People who don't bag their own groceries are the most irredeemable scoundrels

Seiously; waiting in line at Trader Joe's last night, the place is slammed and I'm behind a woman who just stands at the cash desk fondling her BMW keys whilst the clerk scans her stuff we then have to wait for the same clerk to bag it all. this makes me fume.

Besides if I'm there not only do I want to get out quicker, but I either want to bag my groceries for bike balance or organised by my own ineffable logic as to where it gets stored in the kitchen. What's more, if you go to Giant eagle and they have some spotty adolescent bagging I end up with 30 bags all doubled with three items in each bag.

End this bourgeois bagging nonsense now.

BMW keys. That's all you needed to say.

I instinctively start to bag groceries too, even though my local supermarket handles it. When I use the express lane, it's annoying as hell to watch a customer stand idle while the cashier has to scan items and coupons, plus bag groceries.

Grocery stores used to have BAGGERS, mostly pimply but well meaning high school boys, iirc. Except in New York, where stores have been in the news for things like hiring the impoverished elderly or other at-risk types to bag groceries at NO wages, just tips. Basically using them as free labor.

do you tip your bagger y/n?

Baggers used to ALSO push your grocery cart out to your car FOR you, esp in wet or snowy weather. Obv not the norm in the city.

I can't remember the last time I didn't pay for groceries by credit card, so no, I mostly don't tip. But I also bag my own b/c I take a tote bag w me and want to load it a certain way.

Waiting for someone to pay for groceries by credit card, now that's fuckin' annoying (sorry Laurel)

I bag while waiting for card to clear, cashier to push buttons, etc!

xp rubbish, it's normally much quicker than people fumbling for the exact change, or counting out the contents of their copper jar.

Is it? I haven't timed it tbh!

especially when that bloke on the rollercoaster comes by.

ha, me neither! It takes ages when its a little shop that dials through to the card provider. but in most places, put the card in , tap in the number and you're done, no?

i made good money bagging groceries in the summers back in the day. it was a union job iirc

I was a grocery bagger my junior year of high school (1985-86). The chain I worked out was union-only, so we were required to be UFCW members and as such were not supposed to accept tips. Needless to say we did not generally obey that rule.

i only worked part time but there were older dudes make $17 an hour back in 95 to bag groceries

Baggers used to ALSO push your grocery cart out to your car FOR you, esp in wet or snowy weather. Obv not the norm in the city.

― go peddle your bullshit somewhere else sister (Laurel), Monday, March 28, 2011 9:54 AM (10

My local Giant Food recently remodelled and they introduced this practice, although with normal aged baggers and they didn't accept tips. But the first time I went to the new store, the employees and I had to sort out that they were pretty much gonna force me to not push my own cart out to my car, which sucked because I have long legs and like to walk very fast and the bagger was much shorter/slower than me. He also wouldn't let me put my bags into my trunk! They discontinued this practice after about 3 weeks though.

Also, I won't bag my own groceries. It's their staffing problem, not mine.

In Finland everyone always bags their own groceries, so I feel a bit awkward when I'm in some other country and the clerk bags them for me. But usually I've let them do it, because I'm not sure if it would be impolite to stop them and bag the stuff myself.

Making the cashier bag your shit at busy times of day when other people are in line behind you is a dick move. But I don't believe you would really just stand there and watch people fumble and be rushed because "it's their staffing problem" because I don't think you are a dick iirc.

it's pretty simple - if you've got more than like 5 bags worth of stuff, and there's no bagger in your line, you should help the cashier with at least a bag or two.

In Ireland we bag our own groceries (or pack or own shopping), especially since the plastic bag charge was introduced some years ago. The checkout person will usually help if you're slow, and sometimes people do it for you to raise money for charity. Like Ed above, I like to do it myself in order to optimize the unpacking, but I'll still make a charitable donation in this case.

In Lidl and Aldi it is EXTREMELY bad form to pack your shopping at the till. You do it at the packing shelf or at your car, after you've paid.

You have a plastic bag charge AND a "packing station"?? What is this improbable un-American fairy-land??

sometimes the way the isle is set up makes it not conducive to giving them a hand

I'll help bag after I pay, but I'm watching that scanner and the price screen like a hawk before then. I'm not going to get charged for two bags of dog food or the wrong price on a special because I was sacking my own beans.

What is this improbable un-American fairy-land??

New name for the Republic of Ireland?

Making the cashier bag your shit at busy times of day

Ah, I try not to go grocery shopping after say, 8 a.m.

I really don't think I've ever seen anyone help a cashier with the bagging. I'm going to have to start paying attention to this.

i bag my own stuff at tj's because they let you, other supermarkets in LA usually don't like this, the minute you start someone comes running over.

New name for the Republic of Ireland?

We do have a rubbish health care system, though, so we're not that un-American.

how does the "you should help bag your groceries or you're an asshole" argument intersect with the "if you use the automatic checkout lanes you're an asshole" argument? seems like if you do the bagging, you're allowing cashiers to help more customers, thus making additional staffing seem less necessary, thus depriving potential workers of jobs, just like when you use the automatic checkout lanes. whereas if you don't help with bagging and the lines get really long, managers will see they risk losing customers unless they hire more cashiers

People being lazy make my groceries more expensive.

The real assholes are the ones who leave their shopping carts scattered around the parking lot.

The "we have to make it worse before it gets better" argument is never really a good idea in human cost, though, is it? People who refuse to tip waitstaff b/c "it's the establishment's responsibility to pay them" vs people who want to let public schools turn into un-funded holding cells so they can pressure the system? NAGL.

Here it depends on the supermarket. Some bag, some don't. It even depends on the cashier.

