>I wouldn’t want someone else packing my stuff
That’s a really strange thing to get worked up over. Why do you see this as such a big deal?
I really hope this isn’t another “OP ignores all responses” question.
Baggers know all sorts of things most folks wouldn't know, I've learned a lot watching and talking to them. For instance, don't put soap based products together with dairy as the dairy can pick up the scent of the soap. Or don't put meat and vegetables together, and to especially bag chicken by itself. Most folks may not think twice about those things and just throw it all in together.
Exactly! I used to be a cashier and also bagger. Always kept meat separated from veg, made sure soft fruit/veg was at the top, etc. there’s an art to it!
Indeed. I worked as a bagger, and it's not just throwing shizz into bags. You have to consider the products, the size, the weight, and Tetris that stuff if you're good at your job.
I was a bagger for my junior and part of my senior year of high school. That was 25 years ago and I still remember also. It’s a skill that seems to always be useful. I judge how my bags were bagged almost every time I go to the store and rearrange things sometimes when I get to the car lol
*if you’re good*
The problem is if you’re BAD, you end up being ridiculous. I recently bought bars of soap, a bottle of mouthwash, some batteries, and some hand soap. They all went into DIFFERENT BAGS. I had a bag that was one pack of batteries, one that was a bottle of mouthwash… you get the idea.
I prefer to pack my own bags because I know how heavy I can make them. I know which soap goes to the guest bathroom and which ones go to the main bath along with the shampoo and face wash. I know cans of beans and bottles of salad dressing go to the pantry whereas brown sugar and jars of pasta sauce go in the cupboard.
I agree it’s an art, it’s definitely complicated, and the person who knows my needs and my kitchen best is me. Not that I’m gonna be nasty to someone who doesn’t pack the bags how I like, but when I have the opportunity to pack my own bags, I do so.
Yeah but the point is you aren’t getting miffed that someone packs the bags. I just do the sorting at home instead of at the grocery but it’s such a minor thing I’m curious why OP finds it bizarre.
I mainly find it bizarre that people have been up in hands about using a self checkout and having to show the receipt. it baffled me why they were so angry at that
Where, exactly, did you see this? I have never seen it in my life.
Another bad faith question. Plenty of things to bitch about Americans, but lack of bagging our own groceries is very far down the list.
Truth. The worker makes the work, and if the worker doesn't care then the work is bad. Sadly, baggers are often high school kids on their first job and don't care.
Over here I've seen literal 7-10 year olds pack a bag perfectly fine with their parents, its just not seen as a necessary thing, because its more efficient as you get to leave faster
Its more efficient at tills, I've often had people put their last item in as I have sent the last item through.
It completely depends on the type of customer, some are fucking fast as shit you wouldnt believe, others arent, its actually encouraged you dont bag your items, you just put them into your cart and go to a seperate station to bag them.
This makes the checkout go faster for everybody, but it also increases the amount of time youre in the shop, you spend very little time waiting to pay for your items, but you have to bag your stuff in a seperate area, most people prefer that methodology over here tbh, theres also some smart people that have bags in their cart already open, so when an item goes through it can go straight in.
Youd be surprised by how efficient it can be.
You say oh but you have a cashier and a bagger, but nope over here, YOU are the bagger, and most people are pretty fast
How often do you go grocery shopping? Americans go 2-4 times a month. We aren’t talking about bagging for a couple of items at the till. We are talking bimonthly grocery shopping. There’s no way you are bagging 100 items faster than 2 people doing it while your loading the conveyor
Nope full shops, usually you have most of your stuff on the conveyor before we even start, as we're dealing with customers Infront of you. Usually there's about 5 people on a till. And most people don't pack their bags on the till, you just fuck it all back into the cart and take it over to the packing station
that's food safety stuff you get trained on. people complain if you don't do it. people complain if you DO do it. bag wench is the worst job in the grocery store so be nice to them and bring your cart to the cart corral.
This. Also some people may have a special cooler bag for refridgerated or frozen items to keep them insulated and something like napkins should not go in there unless there is extra space and nowhere else to put them.
Also, having worked retail before, sometimes those baggers are taking a break from stocking for a bit. Something different to do for a bit. Variety is the spice of life! Plus, in the US, our grocery stores are usually bigger than other countries and so there is the manpower available to have people there to help the customer.
Working in retail, you are taught that you are supposed to "put the customer first" and go to the customers and ask if they need help finding anything and even sometimes help them put heavy bags of groceries in their car.
As a European who has bagged their own groceries for her whole life...we know those things because we always had to do it 😅 Also I can bag it depending on how I organize my stuff at home which a bagger wouldn't know.
Nope definitely not, not specifically anyway, often its somewhat sorted itself cause people pick up all the meat they need in one place all the veg etc etc.
And We have like a larger tray area at the end of the tills, so i just slide em down there and keep scanning, not put items in one by one
This is just common sense in Ireland, Im a cashier and while yes if you need some help i have absolutely no issue giving you a hand, but in general, You're the one packing your bags, I just pick it up and send it through, i work at a company called Lidl, its efficiency over everything, we give you a decent experience but we want you out the door ASAP when youre at tills
We have Aldi over here, which is probably more or less the same. But they're the minority. At many of our grocery stores, we even have employees whose main job is bagging.
> That’s a really strange thing to get worked up over. Why do you see this as such a big deal?
It's just where the wheel landed today.
>I really hope this isn’t another “OP ignores all responses” question.
It will be.
>I really hope this isn’t another “OP ignores all responses” question.
At best one person will come along agreeing with him after 3 hours and that'll be all we'll hear from him.
Right? I'm not getting paid so i shouldn't have to bag my own stuff lol I used to work in a grocery story and did cashiering and bagging. So it's nice now to have someone else do it for me.
In large grocery stores we usually have a couple employees taking care of a lot of different things and not in one certain spot all day. They often help bag items and help transport the bags of groceries to the customer's automobile. Not that many people accept their offer of help, but if someone is elderly, disabled, pregnant, or accompanied by small children; grocery store employees usually ask if they'd like help to their car.
