Ask a Grocery Clerk

by PkWynn on February 22, 2010

Q: 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.

I’m all for re-usable bags but it does kind of messes up the bagging system. Our plastic bag have holders to keep them upright to make bagging efficient. So the only thing that I think would bother us is we have to hold the reusable bag while bagging. Re-usable bags hold a lot of stuff and we don’t have to worry about sharp corners of cereal boxes, pizza, etc. However, I must say some of re-usable bags are terribly proportionate like a trapezoid. We can’t really fit anything in them but customers like to test us it seems.

Tagged as: grocery clerk

http://www.wickedgirlsthinkitdoyou.blogspot.com Wicked Shawn

I have them, but OMG they are ginormous, so then I have to take strength and conditioning class to pack my one bag that two weeks worth of groceries will now fit inside the 12 feet from my car to my house.
http://www.phoenixism.net Phoenixism

Not even an issue in the hood, everyone rolls the damn cart full of groceries all the way home. Then they just leave them there on the curb in front of my apartment.

I can guarantee you…99.83% of people who push the store grocery carts home do not use Green bags lol. Just a personal observation
http://msjstar1275.blogspot.com/ JStar

I am with Phoenixism on this one. I see the same thing here. In DC they already started using the reusable bags or charging for the plastic. They havent started in MD yet but will soon be. I am not going to drive around with reusable bags all the time. I stop at the grocery store on a whim, its not always planned out. Although I dont keep plastic bags, I throw them away immediately. So I will be the one buying plastic bags…I dont mind 30 cents per bag, Shoppers Food Warehouse has already been charging for years…
Margaret Packard

I try to keep a few used plastic grocery bags in my car to use next time (if they haven’t already fallen apart the first time they were used). But I hadn’t really thought about this making it more difficult for the bagger since it isn’t on the holder. I usually bag my own groceries while the checker is ringing them up, unless I arrived at a newly empty checkstand and the checker rang them all up while I was putting them on the conveyor belt. Phoenixism is right about the carts. People in my apartment complex bring the carts home and then leave them to accumulate in our recycling area. Although I notice that some are considerate enough to bring them back to the store each time they shop.
http://3rdandcollege.blogspot.com Peter L

We just get new bags, because around here there are no fees for that. Or we reuse old bags at (are we allowed to name regional chains) Aldi.

On a side note: Do checkers still learn how to load the bags? At (a large, national “superstore”, big box department store chain) the checkers seem to not know how. They put all the cans in one bag, then double (or triple) it, and put maybe one box of cereal in another bag.