I would say I help out with the bagging but the cashier does about 2/3 of it. Because the cashier is way faster than me and the cashier's bags are always much better packed than mine. I do it out of a sense of duty to keep the line moving but I'm always annoyed about the poor arrangement of the bags I packed myself.

I'll help bag after I pay, but I'm watching that scanner and the price screen like a hawk before then. I'm not going to get charged for two bags of dog food or the wrong price on a special because I was sacking my own beans.

― http://tinyurl.com/vroooo0ooooom (Pleasant Plains), Monday, March 28, 2011 10:20 PM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark

^^

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100227205505AAMQXrb

I'm so confused by the cashier who thinks that taxpayers pay her minimum wage.

yeah around here the baggers are right on top of things, if you bag your own they shove you out of the way and smack you with a sack of potatoes

yahoo answers, you are a traet

If I'm in a restaurant and see my food waiting on the counter, I usually give the waiter a break and just go get it myself. I know where the condiments are and everything.

Why make that couple who just walked in wait to order just because I'm too lazy to get up and get something myself?

sorry, i mean YOU are A TREAT

What is this improbable un-American fairy-land??

We have Aldi here in Chicago, and you have to buy bags — but groceries are super cheap.

i'm not reading this thread because obviously but publix has baggers so it's all cool, more jobs and such -- you aren't allowed to tip them tho

I think I started bagging my own foodz only in NY because the baggers ALWAYS have a bowl out for tips, and I always kind of got the impression that it was an "extra" service and if I let them help me, I would be obligated to tip, and I would just rather not enter into that social contract for additional money, if that's okay...?

If I'm in a restaurant and see my food waiting on the counter, I usually give the waiter a break and just go get it myself. I know where the condiments are and everything.

Why make that couple who just walked in wait to order just because I'm too lazy to get up and get something myself?

'cause waiting in line in the supermarket is just as much fun as sitting in a restaurant. hmmm wonder what supermarket line i will visit with my s.o. next valentine's day?

one of those aldi's is opening up near my office. wtf is it.

I intentionally buy large and awkward items because I enjoy seeing them struggle. Is it cruel? Perhaps.

cheap off brand goods xp

Waiting for food in a restaurant can be more annoying than waiting in line at the grocery store. Maybe not on St. Freaking Valentine's Day, but on a lunch break, sure.

I pretty much don't trust checkout people to bag my shopping properly, last time I tried it I ended up with someone half-arsedly chucking several bottles of wine on top of a box of eggs.

is this aldi stuff quality?

I have absolutely nothing to say on this topic.

But if the fake posters from the "super-ILXor" thread actually started their own threads, this would be one of them.

I'm super-concerned with price accuracy as well; I've learned to strategically sequence my items on the conveyor belt so that even the most idiotic, thoughtless cashier can stack things correctly.

Yeah I put the heavy stuff at the front and save the light but bulky and/or fragile items for last. But a cashier can still let things accumulate at the end and grab any old item.

In most UK shops/supermarkets you bag your own shopping, but if the cashier bags the items as they scan them I let them, otherwse I'm just getting in their way

(I have no car so I am generally only buying at most 2 bagfuls of shopping anyway, in which case there isn't much room for multitasking)

Aldi is v good for stereotypically German things such as cured meats and chocolate imo. but I am not buying fresh veg there again after last time I bought a broccoli which was full of mystery dead bugz which I didn't notice when I washed it

People who use the self-checkout stands for an entire cartload of groceries are even more irredeemable scoundrels, IMO.

I use Aldi for really cheap cereal and pasta stuff, have never bought fresh things from them. I think it varies from store to store though — the one closest by me is kind of dingy-looking, but there's another one on the north side of town that looks like Ikea for food.

Figures this thread would start with a smug Trader Joe's shopper.

At my local grocery if you bag your own they stop you and say "that's what I'm here for."

This dilemma seems totally foreign to me. At the stores I go to, either a bagger is expected at the end of the lane, or there will be a bagging apparatus on a carousel right next to the register, so that the cashier can easily bag the items during the scanning process. In my travels, this seems to be the general way of the modern American grocery store. I don't have a Trader Joe's near me, so maybe they are late to the 21st Century in terms of grocery bagging technology/practices?

Also, as a former teenage grocery bagger, I can assure you that tips are just not part of the equation. Not only are they not expected, but in many cases the store's policy will be to encourage baggers to turn them down if they are offered. Where I worked (a prominent national chain), accepting gratuities was a punishable offense.

The local Walmart tried self-check stands for a year but the combination of scales that couldn't be kept working and the undereducated who constantly needed help using them (cancelling out much of the payroll cost savings) ended that experiment.

Walmart cracks me up because their express lanes are for "25 Items or Less".

It should be "…or Fewer", but I'm not even going to get started on that right now.

the aldi they just put up here is smack dab in the absolute worst part of town.

People in a hurry = worst of the savages. You're alive, you have the privilege of shopping in a grocery store with fresh food and all, maybe take a klonopin before you go shop or something

every Aldi I've seen has been in cracktown xp

I admire any chain that gives the worst parts of town an actual grocery store to shop in.

lol i must live in the worst part of town

xps: I miss the hell out of my WalMart. I would have thought given the working-class skew to my neighborhood that there would have been a Wal-Mart less than a 30-minute drive away, but no. There's a K-Mart, which is like a Wal-Mart but the merchandise tends to be seriously substandard. Then there's a Target not far away which is great, but that's not a Wal-Mart either.

The local Walmart tried self-check stands for a year but the combination of scales that couldn't be kept working and the undereducated who constantly needed help using them (cancelling out much of the payroll cost savings) ended that experiment.

Ours still has them but I have the feeling they'll be gone soon. In the defense of the undereducated, they are not very intuitive and are a big hassle if you're buying a lot of fruits or vegetables. Plus, it seems like it would be pretty easy to cheat them.