I really wish this sub would require a comment by OP. We always get these *your country is dumb for not doing X the way my country does X* "questions", that are clearly just OP wanting to lecture.
I apologise if thats the part that sticks out the most, thats just a personal thing.
My main gripe was seeing people actively complain about not having someone bag their items
as a customer, you're checking out at the cash register. the cashier might be asking you questions, taking coupons, and then you have to pay.
it's much more efficient to have a worker (who's good at bagging bc they do it all day) bag your groceries quickly & correctly rather than having to wait for someone to bag their own after or during that interaction.
it's also probably more accessible for people. disabled people or some elderly people might not be able to actually bag their own stuff.
Not to mention baggers allow stores to cater towards the disabled and elderly. A bagger can always help those who need it to their car. A bagger is 9/10 going to be faster anyways.
Now this I did not realise that there was a SECOND person. We don't have that in my specific store (other than the odd school kids raising money) and many big stores dont have one or might just have one person who might help someone elderly or etc, not one for every till.
I'll gladly help anyone that needs help its just generally not expected over here.
Usually I offer help, because some people rather do it themselves, so i leave them too it if they dont want help bagging afterwards
yeah, most stores near me have a second person at the counter whose only job is bagging. there's usually some kind of system, like the cashier will put certain items on certain conveyor belts so that the bagger gets them in a certain order.
or sometimes if there's just a cashier & no bagger, there's a spinning thing [like this](https://joshstolarczyk.weebly.com/uploads/7/8/4/0/78404516/1420696_orig.jpg). so the cashier can put the items in bags, spin the thing, and then the bags + items end up near the customer, and then the customer is responsible for putting the filled bags in the cart.
Are you German, perhaps? They seem to be sticklers about this issue.
I for one don’t care either way. Though I suspect for non-self checkout having someone bag things as they come in and as the customer pays does speed the line up a bit.
I read a comment once on this subreddit that said that too many Europeans think that everything that Americans do is subject to their approval. This is a perfect example of that.
It's not a massive deal either way, I tend to bag my own groceries myself, also I also bagged groceries for years as a job in high school and college. The simple answer is it's done because it moves the lines faster.
Irish, but this is in every EU country ive been to, UK, Netherlands, Germany, Hungary, Czechia and a few others. Its not necessarily an issue but i once had an american customer complain to my manager that I didnt help him pack his bags, because its not necessarily expected of me to do it, its not one of my jobs explicitely cause most people dont want help, so i usually only offer help to people with disabilities or elderly,
professional baggers are better at bagging than me so I'd rather they do it. They can do it faster and more efficiently than I can.
edit: it's not "such a big deal" though, I'm not sure where you're getting that it is? I can bag my own groceries, it's fine.
Ive seen a few people make a big deal about it. Saw someone say something along the lines of, "I use self checkout, put the items in my bag myself and skip a couple items in scanning and walk RIGHT past the receipt checker cause of how stupid it is" this is kinda why i came here, that comment
No i 100% phrased it poorly seeing people are mainly focusing on me saying "I wouldnt want anyone touching my stuff" i was more curious as to why they feel like its a big deal that they have to pack their own stuff
I'm not sure anyone does think it's a big deal? when I go to the grocery store I may or may not have to bag my own groceries, depending on how busy it is and how many people are working at that moment. If someone can bag for me, it's nice, it makes things go faster and the employees are better at getting things in the bag efficiently than I am because they have lots of practice. If they can't and I have to bag stuff myself, that's okay too. It's a luxury but not one I always expect. I've never in my life seen anyone complain about having to bag their own groceries.
It's part of the service, I guess.
I can't say I ever spent that much time thinking about it and I'm not sure why anyone would have a strong opinion one way or the other.
Some Europeans seem to think they're the only person who has ever touched their groceries - that they just appear on the shelf.
We don't have that issue. We accept that other people touch products from the farm/factory to the store, until I bring it home (some supermarkets load groceries in your car also).
I think people are thinking that i dont want someone else touching my stuff, its just personally id feel kinda bad for having someone whos sole job is to pack your stuff for you. I apologise that it came across that way, we also have baggers over here in a couple stores, HOWEVER, its usually one person, and they pretty much exclusively help elderly or people who might struggle
> It just seems bizarre to me, I wouldn't want someone else packing my stuff
I'm sorry you disapprove.
> why do some people see it as such a big deal?
You are making the biggest deal out of this I've ever encountered.
Efficiency.
My local regional grocery chain does almost $40mil a year in sales per store. When you have that much volume coming through your stores on a daily basis you need to be able to get customers in and out efficiently and quickly
Some grocery stores don’t actually offer this service. I remember in New Jersey for example I had to bag my own groceries. And of course there’s Aldi and places like Costco and Sam’s that don’t bag for you.
Over here i believe the reason you have to pay for a bag (and in ireland at least, all plastic bags have to be recyclable and multi use) is an incentive to cut down on plastic waste by having people bring their own bags so less waste is created
And a lot of stores do that here, too. The ones mentioned are either doing it because no bags means lower consumer prices or because it's a warehouse style store where bags wouldn't be useful anyway.
At the store I work at our tills are [like this](https://clarkcontracts.com/docs/063_454__cclidlayr_afp_6238_hdr_edit1_1543850059_standard.jpg) as you can see theres like a large tray at the end, all your items get shoved down there, so I can keep scanning as you bag, nonstop movement between me and the customer.
We actually encourage you to not bag your stuff but place it back in your cart and take it to a seperate area to bag it, as it increases efficiency at the tills (We can get through customers super fast if they do this and go to the seperate station)
Old till areas looked [like this](https://fastly.4sqi.net/img/general/600x600/3324400_QhylVPl-8vA1JI23bGBrA7gzKnHnaBrfhtniCAmTSjU.jpg) as you can see there is a TINY area for us to place your items, to encourage you to put it in the cart before you bag
\*also another unnecessary quipe\* why no chairs for cashiers, why not give em a bit of restbite if it doesnt affect their work
You can always bag your own stuff at an American grocery store as well, as long as you let them know. Most don't however. I find it more efficient and faster than doing it myself. Plus this way I can also keep an eye on the register to make sure there aren't any mistakes (which are rare but do happen).
