Sometimes customers are amazed with our bagging skills. How we’re able to fit all the groceries in one bag without hesitation. Grocery stores train their employees how to properly bag groceries but as the years go by we create our own technique.
Like an artist, who passionately draws whatever comes to mind. Bagging is an art form itself, we bag whatever comes to us and we visualize how groceries would go into the bag before we do so. Some would say it’s easy, just put the heavy items on the bottom and the perishable items on top but many times it’s more complicated than that. If there’s 2, 2-liter soda’s then that would be a base to put items on top or 2 boxes of cereal would be used as walls to put groceries in between them. It’s becomes second nature to us and a skill many grocery clerks are proud about. Customer’s just have to trust us.
But the real secret to grocery clerks amazing bagging skills…
We’ve all played it at some point.
Do you trust your grocery clerk bagging?
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
LOL..oh my gosh, I used to play Tetris all the time! I know I wasn’t the only one who envisioned the game in my head and put the pieces together!!!
I don’t think our store’s baggers ever went to any training. Or if they did, they’ve forgotten — or they don’t care. lol
Yea, not all baggers have that skill. Its nice when they do tho. I hate to self bag, because I am horrible at bagging
I trust them, they are much better at it than I am, and they put less in every bag than I would expect.
Now we know the REAL story behind the story!
I LOVE this post!!!! You just don’t know. Sometimes, if the store is really busy, I will try to help out and start bagging my groceries to get a head start, they will run to keep me from doing this…..it’s like a battlecry heard through out the store. LMAO I am so bad at bagging my own groceries it causes them to panic. “No, Shawn, I got it. Really, but thanks.” Then they will smile at me, but not a thanks for trying to help smile, it’s a ‘good thing you’re pretty and smart’ kind of smile, as if to say, “you would never last a day in here” I suck at bagging groceries! There, I said it, I know it. It’s out there.
At my grocery store, they hire a lot of mentally disabled people to bag groceries and bring in carts, and they are NOT good baggers. I try to let them do as much as possible, but then I’m out in the lot trying to rebag everything to keep the cold stuff together, etc. I much prefer when I have the chance to bag stuff myself. I always choose plastic, because I reuse them and sometimes they’ll try to put two or three 2 liters in a single bag. It’s maddening I tell you!
My friend Jenni and I call it “the Tetris Gene.” Either you’re born with it, or you’re not. Those who are are great packers, baggers, stuffers…
I am amazed by how often I get bags from grocery stores that are just so haphazard. Food in with cleaing products, things in with my bread, graham cracker pie crust ON THE BOTTOM! Ugh. All wrong. We try to send our groceries down the belt in a way that makes sense: all the cold together, all the cans together, all the boxes together, and all the non-food last.
Love the baggers at our Publix grocery store. Except I think they secretly get mad at us with the reusable bags…it’s an entirely different scenario. Annoying, I’m sure.
Hahahaha Paul I’ve seen your video game skills.
Is this the next great video game?
“Stuff Your Bag?”
I appreciate a good grocery bagger. I really do. I hate it when I get home and find my tomatoes squished because someone decided that they would go best on the bottom of the bag. Thanks for being one of the conscientious ones! Who knew Tetris conferred so many life skills?
I hadn’t thought of it before, but it does seem like something of an art form. C’est magnifique!
I can’t say I usually care enough to think about it in terms of trust – but some are goo at it, some not. I usually group things on the little conveyor belt so things get bagged the way I want them: freezer stuff, things for the veggie drawer, non-food items and so on.
Most people wouldn’t consider mastering a game like that to help with skills in the work force. It is a very unique way of learning!
Now I will forever picture Tetris while my groceries are being bagged. Great reference!
I’m always happy with how my stuff is bagged. Sometimes I do it myself if the checker is working alone and I notice a line behind me. As a customer I often feel bad when I have a cart jammed full and I get in line for checkout. I always get my ‘I’m sorry this is going to take forever’ face on and I try to help as much as possible. But I definitely am not as quick as they are.
Oh my gosh! This so completely fantastic. hahaha. Hey, maybe there’s something for you to market. A version of Tetris where instead of the little puzzle pieces, you get groceries, like “A dozen eggs! Loaf of bread! Uh-oh here comes a whole chicken and a pie crust! Where do I put it?!”
How do you guys feel about the re-usable bags? Does it mess with your system any? I was bagging my own groceries one day and was completely thrown off by how much stuff you can fit in there.
Ok seriously… now I want to play Tetris. Thanks a lot Paul! Haha!