This is usually my favorite part of shopping at Kroger on Saturday:

EMPLOYEE: Attention, everybody! We have three stations open with no waiting in our self-service aisle!
CUSTOMERS: [continue to stare straight ahead.]

xpost -- oh yeah, I could always make note of the PLU# of a cheaper variety of apples or whatever and take the Bentonville billionaires for a few cents per trip

so you stole from the market

the aldi here is in the projects.

oh wait, I got my verb tense wrong -- I meant to say "I could have made note..."

haha, okay. i just thought it seemed out of character.

::whistles tunelessly, walks to car with apples::

macintosh under your hat

http://www.phlmetropolis.com/2011/02/by-roz-warren-bagging-your.php

At the stores I go to, either a bagger is expected at the end of the lane, or there will be a bagging apparatus on a carousel right next to the register, so that the cashier can easily bag the items during the scanning process.

This. There's a metal thing that keeps the bag open, the cashier scans it and it goes straight in the bag. What the fuck happens at other places, everything is scanned and put to the side, and then bagged?

xpost

Er, the point about self scan is you can put pretty much *anything* though for the cheapest weight price, not saving a couple of cents on some apples.

Well, I was never that bold -- or, er, I would never have been that bold.

Co-sign to other posts upthread, staff at our grocery store don't like you to bag your own groceries, and a bagger will usually come over and take it off your hands. They have floaters who rotate around for that purpose.

I don't use the self-checkout unless I'm shopping late at night and only have a tub of icecream, or if the lines are crazy and I only have one or 2 items. I don't want to give the supermarket corporation the impression that I would prefer one of those machines over their staff...because I like the kids who work at our grocery store and I don't want them put out of jobs because I'm in a 'hurry'.

Plus self-checkouts are a total trap -- because most of the people going through it are MORANS who try to check whole carts of groceries, have no idea what they're doing and make it 900 times slower than going through the checkout.

people who decry minor quotidian inconveniences on the internet

and much as I love Trader Joe's cheap snack foods, I don't love it enough to go there because the whole experience is about as annoying as shopping can possibly be for me. too crowded, parking lots invariably suck ass, carts are spindly and annoying, too crowded, too crowded and too crowded

too much unhealthy food masquerading as nutritious

people who take meaningless hassles personally

this is why i have just have the help do the shopping for me

oh god i hate the impatient behind-you-in-line key-jangling impatient sighers

i also hate that i used the word impatient twice

if I ever heard someone doing that I'd turn around and call them on their shit

I hate the impatient dick-ahead-of-me who berates the cashier. I never, ever do this sort of thing, but one guy in front of me was so irrationally dickish that I just blurted out, "Knock it off, asshole." He didn't say anything, and the cashier mouthed "Thank you" to me.

Line waiting behavior is an execellent litmus test for pesronality. I once called off a date after the girl got pissed off at the cashier who didn't have her brand of cigarettes.

Pro tip: just avoid the line with the elderly shoppers. They are slower and you know they'll be paying by check.

I don't think you can pay by cheque any more here. It's like we live in different countries or something.

I avoid the self-service stations since they trigger what may be my only social -- I don't want to say panic attack, but it's something like that.

With the checkout lanes, you get into Aisle 1 or Aisle 2 or Aisle 10. If your line is slow, you're stuck. But at the self-service kiosks, you've got these four stations grouped together and no one is really sure who gets to go next. Half of the people are waiting, bank-style, for "the next available station" while some customers are trying to line up at individual stations.

Some stores manage this better than others, but when it's out of hand, I start to lose it.

http://www.freshdirect.com/media/editorial/site_access/images/FDlogo.gif

Trader Joe's is owned by Aldi, FYI.

it was bought by one of the aldi brothers but it is an entirely different operation separate from the aldi north american chain

What the fuck happens at other places, everything is scanned and put to the side, and then bagged?

Yeah, in some places it's exactly like this!!

Anyway, there have def been NYC scandals where stores were having baggers work for little or no wages, and only being paid in tips. Pretty sure it's not legal to do that, but whatever they're getting paid, tipping still isn't unusual here, and management sure as HELL doesn't discourage tipping because there are tip-buckets right there on the counters.

So maybe it's just different in other places. MAYBE. You all are still disgusting irredeemables.

one of the grocery stores i go to has baggers, also has a sign saying, 'please do not tip the baggers'

you know what's awesome is that Boston-area Super Stop & Shops have handheld scanners which you can use if you have a S&S card that allow you to scan and bag your groceries as you go, and then just scan you S&S card at the checkout counter

POOF all your shit pulled up at once, then you pay and GTFO, I kind of refuse to shop anywhere else now

that is so civilized!

they prob body-scan you on the way out tho

probably a nudist supermarket

I don't use the self-checkout unless I'm shopping late at night and only have a tub of icecream,

they keep the self-checkout open late at night? they don't do that where i live, probably due to theft potential

when self-checkouts first got going here they were full of loopholes and bugs - so many people got so much free stuff. i was a poor student; it was a sweet time. that was also before bags cost 5c each. and before the body scans.

boston u so nude

the 24 hour Safeway here between 11pm and 3am is really enlightening in terms of the true base nature of humanity.

I try to get my shopping off the checkout area and leave within a few seconds of getting my change and it really pisses me off when someone is sighing and rolling their eyes and barging into me even within that short time. (Especially since checkout staff like to give you yr change in the least conducive arrangement to putting it in your wallet, it seems.)

Last week I was paying by card (again, I try to pay by cash, but I can't always - this shop is in an area with no cash machines) and I'd just typed in the first digit of my PIN and the woman behind me decided to barge past and drive her trolley RIGHT into me, even though all her shopping was still waiting on the conveyor. I'm p. easily startled because the spell of PIN-typing was broken and I completely could not remember the other digits, thereby holding her up a hell of a lot more than if she'd just waited. Felt pretty fucking dumb though.