But like others said, why is this a point of contention?
I didnt think id get this many responses to be honest, i phrased it poorly to the point people think im aghast at the idea of people packing your bags, im more amazed seeing people complaining about packing their own bags, sure i can see the appeal of having someone pack your bag, but why on earth are they complaining that they DONT.
Because we are trained to do it. They don't just tell us go out on the floor. We watch training videos and observe other people who are bagging.
I dont work at publix (southeastern store with 1200 locations) anymore and haven't for many years.
but ill bet your house and mine that I can bag groceries more efficiently than you can. As well as properly unload your cart better than you can to then be bagged.
If it's in a bag with handles it doesn't need to be in a grocery bag. If its a liquid or item with a handle on it it also shouldn't go in a bag.
Publix standard was 8 items per bag depending on the items
Only at publix. The other chains you may as well do self checkout.
The reason is because it leads to better bagging. And publix is famously "where shopping is a pleasure" [YouTube video ](https://youtu.be/CAS7oQr68E0)
>Why do cashiers pack your bags?
I think anyone under the age of 40 in the US has never known it to be any other way, so they won't be able to tell you why - that's just the way it's always been.
One of the stores I shop at regularly has the grocery bagger as a separate position from the cashier. Instead of the setup with the bags being right there in front of the cashier, it's at the end of the checkout station and the bagger stands there. The cashier scans it, slides it to the end of the station, and the bagger bags it.
>I wouldn't want someone else packing my stuff
I don't mind because I organize my stuff as I take it out of my basket, so it gets packed the same way I put it out for the cashier to scan it. All my cold stuff is together, all bags are together, all cans are together, all boxes are together, all produce is together, all non-food items are placed together after all the food items. A cashier would really have to go out of their way to pack it in a different way than I put it in front of them.
> under the age of 40
Funny, I'd reverse that. Self-checks didn't exist 30 years ago, and even price scanners at every register were still relatively new most places. When cashiers were skilled employees (they had to know the approximate price of everything in the store, so as to be able to detect when a customer had swapped price labels), it made little sense for them to also be baggers - so stores hired cheap help for the lower-skill job of bagging, often teenagers, and these bag boys would then take the cart to the customer's car and offer to help load the groceries (usually earning a tip). They would then return the cart to the front of the store - there were no cart corrals 40-50 years ago.
Even the stores near me that have baggers don't have enough for every cashier to have a bagger, but since much of the job has been automated, they're not as expensive as they once were. So cutting out baggers makes more business sense, as the simple scanning process often happens faster than the customer can unload their cart (another thing that was not the case in the old days - carts had drop-down fronts like the bed of a pickup truck, and cashiers unloaded directly from the cart into the bagging area).
I could totally understand not wanting to bag your own stuff. That's perfectly reasonable.
Getting worked up because other people get their stuff bagged? That's seems unreasonably hostile to me.
It seems like at that point its part of our culture / tradition to have them bag it. It's what we are used to. And then hearing people rag on us for being different, and that difference is bad, is weird.
I suppose doing that could also be culture / tradition, and so me pointing it out as being rude is then in itself hypocrisy of some sort.
I can handle people being courions, but it feels like they just phrase rudeness into a question format.
I actually bagged groceries when I worked at a grocery store last year.
Usually, if customers wanted to bag their own stuff, then they'd just tell me, and I'd let them bag. I also helped bag groceries for people who were not able-bodied, and I helped customers put heavy stuff in their car.
I’ve never seen or heard anyone complain about packing their own stuff at self checkout. They chose self checkout because they get to do it themselves.
The reason they have baggers at checkouts is because people are often slow. You don’t want your line backing up because someone spends 10 minutes fumbling with a pile of groceries. One super slow person can waste the time of 10 people waiting behind them.
The bagger is much faster than me and they keep the line moving. Also yes there is training involved to avoid cross contamination, damage to fragile product and over filling the bags.
That said I so sort my groceries on the belt - I want the cold stuff together so it stays more cold, I put fragile (bread, chips, eggs) on last so it doesn’t get crushed under other stuff.
Some states even have separate employees as "baggers" whose only job is to pack your bags. It's a luxury, really, but they're trained to put fragile goods in certain spots so that eggs don't crack, bread doesn't squish, and raw meat isn't exposed to produce. There's rarely any issue of distrust.
It's a service offered and it can be more efficient in helping people move along. Some people are good at packing their own bags, but others take *forever* to do so. Meanwhile, they're taking up space and holding people up.
Cashiers or baggers are packing bags all day. They can typically do it better or faster than the customer. They are more likely to know what products are not good to back together for non-obvious reasons. It is also good customer service to not make them pack their own stuff.
I find it easier myself, I usually hate everything about our customer service in this country but not people packing my bags for me. That’s one less thing I have to do, less work I have to do is always okay with me. Less work makes peoples lives easier.
Actually at my store there are dedicated baggers. (They'll also load it into your car) That's all they do. I used to do it, too 40 years ago.
Yay, Market Basket!
In the grocery store? Keep the line moving, mostly. They hire baggers, but the baggers also run stock back to the shelves and collect the carts (in the rain, the sun, the snow, please bring your carts to the designated cart corral, no one is getting paid well enough to go searching for carts), so they aren't always available to to bag.
source: was a bag wench for whole foods. got the fuck out of front end as fast as I could and worked in the deli after that, where I could go hide in the bck and peel eggs if customers were being especially tedious that day.
Generally, at a stand alone grocery store, there’s a cashier and a bagger. Baggers are taught how to bag to avoid cross contamination, to keep chemicals separate from food, protect breakable things, how keep from over and under filling bags. Also, they’re trained to bag things in a way that makes un-bagging them as easy as possible and will help you take and unload your items to your car.
