinking about it now, how in the bloody hell are they going to get it into their car, or from the car to the house????

And while I'm on a roll, can I say that I freaking hate the fact that corporate requires most of the stores to ask If I require help out with my order. It seems like it would make the bagger feel kinda dumb asking, it makes me feel kinda dumb being asked (6 foot 6 male) if I want help out with 2 bags and a case of soda. Stupid corporate requirements and the time it wastes that could have been better spent doing other tasks.

[shelly2jn]

At our store, the policy is the cashier begins to bag the groceries while the customer unloads their trolley and then as soon as that's done, ask the customer if they require any help bagging the rest of their stuff. Usually people are more than happy to carry on doing their packing (it's not the norm in Ireland to have the cashier bag for you here) and are grateful for the help already given. But.....one customer lifts the items out of her trolley as slowly as she possibly can and as soon as the trolley is empty she suddenly remembers something she has to get. I have seen her peeking around the corner of the aisle waiting for her order to be finished before reappearing I did point out to her that if she wanted me to either bag her order myself or get someone to help her it wasn't a problem....she didn't need to hide until it was done. She was mortified at being caught out and since then has bagged herself! It was said in such a way that I pretended I was only joking - a joke with a jag kind of thing!

[kurisu7885]

I guess mt dad instlled it in me, but he and I always help with loading the carts, if we have to or not. It helps us get home faster, and makes less of a headache for the cashier. On busy nights we've had to wait behind lazy customers for an hour in some cases.

[Kelly Lynne]

Since lots of people have already responded, I'll summarize my thoughts:

Reasonable
-Expecting the cashier to *bag* your groceries
-Being expected to put your own bags into the cart if there's no bagger (assuming you don't have physical limitations that would make it hard or impossible)
-Expecting the cashier to load the cart for you if you have those aforementioned physical limitations and let the cashier know. (That can be a simple "I don't think I can lift some of those; could you load them for me please?")

Unreasonable
-Not helping pack or bag when there's no bagger and then *complaining* that it's taking too long (unreasonable because it expects the cashier to magically do two people's job at the same speed he or she could work if there were a bagger)

Nice but not required
-Helping put items into the bags if there's no bagger. (One of the zillion reasons I know my husband is a keeper is that he does this, even though he doesn't have to.)

Most grocery stores I've been to, the cashier bags and you put your own groceries in the cart. I'm not sure having the items put into your cart is an automatic expected service, any more than you can automatically expect someone to help carry your stuff out and load your car for you (though it's nice when some places do that).

[greensinestro]

Now you're showing your age... *hides* XD

35 next month. lol

[tharglet]

Honestly this sounds like "why can't the customer do my job and make it easier for me"

It's not, if you worked in the supermarket I did. They consolidated all the baggers so there weren't any, and we were supposed to offer to help anyone bag. OK, I don't mind helping, or doing it for the ppl who are supposed to have the service - ones who can't bag for a valid reason, but some customers are VERY lazy.
Meanwhile the queue built up behind them... filling up with annoyed customers as u can't bag and scan as fast as the customer would if they were at least helping out a bit, instead of standing around looking vacant.

Some of these ppl don't even have the mobile phone excuse!! They literally stand there looking like morons.

[HYHYBT]

Now you're showing your age... *hides* XD

Honestly, the most recent version has only been off the air two or three years...

[PharmTechPhantom]

Now, I don't expect to bag my own groceries, but I take it as a given that I'm gonna be the one to load it into the cart. I've actually never considered bagging my own stuff. The places I normally go have all the bags and stuff behind the counter.

[NightAngel]

I'd simply suggest checking the written job description. If bagging and loading the cart is on there then it's not unreasonable- it's what you're paid for and expected to do.

[SuperDan]

Send them to my store. You bag your own stuff... end of story. The registers are set up with two belts going out to the bagging area as long or maybe slightly longer than the main one. These belts aren't automatic, but there are buttons at the bag end that will advance the belt as long as you're holding the button and buttons at the cashier end (designed to be able to be hit with your hip) that will turn the belt on with one hit and turn it off with the next. There are two belts so people with large-ish orders rarely end up holding up the person behind them in line, as you send the new order down the empty (or closest to empty) belt.

Actually for the elderly or handicapped or sometimes even for people with ginormous huge orders we will get someone to bag and carry out, but that someone is the Utility Clerk, which at my store is only one person per shift and is responsible for all of the maintainance and daily cleaning around the store, among other things.

Other stores in our area, even other stores within our own company, offer bagger service to everybody. We offer way lower prices than they do. You get what you pay for.

Back to the OP, unless they were handicapped or something I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the customer to take their already bagged bags and put them in the cart. Perhaps they needed to be reminded. Or maybe they were just clueless of the fact that they were affecting people in line behind them.

On walking around the register... well being tall means I have long arms, I've been known to reach over the scale and grab a case of water out of the bottom of someone's cart, I could probably do a half-ass job of loading their cart that way. I wouldn't expect you to. I do understand how difficult it can be to get around especially when the register behind you is open, as I do have to walk around sometimes to scan large items with my hand-scanner or to take care of a closed sign or a mess. Isn't there a way you can stop your IPMs from rolling down though? Both our old register system and our new one would stop counting scan time if you just hit total. It was the same way when I worked at K-mart. Is this a feature in your register program? Is it one that the supervisors aren't telling you about? Ask, or maybe just do some experimenting one week (like hit total any time you may need to pause, make sure your screen is locked as soon as you finish with your customer if nobody else is in line, etc) and see if your IPMs go up.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I sign off when I'm not serving customers, and if I'm waiting for a supervisor to return with an item, I hit the enter key. That keeps my IPM stable.

[TNT]

I don't have any problems with putting the bags in the cart... I took it out of the cart, so I'm happy enough to put it back in.

As for bagging... watching me bag is like watching me dance... people who see me do it once don't want to see it again. I've had cashiers literally take the bag out of my hand and say, "Don't worry about it... let me take care of this." It's just one of the many things I'm not good at.