We have Aldi

Ek. I went to one recently for the first time in my life. (This is weird, cause most of my friends tend to shop there.) Guess I am a snob. It's freaking depressing there. No wonder we have a song here "Crap from the Aldi" in Flemish though).

It's freaking depressing there.

Is it 'cause there's no music? I actually like being able to shop somewhere and not hear fucking "Drops of Jupiter"

i resent the expectation, or even the suggestion, that I am supposed to be bagging my own groceries most of the time. Particularly when I've just spent $120 on three fucking bags of food for my family and my 4 year old is yelling at me and all I want to do is leave. There are baggers at the store for a reason. TJs doesn't have enough of them, no, but they should have more.

S- otm , sounds like the setup in our supermarkets is unusual but the actual cashier does the bagging as they go here. It's quick, efficient and part of the flow, and I hate Aldi cis they shove all yr shit down a little conveyor thing an no bags and I was v confused and annoyed. Also the aldi staff were the most zombified dgaf staff I've EVER been served by ugh.

So is Aldi the only grocery chain in the US, Europe and Australia?

i like people to work for me sometimes when i am paying way too much for things

hahah

Wmc I wonder if it might be yeah! Well, there is safeway but I think those are diff safeways in each country.

Wait, no Tom Thumb in England??

I was flat-out amazed to see IGA's smack-dab in the middle of suburban Sydney. Where I'm from, they're in the middle of the sticks, probably sell grape Nehi in bottles and possibly have a bait vending machine out front for pre-dawn service.

they keep the self-checkout open late at night? they don't do that where i live, probably due to theft potential

At the 24-hour giant Tesco in Drogheda the self-checkout is the only one open after 10pm, and if you avail of the "24-hour" service you spend your whole shop being tutted at by shelf stackers.
Oh, and while we're on the supermarket subject, I am the customer. You step out of my way, not the other way round, staff member. I'm not saying you have to tug your forelock or anything, just get out of my way.

There is this grocery store in the Northwestern U.S. called WinCo, which is cheap and great and I <3 and miss it. You bag your own groceries, though, to keep your groceries ¢heap. I had applied for a job there when I was 17, and a few days later, I found a WinCo uniform polo shirt for sale at a thrift store. I had what I thought was a brilliant idea, to dress in it and go to the WinCo and start bagging people's groceries to show I was a "highly motivated self starter," as they say in the classifieds. This did not go over well. I got a manager called on my immediately, and they threatened to ban me from the store forever if I didn't leave right away. Didn't get the job. This is the anecdote I tell to cashiers when I stand around bagging groceries for myself.

"You're not going to kick me out of the store now, are you? lololol have a nice day"

S- otm , sounds like the setup in our supermarkets is unusual but the actual cashier does the bagging as they go here. It's quick, efficient and part of the flow, and I hate Aldi cis they shove all yr shit down a little conveyor thing an no bags and I was v confused and annoyed. Also the aldi staff were the most zombified dgaf staff I've EVER been served by ugh.

― Borads of Candida (Trayce), Monday, March 28, 2011 3:21 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

its amazing they can replicate this experience thousands of miles away. fuck bagging your own if the cashier is right there.

ps I was a bag boy and cashier. pps always thank your bagger.

baggers are cool, no more underrated skill than bagging quick and smartly...so many halfassed baggers in the mix. theres a couple of dudes at my grocery store that I seek out bc they know their shit, and are ninjas!

when i was a supermarket cashier 27 years ago (the A & P) we were expected to bag as well. sometimes a customer would do it, it wasn't explicitly discouraged as there weren't designated baggers, but anytime it got busy stockboys would be called up to help you bag, or the delivery guys. anyway, 90% of the time i did the bagging, no biggie either way.

Two things I don't understand about the baggers at my store:

1.) They never leave room in the cart for the small child I just pulled out of there and is currently sitting up on the counter, ringing the "Good Service" bell.

2.) They don't ever bag the cat food. Not even the little 3.5 lb packages. I carry those up steps too, ya know.

you people who feel you can bag better then the baggers must go to grocery stores with much crappier baggers than the baggers at my local trader joe's

Ppl bagging my groceries took me aback a bit when I first moved here, but 9 times out of 10 there's someone specifically there to do it and it's a hell of a lot faster than most of the customers would do it themselves. Also here, you can SWIPE YOUR CARD and enter your PIN while the cashier's still scanning things - just need to push a green button at the end. So you can have your wallet put away and your groceries handed to you as soon as the cashier's done.
The whole process should be a team effort imo. A particularly efficient transaction means a high-five between all participants.

The over-priced, kind of crappy supermarket on my block has few baggers and the stations are set up in a way that doesn't allow bagging your own groceries. So I wait.

AND YOU KNOW WHAT'S MOST RIDICULOUS (but unrelated)?? They don't have the little divider things for the conveyor belt. Actually, I did see one, once, but never again. WTF. I hate that store.

jerks who dont put out dividers for the person behind them in line: savages

Oh, and while we're on the supermarket subject, I am the customer. You step out of my way, not the other way round, staff member. I'm not saying you have to tug your forelock or anything, just get out of my way.

I was at a more decent supermarket a while back, pushing my cart through a bottleneck of other shoppers when a store worker came up and stood in front of my cart and said (in a polite tone) "Excuse me." I had almost come out the other side and I had to back up in order to let her pass. I made some kind of comment to her that I can't remember, and she looked back and said with a wounded tone, "I said excuse me!"

lol @ ppl who buy their own groceries

who buys yours, lamp?

r u a grandmother lamp

lamp is a bajillionaire imo

Lamp grows all his groceries

just boxes of Cheerios sprouting up all over his yard

The Brooklyn Trader Joe's isn't really set up so you CAN bag your own groceries -- they kind of take all the stuff and do it behind the register. Plus they always have the nicest clerks and I like striking up a conversation with them. Which I guess has nothing to do with who bags. Otherwise I like to do it if only to get out faster.