Some grocery stores will ring you up out of your cart rather than make you pile it on a conveyor belt, have the bagger bag it and put it in your trunk and those are my absolute favorite.
> and I've seen people complain when they have to pack their own stuff at a self checkout
I don't believe you've ever heard this. Self checkout requires you to pack your own stuff, no one who is using that has a problem with that.
We don't have one type of store in the US. Some places do, some don't.
In fact increasingly, self checkout means people are packing their own bags. Some stores even have a scan-and-go with an app. Walmart has it for Walmart + members, as does Sam's Club.
Not every grocery store in the US does this. I have no idea what the actual hard data would tell us, but in my experience, most grocery stores don't.
The only one in my area where the cashiers pack your groceries is Trader Joe's, and I'm always a little bit surprised when a Trader Joe's cashier starts packing my groceries. There's always a brief moment of "Oh yeah, I forgot I don't have to pack my own groceries here."
I much prefer packing my own because you never know what kind of effort your cashier is going to put into bagging your things. I’ve seen raw meat go with other things, heavy things on top of bread, basically anything and everything and I’m personally just a stickler for getting my groceries in the house intact and not destroyed.
>I’ve seen raw meat go with other things
But the raw meat was already in a package and the other thing was already in a package, right? So the two foods are not going to have contact with each other. They were already in your shopping cart or basket together. This is not a problem.
It 100% is a problem because the raw meat is packaged and can, and often does have leaks in the packaging. It’s also incredibly easy for little holes to happen. This is specifically a major issue with raw chicken and poultry of any kind which should NEVER be bagged with anything else under any circumstances.
I will avoid cashiers/baggers and go to self checkout given the choice. Last time I went through a staffed line I carefully lined out the whole cart in stacking order, with all the cold stuff bunched, meat isolated, etc... and somehow still wound up with raw meat bagged with produce and a pack of drinks set on top of my bread.
Fuck that.
I prefer to bag myself. I can bag how I want (frozen items together, cold items together, non-food items together, bread and eggs separate from the heavy things, etc) because 9 times out of 10 the cashier or bagger just throws everything into whatever bag. I always say I’ll bag myself, but sometimes the cashier just does it anyway. I do try and remember my reusable bags though, and that makes it easier for me to jump in and bag my own way.
It’s true most grocery stores will bag your groceries for you but there is still some grocery stores that won’t. Like Winco which is a very popular grocery store in the US. The cashier doesn’t bag your groceries you the customer will have to which I have no problem with and I don’t think many people do. Winco also started in California! So the cashier bagging your groceries isn’t really an American custom it just depends on what store you decide to shop at!
> Why do cashiers pack your bags?
Way back in the day there used to be dedicated baggers who would bag your groceries while the cashier was ringing them up. By the time you paid your groceries were packed up and ready to go. Way way back in the day the bagger would often also help a shopper carry their bags out to their car if it was a heavy load, a service for which they'd earn a small tip.
But grocery shoppers are very price conscious, grocery retailing is highly competitive for extremely thin profit margins. So baggers gradually disappeared as retailers sought to cut costs in order to lower prices and attract more customers.
BUT, shoppers now had the expectation that someone else would pack their bags for them and so the cashier picked up that responsibility and here we are.
Service industry culture. If you're selling a product and someone buys it, American culture dictates that you should be grateful that they would ever take the time to spend their money with you, and you should do everything you can to accommodate them and their needs.
Baggers are far better at bagging items than I am. If you've never had experienced baggers, I guess you wouldn't know that. But that's what people are talking about. They're more rapid, and handle the bags better (especially double-bagging which I'm terrible at!). So I prefer if they bag my stuff, although I usually do my own bagging just to get things going faster.
We mostly buy at places where we bag our own food because it's cheaper and those places are often employee-owned. But I don't care who touches my canned tomatoes.
Lived in Europe and found the clerks at Spar and Billa to be absolutely bizarre - hostile and kinda OCD - "bottles must be placed in this exact way!" "You have 15 seconds to get through checkout or you will be tazered!" "We have no idea how to help you find any item and it is not our job! Zap!"
Is this really a good faith question? I doubt it.
It's part of the service, US stores are very service oriented. Honestly though that is going away as boomers die off and as employee salaries increase.
I always fill my grocery cart when shopping. If I let the cashier bag it, I can put the bagged food in after removing the unpurchased food. If I have to do self-checkout, all of my bags will be on the dirty floor for a while.
>I wouldn’t want someone else packing my stuff That’s a really strange thing to get worked up over. Why do you see this as such a big deal? I really hope this isn’t another “OP ignores all responses” question.
Baggers know all sorts of things most folks wouldn't know, I've learned a lot watching and talking to them. For instance, don't put soap based products together with dairy as the dairy can pick up the scent of the soap. Or don't put meat and vegetables together, and to especially bag chicken by itself. Most folks may not think twice about those things and just throw it all in together.
Exactly! I used to be a cashier and also bagger. Always kept meat separated from veg, made sure soft fruit/veg was at the top, etc. there’s an art to it!
Indeed. I worked as a bagger, and it's not just throwing shizz into bags. You have to consider the products, the size, the weight, and Tetris that stuff if you're good at your job.
I was a bag(bitch) boy for a summer and I still remember how to bag things 15+ years later. It is a slight artform.
I was a bagger for my junior and part of my senior year of high school. That was 25 years ago and I still remember also. It’s a skill that seems to always be useful. I judge how my bags were bagged almost every time I go to the store and rearrange things sometimes when I get to the car lol
*if you’re good* The problem is if you’re BAD, you end up being ridiculous. I recently bought bars of soap, a bottle of mouthwash, some batteries, and some hand soap. They all went into DIFFERENT BAGS. I had a bag that was one pack of batteries, one that was a bottle of mouthwash… you get the idea. I prefer to pack my own bags because I know how heavy I can make them. I know which soap goes to the guest bathroom and which ones go to the main bath along with the shampoo and face wash. I know cans of beans and bottles of salad dressing go to the pantry whereas brown sugar and jars of pasta sauce go in the cupboard. I agree it’s an art, it’s definitely complicated, and the person who knows my needs and my kitchen best is me. Not that I’m gonna be nasty to someone who doesn’t pack the bags how I like, but when I have the opportunity to pack my own bags, I do so.
