the wdgbdtdyc thread

Most of your fraternity is pretty good - no bread getting smushed or eggs getting smashed. But, there is one thing that bugs me to no end. Too much stuff in a bag. Even if you double bag it, it is still pretty heavy. It isn't a big deal for most, but Lori and I try to bring all our groceries up in one trip, and that bag throws off my load-balancing (it is important to balance when you have 5 or 6 bags in each hand).

 

Be nice and have fun with the customers.

I hate baggers that think they are doing me a favor.

Ditto what nbs said, too.

 

Pack neat and smile for the tip..


Bless

 

Always putting the soft stuff at the bottom of the bag, and then filling it up with heavy stuff.

I was in ASDA's last Friday, and I had a basket... about 6 items, nothing heavy, and as I was going through the checkout, the girl asked me if I needed a hand packing all my shopping, in hindsight I should've said yes.

 

Bag boys get tips?

 

no major complaints here, just don't let anything get smashed or broken.

 

Two tips I picked up from several years of bagging in a previous life:

1. Don't overpack the bags. Just because you can lift them, it doesn't mean that the 60+ year-old woman can.

2. Put like stuff together. If you have a bunch of frozen food, put it all together, so they reinforce each other and stay cold longer. Also, don't do dumb things like putting the clorox together with the fruit (I yelled at a fellow bagger for doing that once).

 

But I hate my soft stuff getting smushed.

 

You obviously ask too much of baggers. A little smushed bread never hurt anyone.

 

It was my first job too. They do sometimes, at least at the kind of stores where you take stuff to the customers' cars and load for them. Our store didn't permit them (and I've always found the whole concept of tipping to be irritating...I tip generously in sit-down restaurants, but try to avoid the spread of tipping to every possible human interaction in the world, you know? ), but anyway, a couple customers insisted hard enough that I didn't want to make it a power struggle over a $5.... (And figured I wouldn't get fired for it! )

Anyway, good luck with your job!

 

I can't blame the casual worker for my craziness. Mine was self-induced.

Having said that, I only ever buy one product (fudge) when I go to the supermarket so they can pack it pretty much as bizarrely as they like.

 

Ask before you start packing...

I have my own system based on where/when some of the items will be used - and I hate anyone offering to pack for me. There are occasions when I've considered just grabbing the bags out of the packer's hands - and other times when no-one has offered and I'd have appreciated it.

 

Applespider's advice takes you a LONG way, I think.

This opens up sooooo many questions, speaking of asking....

 

Don't tie up the plastic bags by their handles (unless the customer wants you to). It's a pain to have to cut open all the bags at home.

 

It's already been said, but it is annoying when one bag or two ends up way heavier than the other bags.

Aside from that, I really haven't gotten the "smushed goods" effect (whew) and I guess the baggers I've run into always place the cold goods w/ the other cold goods.

 

Good bag packing is a two way thing. I detest customers who just throw everything on the conveyer and then complain about all of the frozen things being kept together. I always try and keep like-things aside so they can be packed together but it becomes impossible if everything is spread out. Also, if you don't want certain things with other things (that most people don't mind having together), let the check-out person know - we're not mind readers.

I always try and fill the bags up, though I try to make them not too heavy - especially for pensioners. Try and keep delicate things like bread and eggs in the same bag - it'll save you a lot of complaints. Learn as many of the fruit and vegetable codes as you can, it's much quicker than looking them up. Try and pack things vertically, I find you can fit more in. Playing tetris also helps with neat packing.

 

You would love the hubby. He's very picky about the order in which he puts things on the belt. Like items are together, everything is neatly spaced for easy access for the checker. I don't even bother to help him unload the cart anymore because I just can't do it the right way. So I just hand over the coupons and the credit card. I guess that's what I'm good at.

 

Many moons ago, I packed bags in addition to being a night stocker (as opposed to night stalker). I was anal about it then and am now anal about how I put groceries in my cart so as to put them on the conveyor in the "right" sequence (I agree with max and others here).

I think everyone's covered about everything....

My first priority was always putting the breakables in a womb where possible (eggs on top of a bottom layer of a cereal box or whatever, nestled in there). Next was putting cold items together (frozen, then refrigerated, and combined if there was room). Then came weight distribution. Back then, paper was used a lot more, and so it was easier to pack things well but you had to be very careful about overloading. This whole newfangled plastic bag thing makes it harder for a bag packer to properly do their job, I think, but that's part of the challenge, I guess.

Best grocery store chain, ever.

Edit: I'm very much interested to see if Doctor Q posts here.

 

Agreed 110%!!!! And the sub sangwiches they make could put Subway and Quiznos out of business...

 

See, this is what always amazes me about the states, you guys have so many itty bitty jobs no wonder your wages are so low.

Here it's very rare to see an employee whose sole purpose is to pack your groceries into either the plastic ones or the recyclable cloth ones. All that is done by the person staffing the till - the "check-out chick" as it were.

Same thing with restaurants, in the restaurants here we don't have "bus boys," the waiter is responsible for all orders and transport of food/drinks to and from the tables. For a waiter my age in a restaurant employed as a casual (most common for wait-staff) and earning the government legislated award wages, the lowest they'd be earning would be about $17 an hour, rising to $20 on a Saturday and about $24 on a Sunday, public holidays are closer to $40ph. Mind you we don't tip (although most people do, it's just not expected of a customer and there's no "standard" 10% or 15%) but I still think it's insane how low wait-staff and the like's wages are over there.

In 3.5 months in our ski fields I saved about $5500 dollars ($US4200) and that was paying "snow tax" on all food, drinks and living pretty well too. I was only working maybe 30 hours a week. In Canada at the ski fields I was working well over 40 hours a week, paying basically the same price there as I would here for food but scrimping and saving everything and in 6 months I earned about CAD$2000 (A$2400, US$1800).

The difference? CAD$6.50ph wage. No increases for weekends, and $6.50 was considered "good"!!! Because it was above the $5.90 considered "minimum wage" in Alberta. It was the lowest I'd ever earned, the next lowest was nearly twice the rate.

 

Ever had a bagger stare at you constantly? That's what sets me off edge.

 

Our local supermarket has had the bright idea to get local youngsters in to do packing on behalf of charities and community groups – in exchange for the service, you give them some change for their fund. It's all very well intentioned and I can't knock the thinking behind it, but problem is the kids don't have a clue what they're doing. The amount of stuff that gets squashed and crushed is unbelievable. I always try to make it to my shopping before they do, but they're faster and are many...

 

Ooh, I hate it when people pack my shopping. I'll do it myself, cheers. Although it tends to be the checkout person saying "Want me to pack yer bags" and tend to look quite relieved when I say "No, it's fine, I'll do it".

I quite like those self service checkouts, myself. Well, until they start barking instructions at me.