I'd prob go to Trader Joe's more often if the clerks weren't so friendly. Yes I've tried these choc covered edamame before, yes they're pretty good, now stfu, wish you were an automated kiosk.

jerks who dont put out dividers for the person behind them in line: savages

― VegemiteGrrl, Monday, March 28, 2011 10:17 PM (57 minutes ago) Bookmark

YES. THANK YOU.

"Sir, is this broccoli yours?" "Let's see, so far you've scanned my box of Bugles, three pints of Ben & Jerry's, Jalapeno Cheddar Cheetos, and ranch dip. NO THAT'S NOT MY FUCKING BROCCOLI."

i buy lamp's groceries

and then sell them on ebay

also kind of hate the "leave your stuff in the carry basket" move. only exception is if there is no clear place to leave it...but even then, i usually take my stuff out of it at least.

The cashiers at every Trader Joe's do a great job of packing groceries! I just hand them my tote bag.

But local stores like C-Town and Associated and Key Foods -- no. Usually the cashiers have nails so long they can barely type on the registers, and they bag your stuff at a snail's pace and put avocados and salad greens on the bottom. Just no.

worst bagging recently: frozen mac and cheese on bottom; hot sandwiches on top, bottle of olive oil plonked on top of sandwiches. wtf

lol @ ppl who buy their own groceries

― em.pty HOLD (Lamp)

in canada the government delivers vegetables to yr igloo

hottest checkout chicks

Online grocery ordering/delivery is the bawmb. But the Coles here realised it was losing them money (they started with suprisingly cheap delivery fee and no min spend), so now theres a min $50 spend and the delivery fee's $10+

Worth it for some occasions tho, like the other week for my party, I ordered a ton of bottles of soda, and heavy shit like catlitter and canned things. When you dont drive thats a godsend. WOuldnt do it on the regular tho, you cant get decent fresh food that way for starters (they'll sell it but I'd never buy vegetables off the interwebs)

Are Trader Joe's clerks required to take Ecstasy at the start of their shifts?

No they snort lines of powdered Acai

Trayce OTM – grocery store delivery is a godsend for carless drunks like me. I started a thread about it once.

Read that as careless drunks and envisioned you drunkordering 20 cases of Tide, a bag of cat litter and a slab of 4Loko and then wondering a day later why it all turned up on your doorstep =)

trayce the other negative about coles delivery is that *nothing* is on special and in some cases they add a premium to products without mentioning as much. i did some sums and my standard $200 shop was something like $280 w/ home delivery :(

Yeah I had a suspicion that was the case.

Also here, you can SWIPE YOUR CARD and enter your PIN while the cashier's still scanning things - just need to push a green button at the end. So you can have your wallet put away and your groceries handed to you as soon as the cashier's done.

Living the dream.

I do most of my grocery shopping online now anyway. My local supermarket doesn't have a lot of the fancy dan things I buy, but the big delivery depot one half an hour away does. So let them bring those things to me. I'm lucky enough to work from home, though, so I can avail of the half-price off-peak delivery charges.

Is it 'cause there's no music?

No, it's the way it's done very very cheaply. I understand why, but I found that one place I went to VERY depressing. It was a rundown one in some depressing location.

http://www.powned.tv/images/fotos/Aldi_gr.jpg

My nearest Aldi is, I think, the one that Corey referred to as being sleek like ikea, but strangely it's in a rough-ish part of town. Their baked tortilla chips are very cheap and good. Also the nuts, both snack and baking.

ugh 2.19 for verse snijbloemen?!?!

lol

Would hate to go grocery shopping with you guys.

In Britisher land the cashier will grudgingly bag your groceries if you're a disgusting savage and don't do it yourself. I usually have my own bags and want to pack them myself anyway as I'll be cycling.

wow that aldi also has three feet of water on the floor.

And only €2.19 for Verse Snijbloomen

Liabilities have gotten so ridiculous that the poor baggers just do whatever the managers specify, which is why you end up with a double bag with three things in it.

I worked in a supermarket as a cashier a million years ago and I swear those bags were thicker (double bagging was for heavy loads like a gallon of milk) and we were required to fill the bag. It was an art, I was actually trained in how to pack the bag.

First time I was in a Dutch grocery store (not to be confused with the sexual act "Dutch Grocery Store"), I noticed the cashiers were sitting on stools (because why not? It's a shitty job, and there's no reason for them to be standing), and not only do they not provide bags, but you have to bag your own shit. I was down with this, but wish I'd known it before I had to walk four blocks carrying an armful of bagless groceries.

There is this grocery store in the Northwestern U.S. called WinCo, which is cheap and great and I <3 and miss it. You bag your own groceries, though, to keep your groceries ¢heap. I had applied for a job there when I was 17, and a few days later, I found a WinCo uniform polo shirt for sale at a thrift store. I had what I thought was a brilliant idea, to dress in it and go to the WinCo and start bagging people's groceries to show I was a "highly motivated self starter," as they say in the classifieds. This did not go over well. I got a manager called on my immediately, and they threatened to ban me from the store forever if I didn't leave right away. Didn't get the job. This is the anecdote I tell to cashiers when I stand around bagging groceries for myself.

This is a great story. We used to do something like this when we were making bets. Basically we had to wear a Wal-Mart uniform (a buddy of mine used to work there and kept the uniform), fake up a nametag, and try to work the "night shift" (11PM-7AM). Myself and a friend of mine had to do this and we both got booted after a couple of hours. A few times I had to try to direct customers around; I didn't get caught then because Wal-Mart employees are always clueless, but I got spotted by a manager who gave me the "who hired you?" line and I was kind of like..."uhh...I don't remember?" Luckily the cops didn't get involved.