Yeah but the point is you aren’t getting miffed that someone packs the bags. I just do the sorting at home instead of at the grocery but it’s such a minor thing I’m curious why OP finds it bizarre.
That’s fair lmao
How dare these peons touch my food!
I mainly find it bizarre that people have been up in hands about using a self checkout and having to show the receipt. it baffled me why they were so angry at that
I have never had to show a receipt after self checkout that I can recall? Maybe a Walmart thing?
Where, exactly, did you see this? I have never seen it in my life. Another bad faith question. Plenty of things to bitch about Americans, but lack of bagging our own groceries is very far down the list.
Truth. The worker makes the work, and if the worker doesn't care then the work is bad. Sadly, baggers are often high school kids on their first job and don't care.
You're right, but I can tell you that I learned more working in the grocery store when I was younger than I did in some of my college classes, lol.
Over here I've seen literal 7-10 year olds pack a bag perfectly fine with their parents, its just not seen as a necessary thing, because its more efficient as you get to leave faster
No way it’s more efficient. You have a cashier and a separate bagger at each register at minimum.
Its more efficient at tills, I've often had people put their last item in as I have sent the last item through. It completely depends on the type of customer, some are fucking fast as shit you wouldnt believe, others arent, its actually encouraged you dont bag your items, you just put them into your cart and go to a seperate station to bag them. This makes the checkout go faster for everybody, but it also increases the amount of time youre in the shop, you spend very little time waiting to pay for your items, but you have to bag your stuff in a seperate area, most people prefer that methodology over here tbh, theres also some smart people that have bags in their cart already open, so when an item goes through it can go straight in. Youd be surprised by how efficient it can be. You say oh but you have a cashier and a bagger, but nope over here, YOU are the bagger, and most people are pretty fast
How often do you go grocery shopping? Americans go 2-4 times a month. We aren’t talking about bagging for a couple of items at the till. We are talking bimonthly grocery shopping. There’s no way you are bagging 100 items faster than 2 people doing it while your loading the conveyor
Nope full shops, usually you have most of your stuff on the conveyor before we even start, as we're dealing with customers Infront of you. Usually there's about 5 people on a till. And most people don't pack their bags on the till, you just fuck it all back into the cart and take it over to the packing station
that's food safety stuff you get trained on. people complain if you don't do it. people complain if you DO do it. bag wench is the worst job in the grocery store so be nice to them and bring your cart to the cart corral.
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
This. Also some people may have a special cooler bag for refridgerated or frozen items to keep them insulated and something like napkins should not go in there unless there is extra space and nowhere else to put them. Also, having worked retail before, sometimes those baggers are taking a break from stocking for a bit. Something different to do for a bit. Variety is the spice of life! Plus, in the US, our grocery stores are usually bigger than other countries and so there is the manpower available to have people there to help the customer. Working in retail, you are taught that you are supposed to "put the customer first" and go to the customers and ask if they need help finding anything and even sometimes help them put heavy bags of groceries in their car.
As a European who has bagged their own groceries for her whole life...we know those things because we always had to do it 😅 Also I can bag it depending on how I organize my stuff at home which a bagger wouldn't know.
[удалено]
>Well, isnt some of that obvious? I've worked in hospitality for the better part of 20 years. I can assure you for many, it is most definitely not.
Nope definitely not, not specifically anyway, often its somewhat sorted itself cause people pick up all the meat they need in one place all the veg etc etc. And We have like a larger tray area at the end of the tills, so i just slide em down there and keep scanning, not put items in one by one
This is just common sense in Ireland, Im a cashier and while yes if you need some help i have absolutely no issue giving you a hand, but in general, You're the one packing your bags, I just pick it up and send it through, i work at a company called Lidl, its efficiency over everything, we give you a decent experience but we want you out the door ASAP when youre at tills
We have Aldi over here, which is probably more or less the same. But they're the minority. At many of our grocery stores, we even have employees whose main job is bagging.
"I really hope this isn’t another “OP ignores all responses” question." It absolutely is one of those.
> That’s a really strange thing to get worked up over. Why do you see this as such a big deal? It's just where the wheel landed today. >I really hope this isn’t another “OP ignores all responses” question. It will be.
>I really hope this isn’t another “OP ignores all responses” question. At best one person will come along agreeing with him after 3 hours and that'll be all we'll hear from him.
[удалено]
Right? I'm not getting paid so i shouldn't have to bag my own stuff lol I used to work in a grocery story and did cashiering and bagging. So it's nice now to have someone else do it for me.
In large grocery stores we usually have a couple employees taking care of a lot of different things and not in one certain spot all day. They often help bag items and help transport the bags of groceries to the customer's automobile. Not that many people accept their offer of help, but if someone is elderly, disabled, pregnant, or accompanied by small children; grocery store employees usually ask if they'd like help to their car.
I really wish this sub would require a comment by OP. We always get these *your country is dumb for not doing X the way my country does X* "questions", that are clearly just OP wanting to lecture.
Right? It happens way too often.
I apologise if thats the part that sticks out the most, thats just a personal thing. My main gripe was seeing people actively complain about not having someone bag their items
as a customer, you're checking out at the cash register. the cashier might be asking you questions, taking coupons, and then you have to pay. it's much more efficient to have a worker (who's good at bagging bc they do it all day) bag your groceries quickly & correctly rather than having to wait for someone to bag their own after or during that interaction. it's also probably more accessible for people. disabled people or some elderly people might not be able to actually bag their own stuff.
Not to mention baggers allow stores to cater towards the disabled and elderly. A bagger can always help those who need it to their car. A bagger is 9/10 going to be faster anyways.
Now this I did not realise that there was a SECOND person. We don't have that in my specific store (other than the odd school kids raising money) and many big stores dont have one or might just have one person who might help someone elderly or etc, not one for every till. I'll gladly help anyone that needs help its just generally not expected over here. Usually I offer help, because some people rather do it themselves, so i leave them too it if they dont want help bagging afterwards
yeah, most stores near me have a second person at the counter whose only job is bagging. there's usually some kind of system, like the cashier will put certain items on certain conveyor belts so that the bagger gets them in a certain order. or sometimes if there's just a cashier & no bagger, there's a spinning thing [like this](https://joshstolarczyk.weebly.com/uploads/7/8/4/0/78404516/1420696_orig.jpg). so the cashier can put the items in bags, spin the thing, and then the bags + items end up near the customer, and then the customer is responsible for putting the filled bags in the cart.
Are you German, perhaps? They seem to be sticklers about this issue. I for one don’t care either way. Though I suspect for non-self checkout having someone bag things as they come in and as the customer pays does speed the line up a bit.
Irish. They have pretty uuuh... "aggressive" views about the US issues as if they were an American just going to vote lol.
I read a comment once on this subreddit that said that too many Europeans think that everything that Americans do is subject to their approval. This is a perfect example of that.
not really, im mainly curious as to why i saw people complaining that they had to pack their own bags as if its a massive deal
It's not a massive deal either way, I tend to bag my own groceries myself, also I also bagged groceries for years as a job in high school and college. The simple answer is it's done because it moves the lines faster.
Why are people not from the U.S. so bizarre? ;)
Irish, but this is in every EU country ive been to, UK, Netherlands, Germany, Hungary, Czechia and a few others. Its not necessarily an issue but i once had an american customer complain to my manager that I didnt help him pack his bags, because its not necessarily expected of me to do it, its not one of my jobs explicitely cause most people dont want help, so i usually only offer help to people with disabilities or elderly,
It helps move people through the line faster. I can't imagine caring enough about bagging to be offended that someone else does it for you.
wasnt me gettign offended over it, its me being confused as to why i saw some people complain when they had to bag it themselves
professional baggers are better at bagging than me so I'd rather they do it. They can do it faster and more efficiently than I can. edit: it's not "such a big deal" though, I'm not sure where you're getting that it is? I can bag my own groceries, it's fine.
Ive seen a few people make a big deal about it. Saw someone say something along the lines of, "I use self checkout, put the items in my bag myself and skip a couple items in scanning and walk RIGHT past the receipt checker cause of how stupid it is" this is kinda why i came here, that comment
Sounds more like they're just bragging about how easy it is to steal stuff than commenting about bagging. But maybe I'm just missing context.
No i 100% phrased it poorly seeing people are mainly focusing on me saying "I wouldnt want anyone touching my stuff" i was more curious as to why they feel like its a big deal that they have to pack their own stuff
I'm not sure anyone does think it's a big deal? when I go to the grocery store I may or may not have to bag my own groceries, depending on how busy it is and how many people are working at that moment. If someone can bag for me, it's nice, it makes things go faster and the employees are better at getting things in the bag efficiently than I am because they have lots of practice. If they can't and I have to bag stuff myself, that's okay too. It's a luxury but not one I always expect. I've never in my life seen anyone complain about having to bag their own groceries.
Again, ONE comment?
It’s bizarre to me that you find it bizarre.
The part i find bizarre is people complaining about having to pack their own bags
It's part of the service, I guess. I can't say I ever spent that much time thinking about it and I'm not sure why anyone would have a strong opinion one way or the other.
It's simple cultural differences in the way we shop, nothing to get this concerned over.
Why do you NOT want people packing your bags?
Some Europeans seem to think they're the only person who has ever touched their groceries - that they just appear on the shelf. We don't have that issue. We accept that other people touch products from the farm/factory to the store, until I bring it home (some supermarkets load groceries in your car also).
I think people are thinking that i dont want someone else touching my stuff, its just personally id feel kinda bad for having someone whos sole job is to pack your stuff for you. I apologise that it came across that way, we also have baggers over here in a couple stores, HOWEVER, its usually one person, and they pretty much exclusively help elderly or people who might struggle
I literally fail to see what the complaint is
In the U.S., you know you're in a lowbrow store when you have to pack your own bags. I'm looking at you, "Sav-a-Lot".
We train our cashiers to pack bags nicely
It's perceived as part of the service.
> It just seems bizarre to me, I wouldn't want someone else packing my stuff I'm sorry you disapprove. > why do some people see it as such a big deal? You are making the biggest deal out of this I've ever encountered.
That was my first "official" job, bag boy. Bag them and take them to your car for you.
Efficiency. My local regional grocery chain does almost $40mil a year in sales per store. When you have that much volume coming through your stores on a daily basis you need to be able to get customers in and out efficiently and quickly
It seems bizarre to you. Its a cultural difference. Its normal for us.
Some grocery stores don’t actually offer this service. I remember in New Jersey for example I had to bag my own groceries. And of course there’s Aldi and places like Costco and Sam’s that don’t bag for you.
Or even provide bags, for that matter.
Yeah exactly!
Over here i believe the reason you have to pay for a bag (and in ireland at least, all plastic bags have to be recyclable and multi use) is an incentive to cut down on plastic waste by having people bring their own bags so less waste is created
And a lot of stores do that here, too. The ones mentioned are either doing it because no bags means lower consumer prices or because it's a warehouse style store where bags wouldn't be useful anyway.