I loved Winco when I lived in Redding. Each register had a divided bagging area so they could get right to the next customer's checkout and not wait for the previous customer to finish bagging.

Ye olde supermarkets used to do that here too. A nice big sweeping divider that allowed the cashier to just go "a-a-and we're finished with YOU" and start in on the next person while you pack your shopping away as god intended.

They don't do that anymore?

The divided bagging area was cool. I found myself sort of competing against the person across the divider from me..."nyahh, you checked out first, my cart was fuller, and I still beat you out the door! And my eggs aren't under a case of beer! I WIN!"

I am too competitive.

When I worked in a grocery store we employed a weird guy named Grey who was legally blind and was a tornado of bagging. I remember once he put a loaf of bread in a bag and then plopped a two liter of Coke on top. No one had the heart to correct him or fire him, but it wasn't even like he was nice - he was gruff and weird.

Walmart cracks me up because their express lanes are for "25 Items or Less".

It should be "…or Fewer", but I'm not even going to get started on that right now.

― http://tinyurl.com/vroooo0ooooom (Pleasant Plains), Monday, March 28, 2011 12:25 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

this drives me nuts whenever i shop there - i'll be behind someone in the express lane who has a shopping cart full of shit, and i'll be thinking to myself 'they can't possibly be under the limit' and then i start counting before i remember its 25 items... its such a defeated feeling

nowadays i basically hate any grocery store without self-checkout

The thing that bugs me about Trader Joe's friendly cashiers is that it's so obv a corporate-ordered faux friendliness. I like spontaneous, genuine friendliness, I really do.

another TJ annoyance is that the area to put your purchases on is like 1 square foot

Someone upthread said something about people being instructed to only put 2 or three items in a bag. WHY?! It's infuriating. Why would they be told to do it that way?

x-post - That is extremely annoying, yeah. I'm not really a huge fan of TJs becasue I feel like even though I spend a lot of $$ there I come home to find I haven't actually bought anything except funky hummus or some interesting cookies and have to go shopping all over again but that's another thread entirely.

The thing that bugs me about Trader Joe's friendly cashiers is that it's so obv a corporate-ordered faux friendliness. I like spontaneous, genuine friendliness, I really do.

tbh I will take corporate-mandated fake friendliness over churlish disdain and acting like doing your job is a massive inconvenience

I used to think I was a "food snob" (galley kitchen = lots of take-out and xpensive imported food)...that was before I got a bigger kitchen with all of the appliances.

That's when I realized that true food snobbery (unless you are hung up on organic) means cheapies are more FUN. Bags of beans for 30 cents! A week's groceries for $40! All if you're willing to bag your own at places like Food 4 Less!

ENBB - because the bags are so thin that the bag might break on the way to your car and then the store has to replace the items!

xp: (not that I ever shop at Trader Joe's anymore since Costco's with a self-checkout lane + Super Stop & Shop's handheld scanner system > everything else)

agreed that is worse, DJP

i go to trader joes once a year and then stare at my items and think...wow i spent $100 on nothing remotely edible. Awesome lemon papaya mango cookies, frosted chilis, a gallon of chocolate goats milk.

Maybe I'm just bitter because the 1st time I visited TJ's I was like "oh man, this cute granola-y chick totally wants me", 2nd time I was like "oh man this sun-ripened aged hippie totally wants to smoke a doobie with me when he goes on break", and then the 3rd time I was like "oh man this fitness chick totally...HEY WAIT A SECOND!!"

Yeah srsly the alternative to TJ's-style service is enormous disdain for you as a person, and total contempt for the speed or quality of work. I could handle "unfriendly" if it was ever also "coldly efficient" but it's not, and so I'll take the rictus grins with the maniacal over-packing of my tote bags.

we used to go to TJs exclusively for DUMPLINGS! and booze

ah, those glory years of being just out of college

xxp: lol this sounds exactly like the process a close friend of mine went through, only instead of ppl working at TJs... it was strippers

this is no more faux friendliness at TJ than at a farmer's market. this friendliness is probably more due to their getting paid an extra dollar an hour, because it has a different quality than the faux friendliness of a shitty craft supply store, where this checkout lady switched back and forth between sing-songy voice when dealing with customers and surly teen when chatting with her pal in the next aisle, like some kind of SNL sketch.

TJ reminds me of an upscale Aldi. Similar bare bones layout. My local Aldi has this 70s supermarket thing going on that I find endearing.

You all are making me feel so much better about not shopping at some highfalutin' place like Trader Joe's or Whole Foods.

whole foods dudes will get visibly annoyed at you! i think maybe that non-union thing is getting to them.

Whole Foods nowadays is just a regular supermarket with the word "organic" prominently displayed in random locations.

whole foods is highfalutin central. YEs i just spend $37 dollars on 4 yogurts and an apple.

this friendliness is probably more due to their getting paid an extra dollar an hour,

No, I'd be shocked if they weren't trained to be friendly. "find an item in their cart and comment on it!" etc

Costco's with a self-checkout lane

Damn it, I wish Costco would try to crack the Sam's Club dominance in Tupelo. But that's another thread.

Favorite ILX post about baggers: people who've been on TV whom you've pwned

I like the idea of self-scanning machines but I feel like they have a lot of issues and the alram goes off and you have to wait for the person to come help and it's embarrassing because people are behind you etc. Ok, maybe it's just me. :(

hahahaha poor ted danson!

thats Sam Malone

WE NEED A PRICE CHECK ON THESE TAMPONS!!