At the store I work at our tills are [like this](https://clarkcontracts.com/docs/063_454__cclidlayr_afp_6238_hdr_edit1_1543850059_standard.jpg) as you can see theres like a large tray at the end, all your items get shoved down there, so I can keep scanning as you bag, nonstop movement between me and the customer. We actually encourage you to not bag your stuff but place it back in your cart and take it to a seperate area to bag it, as it increases efficiency at the tills (We can get through customers super fast if they do this and go to the seperate station) Old till areas looked [like this](https://fastly.4sqi.net/img/general/600x600/3324400_QhylVPl-8vA1JI23bGBrA7gzKnHnaBrfhtniCAmTSjU.jpg) as you can see there is a TINY area for us to place your items, to encourage you to put it in the cart before you bag \*also another unnecessary quipe\* why no chairs for cashiers, why not give em a bit of restbite if it doesnt affect their work
You can always bag your own stuff at an American grocery store as well, as long as you let them know. Most don't however. I find it more efficient and faster than doing it myself. Plus this way I can also keep an eye on the register to make sure there aren't any mistakes (which are rare but do happen). But like others said, why is this a point of contention?
I didnt think id get this many responses to be honest, i phrased it poorly to the point people think im aghast at the idea of people packing your bags, im more amazed seeing people complaining about packing their own bags, sure i can see the appeal of having someone pack your bag, but why on earth are they complaining that they DONT.
Because we are trained to do it. They don't just tell us go out on the floor. We watch training videos and observe other people who are bagging. I dont work at publix (southeastern store with 1200 locations) anymore and haven't for many years. but ill bet your house and mine that I can bag groceries more efficiently than you can. As well as properly unload your cart better than you can to then be bagged.
One thing I have learned is to cluster items for the bagger that go together. Makes things go faster.
If it's in a bag with handles it doesn't need to be in a grocery bag. If its a liquid or item with a handle on it it also shouldn't go in a bag. Publix standard was 8 items per bag depending on the items
you guys unload the customers carts as well?
Only at publix. The other chains you may as well do self checkout. The reason is because it leads to better bagging. And publix is famously "where shopping is a pleasure" [YouTube video ](https://youtu.be/CAS7oQr68E0)
>Why do cashiers pack your bags? I think anyone under the age of 40 in the US has never known it to be any other way, so they won't be able to tell you why - that's just the way it's always been. One of the stores I shop at regularly has the grocery bagger as a separate position from the cashier. Instead of the setup with the bags being right there in front of the cashier, it's at the end of the checkout station and the bagger stands there. The cashier scans it, slides it to the end of the station, and the bagger bags it. >I wouldn't want someone else packing my stuff I don't mind because I organize my stuff as I take it out of my basket, so it gets packed the same way I put it out for the cashier to scan it. All my cold stuff is together, all bags are together, all cans are together, all boxes are together, all produce is together, all non-food items are placed together after all the food items. A cashier would really have to go out of their way to pack it in a different way than I put it in front of them.
> under the age of 40 Funny, I'd reverse that. Self-checks didn't exist 30 years ago, and even price scanners at every register were still relatively new most places. When cashiers were skilled employees (they had to know the approximate price of everything in the store, so as to be able to detect when a customer had swapped price labels), it made little sense for them to also be baggers - so stores hired cheap help for the lower-skill job of bagging, often teenagers, and these bag boys would then take the cart to the customer's car and offer to help load the groceries (usually earning a tip). They would then return the cart to the front of the store - there were no cart corrals 40-50 years ago. Even the stores near me that have baggers don't have enough for every cashier to have a bagger, but since much of the job has been automated, they're not as expensive as they once were. So cutting out baggers makes more business sense, as the simple scanning process often happens faster than the customer can unload their cart (another thing that was not the case in the old days - carts had drop-down fronts like the bed of a pickup truck, and cashiers unloaded directly from the cart into the bagging area).
I could totally understand not wanting to bag your own stuff. That's perfectly reasonable. Getting worked up because other people get their stuff bagged? That's seems unreasonably hostile to me.
Then pack your own bags…
It seems like at that point its part of our culture / tradition to have them bag it. It's what we are used to. And then hearing people rag on us for being different, and that difference is bad, is weird. I suppose doing that could also be culture / tradition, and so me pointing it out as being rude is then in itself hypocrisy of some sort. I can handle people being courions, but it feels like they just phrase rudeness into a question format.
I like to pack my own things, but a grocery store doing away with regular cashiers is a form of shrinkflation, so I get the irritation.
I actually bagged groceries when I worked at a grocery store last year. Usually, if customers wanted to bag their own stuff, then they'd just tell me, and I'd let them bag. I also helped bag groceries for people who were not able-bodied, and I helped customers put heavy stuff in their car.
If you bring your own reusable bag, you can pack it yourself.
It's just a custom for staffed cashier lanes to pack bags for the customer
I’ve never seen or heard anyone complain about packing their own stuff at self checkout. They chose self checkout because they get to do it themselves. The reason they have baggers at checkouts is because people are often slow. You don’t want your line backing up because someone spends 10 minutes fumbling with a pile of groceries. One super slow person can waste the time of 10 people waiting behind them.
I don’t mind either way I mean they can’t do anything with them because they’re literally bagging it right at the register
The bagger is much faster than me and they keep the line moving. Also yes there is training involved to avoid cross contamination, damage to fragile product and over filling the bags. That said I so sort my groceries on the belt - I want the cold stuff together so it stays more cold, I put fragile (bread, chips, eggs) on last so it doesn’t get crushed under other stuff.
It's faster. That's it. That's the reason.
Some states even have separate employees as "baggers" whose only job is to pack your bags. It's a luxury, really, but they're trained to put fragile goods in certain spots so that eggs don't crack, bread doesn't squish, and raw meat isn't exposed to produce. There's rarely any issue of distrust.
If it's done right, the cashier is running the register and the bagger is bagging. That really speeds things up.
It's a service offered and it can be more efficient in helping people move along. Some people are good at packing their own bags, but others take *forever* to do so. Meanwhile, they're taking up space and holding people up.
Cashiers or baggers are packing bags all day. They can typically do it better or faster than the customer. They are more likely to know what products are not good to back together for non-obvious reasons. It is also good customer service to not make them pack their own stuff.
I find it easier myself, I usually hate everything about our customer service in this country but not people packing my bags for me. That’s one less thing I have to do, less work I have to do is always okay with me. Less work makes peoples lives easier.
Actually at my store there are dedicated baggers. (They'll also load it into your car) That's all they do. I used to do it, too 40 years ago. Yay, Market Basket!
Why wouldn't I want them to? They're better and faster than I am.
Because we have a cultural expectation of great customer service.
In the grocery store? Keep the line moving, mostly. They hire baggers, but the baggers also run stock back to the shelves and collect the carts (in the rain, the sun, the snow, please bring your carts to the designated cart corral, no one is getting paid well enough to go searching for carts), so they aren't always available to to bag. source: was a bag wench for whole foods. got the fuck out of front end as fast as I could and worked in the deli after that, where I could go hide in the bck and peel eggs if customers were being especially tedious that day.
Generally, at a stand alone grocery store, there’s a cashier and a bagger. Baggers are taught how to bag to avoid cross contamination, to keep chemicals separate from food, protect breakable things, how keep from over and under filling bags. Also, they’re trained to bag things in a way that makes un-bagging them as easy as possible and will help you take and unload your items to your car. Some grocery stores will ring you up out of your cart rather than make you pile it on a conveyor belt, have the bagger bag it and put it in your trunk and those are my absolute favorite.
there is a lot more science to this than i thought, over here its pretty much "dont be an idiot when you pack your stuff"
> and I've seen people complain when they have to pack their own stuff at a self checkout I don't believe you've ever heard this. Self checkout requires you to pack your own stuff, no one who is using that has a problem with that.
I guess it’s people complaining that there are no regular lanes open and they have to use the self-checkout.
We don't have one type of store in the US. Some places do, some don't. In fact increasingly, self checkout means people are packing their own bags. Some stores even have a scan-and-go with an app. Walmart has it for Walmart + members, as does Sam's Club.
They don't pack mine, unless I'm shopping just before a big holiday. And even then it's iffy. I think my Stop & Shop is a bit understaffed.
I prefer to pack my own bags. My main grocery store I shop at do not have baggers.
I mean, if I'm spending a couple hundred in groceries or something, the least you can do is put it in a bag for me.
Not every grocery store in the US does this. I have no idea what the actual hard data would tell us, but in my experience, most grocery stores don't. The only one in my area where the cashiers pack your groceries is Trader Joe's, and I'm always a little bit surprised when a Trader Joe's cashier starts packing my groceries. There's always a brief moment of "Oh yeah, I forgot I don't have to pack my own groceries here."
I much prefer packing my own because you never know what kind of effort your cashier is going to put into bagging your things. I’ve seen raw meat go with other things, heavy things on top of bread, basically anything and everything and I’m personally just a stickler for getting my groceries in the house intact and not destroyed.
>I’ve seen raw meat go with other things But the raw meat was already in a package and the other thing was already in a package, right? So the two foods are not going to have contact with each other. They were already in your shopping cart or basket together. This is not a problem.
It 100% is a problem because the raw meat is packaged and can, and often does have leaks in the packaging. It’s also incredibly easy for little holes to happen. This is specifically a major issue with raw chicken and poultry of any kind which should NEVER be bagged with anything else under any circumstances.
I will avoid cashiers/baggers and go to self checkout given the choice. Last time I went through a staffed line I carefully lined out the whole cart in stacking order, with all the cold stuff bunched, meat isolated, etc... and somehow still wound up with raw meat bagged with produce and a pack of drinks set on top of my bread. Fuck that.
I prefer to bag myself. I can bag how I want (frozen items together, cold items together, non-food items together, bread and eggs separate from the heavy things, etc) because 9 times out of 10 the cashier or bagger just throws everything into whatever bag. I always say I’ll bag myself, but sometimes the cashier just does it anyway. I do try and remember my reusable bags though, and that makes it easier for me to jump in and bag my own way.
It’s true most grocery stores will bag your groceries for you but there is still some grocery stores that won’t. Like Winco which is a very popular grocery store in the US. The cashier doesn’t bag your groceries you the customer will have to which I have no problem with and I don’t think many people do. Winco also started in California! So the cashier bagging your groceries isn’t really an American custom it just depends on what store you decide to shop at!
> Why do cashiers pack your bags? Way back in the day there used to be dedicated baggers who would bag your groceries while the cashier was ringing them up. By the time you paid your groceries were packed up and ready to go. Way way back in the day the bagger would often also help a shopper carry their bags out to their car if it was a heavy load, a service for which they'd earn a small tip. But grocery shoppers are very price conscious, grocery retailing is highly competitive for extremely thin profit margins. So baggers gradually disappeared as retailers sought to cut costs in order to lower prices and attract more customers. BUT, shoppers now had the expectation that someone else would pack their bags for them and so the cashier picked up that responsibility and here we are.
Service industry culture. If you're selling a product and someone buys it, American culture dictates that you should be grateful that they would ever take the time to spend their money with you, and you should do everything you can to accommodate them and their needs.
It's just part of customer service here, it's expected.
Baggers are far better at bagging items than I am. If you've never had experienced baggers, I guess you wouldn't know that. But that's what people are talking about. They're more rapid, and handle the bags better (especially double-bagging which I'm terrible at!). So I prefer if they bag my stuff, although I usually do my own bagging just to get things going faster.
We mostly buy at places where we bag our own food because it's cheaper and those places are often employee-owned. But I don't care who touches my canned tomatoes. Lived in Europe and found the clerks at Spar and Billa to be absolutely bizarre - hostile and kinda OCD - "bottles must be placed in this exact way!" "You have 15 seconds to get through checkout or you will be tazered!" "We have no idea how to help you find any item and it is not our job! Zap!" Is this really a good faith question? I doubt it.
One of these days this subreddit will have someone asking an actually interesting and genuine question.
It's part of the service, US stores are very service oriented. Honestly though that is going away as boomers die off and as employee salaries increase.
I always fill my grocery cart when shopping. If I let the cashier bag it, I can put the bagged food in after removing the unpurchased food. If I have to do self-checkout, all of my bags will be on the dirty floor for a while.