ERICA, HOW HARD CAN IT BE TO SCAN THE YOGURT! HURRY IT UP!!!!

EXACTLY :-(

NO, I'M SERIOUS! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO ENTER A QUANTITY ON THE LIMES, NOT WEIGH THEM! GODDAMMIT JUST LET ME DO IT!

Are you having a panic attack yet?

OMG you're one of them!

nearly!

I'm pretty self-sufficient when it comes to DIY technology, and I don't think I've ever once done a self-checkout that went smoothly.

My problem with self checkouts is that they are too SLOW. I've worked in shops. I know how to scan things. Move it along, machiney!

No, I'd be shocked if they weren't trained to be friendly. "find an item in their cart and comment on it!" etc

I'm guessing that doesn't include the checkout girl holding up a butternut squash and saying "now, what are you supposed to do with these? I see them go by and I've no idea what they are. Are they fruit?"

http://i.imgur.com/7otRw.png

http://fooeyusa.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/mr_mom_1.jpg?w=490

omg mr mom

That was (weirdly) my absolutely favorite movie when I was a really kid. Like, i used to make my mom (not a mr.) let me watch it every day for a while.

i get my wife tampons all the time....i dont see what the big deal is.

It was my favorite movie too. North to drop off, south to pick up, moron!!
yeah as an adult now, I don't get why he was so embarrassed.

TJ reminds me of an upscale Aldi. Similar bare bones layout. My local Aldi has this 70s supermarket thing going on that I find endearing.

― oo girl, run that game (u s steel), Tuesday, 29 March 2011 11:29 (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

FYI TJ is owned by Aldi

Woah - I fucked that sentence up. oops.

Anyway the self-scanners at the store by my old job were the worst. They always seemed to think you hadn't put the items in the bags correctly or were trying to steal something. Then it would take the person like 10 minutes to get to me from all the way across the store all while the line was growing and WMC was breathing done my neck and harassing me. Awful.

North to drop off, south to pick up, moron!!

hahaha omg

MY WOOBIE!!!

And, yeah, nothing wrong with a guy buying tampons or having a price check run on some such thing though I'd probably laugh if that ever happened irl because it would seem so cliche like what happened when the golden girls all tried to buy condoms.

line was growing and WMC was breathing done my neck and harassing me. Awful.

Just wave your tampons at him and glare. He'll back right off. The married ones know the score.

id be more embarassed for a price check on hemmorhoid cream or enemas.

buying butt cream is what self-checkout lines were invented for

they dont have those at CVS.

They actually do at many CVSs.

Embarrassment at the checkout line

not at mine.

The thing that bugs me about Trader Joe's friendly cashiers is that it's so obv a corporate-ordered faux friendliness. I like spontaneous, genuine friendliness, I really do.

I suspect that it's a combination of hiring gregarious people and training them to be friendly and outgoing. As a long-time customer service worker I don't care whether another service worker loves me to shreds and REALLY wants to chat or if they're doing their job. It's their job to be welcoming, and I for one appreciate it. Their eagerness and friendliness is done well - they don't seem to have scripts like a Chili's waiter or something.

people that still write checks for groceries are the real irredeemable scoundrels imho

Just wave your tampons at him and glare. He'll back right off. The married ones know the score.

― trishyb, Tuesday, March 29, 2011 11:59 AM (1 hour ago)

hahaha, yes, pwned

My local supermarket still has the sweepy divider but they never use it, they just stare you down while you pack and the person behind you huffs.

I am used to the Aldi/Lidl way now there are plenty of both across Britisherland, but my first trip to a German Aldi was confusing as I didn't realise you had to pick up a bag before the checkout if you wanted one and pay for it, and my German was almost non-existent so it took a few goes to determine that that was what I was being told

so if anyone reading this was held up one morning by a clueless English woman buying armfuls of Ritter Sport minis in an Aldi-Süd in the student quarter of Duisburg, I am very sorry

Is the Aldi way the same as ours, in that

1) Scan as fast as possible, all items.
2) Payment card takes ages to go through

actually, it's Lidl. carry on.

Dunno if it was fact or urban myth, but when I was at uni everyone said that the checkout staff at Aldi had to memorise the prices of everything in the store because Aldi were too tight to buy scanners. Actually this is patently bullshit. I never got around to going in Aldi because my boyfriend bought a bunch of microwave meals and some wine from there, and the plastic boxes melted all over the meals and the wine was like blackcurrant squash :(

I have vague memories of Aldi and/or Lidl not having scanners and everything being typed in by hand from memory. I think they've got scanners now though, I don't really pay attention, I'm too busy stressing about how I'm going to get everything over the shelf to pack it and will they have any boxes or will i have to spent 5p per extra carrier bag.

The memorising of prices definitely *was* the case until they introduced scanners into stores. IIRC the checkout staff got paid a lot better than their equivalents in regular supermarkets because of this. Now that they have modern scanner technology I doubt this is still true.

2) Payment card takes ages to go through

Weirdly, the Lidl round the corner from me has just about the fastest card machine I've ever used. Processes that business in the blink of an eye.

On topic, for as long as I can remember I've always done my own bagging. Although we've recently started doing the "big shop" online after a few too many dispiriting supermarket visits, so it's one of Ocado's order pickers who pack my bags now - their colour-coded system for Fridge / Cupboards / Freezer is brilliant.

i like the self-scanners because the cashiers often don't notice that i have obsessively picked the cheapest produce out of the all the different variations. that is not a SWEET ONION that is a YELLOW ONION, there is a FORTY-CENT PER POUND PRICE DIFFERENCE!!!!

anyway i've never really seen this "bag your own groceries" business in American supermarkets like Albertsons or Ralphs or whatever. there's a little station at the end of the lane for bagging, but 99% of the time it's got a guy in it. i wouldn't want to get all up in that guy's station, it would seem presumptuous.

IIRC the checkout staff got paid a lot better than their equivalents in regular supermarkets because of this. Now that they have modern scanner technology I doubt this is still true.

Their staff are still amazingly quick though.

Yeah, they're so quick in Lidl that one has no choice but to put stuff straight back into the trolley and then bag it over to one side so that the queue can flow.

Something that impresses me with Lidl etc is also that they manage to run the stores with a real skeleton crew; the one I go to has about six staff in total.

It's also the only supermarket I know where people don't actually mind queuing!

Also, they do still pay well.

First time I was in a Dutch grocery store (not to be confused with the sexual act "Dutch Grocery Store"), I noticed the cashiers were sitting on stools (because why not? It's a shitty job, and there's no reason for them to be standing), and not only do they not provide bags, but you have to bag your own shit. I was down with this, but wish I'd known it before I had to walk four blocks carrying an armful of bagless groceries.

Do you also pay for your own bags? We have to: five cents per plastic bag.

i like the self-scanners because the cashiers often don't notice that i have obsessively picked the cheapest produce out of the all the different variations. that is not a SWEET ONION that is a YELLOW ONION, there is a FORTY-CENT PER POUND PRICE DIFFERENCE!!!!

Christ, I haven't noticed whether the checkers notice this or not, but I am totally obsessive about buying exactly such things as the onions that cost $1.49 vs. $1.99. This might push me over the edge into total self-checkout territory.

Which would be doing the checkers at my local Giant a service, apparently, based on this thread.

i like the self-scanners because the cashiers often don't notice that i have obsessively picked the cheapest produce out of the all the different variations. that is not a SWEET ONION that is a YELLOW ONION, there is a FORTY-CENT PER POUND PRICE DIFFERENCE!!!!

I don't ever really look at the prices of produce (I'm bad at money :() so I haven't noticed that from a price perspective BUT I'm sometimes baffled by what the people at the checkout don't know. Like, I've been asked what a zucchini is before.

I went through a similar thing with Jicama once, but you've got me beat.

Yeah well those are sorta ~exotic~ (and delicious - my dad makes a salad with Jicama which is out of this world) so they're excused but it's the reg veg confusion that happens every once in a while that's sorta mind-blowing.

OTOH you could be hassling the local Asian grocer with what's that veg queries... So used to shopping on a grad student's income and buying loss leaders or BOGOF specials that I've become really good at adding up my basket to avoid being overcharged. Also my mom's 11th Commandment is 'thou shalt not buy anything in a supermarket that's not on special'. The only place I wait in a trusting way for my total is the local butcher.

Tell 'em its a courgette.

lol

"But that's not in the book!"

Their heads would probably explode.

Parsnips are the most common sort of confusion with me and cashiers in the states.

Yeah - those too! Tbh though I get confused by root vegetables sometimes too. I have had to consult the internet on more than one occasion when I wasn't sure exactly what something that came in the delivery box we used to get was.

parsnips, turnips and some radishes all sort of look alike to me

"Is that a parsnip or are you just happy to see me?"

Do you also pay for your own bags? We have to: five cents per plastic bag.

― Nathalie (stevienixed), Wednesday, March 30, 2011 6:19 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

It was a long time ago (I was there for a couple of months in 1994), but I don't remember any disposable bags being present at all. I think I had to buy a reusable tote bag or two.

i like the self-scanners because the cashiers often don't notice that i have obsessively picked the cheapest produce out of the all the different variations. that is not a SWEET ONION that is a YELLOW ONION, there is a FORTY-CENT PER POUND PRICE DIFFERENCE!!!!

This EXACT thing happened to me last week, same onions and price diff! Obviously being English I didn't say anything, just looked a bit grumpy about it when I realised.

Me too, a couple weeks ago. Picked the Jazz apples explicitly because they were 79 cents/lb (and I'd never had them before), got charged for Fujis at $1.79/lb. Not that big a deal with ~2 lbs, but still pissed me off.

it adds up.

i've entered organic apples as regular ol apples on "accident"

The thing that bugs me about Trader Joe's friendly cashiers is that it's so obv a corporate-ordered faux friendliness. I like spontaneous, genuine friendliness, I really do.

I've wondered about this too but whenever I encounter the TJ cashiers out and about in the neighborhood they seem just the same.

it's the implanted microchip

The Manchurian Cashier

"OH HAI EEPHUS! HEY I SEE YOU'RE WEARING LEVIS, HAVE YOU TRIED THE NEW CORDS THEY CAME OUT WITH? THEY'RE REALLY COMFY! OK NICE SEEING YOU, COME AGAIN!"

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_D1ZZyTOG7tQ/SPe79j-_U3I/AAAAAAAAC3E/AxtnFvTrnfE/s400/The_Stepford_Wives_1975_Grocery_Store.JPG

The memorising of prices definitely *was* the case until they introduced scanners into stores.

...and I guess putting price tags on stuff wasn't an option for some reason.

Price tags and guns are expensive. Also, I wonder if having to remember all those prices actually keeps you more alert while you're working the till?

Ok, so I did this today. I took the plunge. And it wasn't so bad! Just another way in which ilx has improved my life, like enjoying the music of Ashley Simpson or making fun of people in cargo shorts.

i don't bag my own groceries, but there's no shame in my game cuz in Publixs in America it's nearly impossible to do that

Did this again yesterday, even though there was a bagger, because it looked like he needed some help. Then when I got home, it turned out that bastard had put my kale on the bottom of a bag of much heavier stuff. I don't think I'm going to let anyone bag my groceries again.

People who let incompetent buffoons bag their groceries are the most irredeemable scoundrels

http://i.imgur.com/iltZs6j.jpg

I support this

Make bagging great again