Why do some people not bag their own groceries?

You’re allowed to bag your own groceries where you are? You’d get slapped down for trying where I’m from.

Same as @SavoirFaire in digi-land. The baggers volunteer for their position so they can be given tips. I hate them. I wish I could bag my own and be on my merry way… same with the gas pump guys in Oregon.

Depends on the store @nikipedia. Some stores frown on the customer packing their own bags.

I prefer to pack my own. That way I can put things like freezer items all in one tote, and dry goods in another-etc. In some stores, I have to insist that I prefer to do it myself. In a few stores, they insist they’ll handle it.

The only place I don’t get dirty looks or moved aside for trying this is at Costco. I’m assuming the other stores’ checkers and baggers want to keep their jobs or don’t want to be reported on? Where do you shop?

It depends on the store, some people should know if there is or isn’t a bagger, so I don’t get why they wouldn’t know. Then, if they’re new to area, and discover there isn’t baggers, they should come back to reality and realize they have to do small things for themselves.

I always have to repack mine when I get to the car, because I often want the frig and freezer stuff in one bag.

@SavoirFaire “You’re allowed to bag your own groceries where you are?”
Funny how in different countries there are different customs (of things I wouldn’t think they were).
In the Netherlands there is no way that someone from the staff is going to bag your groceries for you (as far as I know…, at least not in the shops that I frequent).
I would hate it even, as I am a very ‘straight groceries bagger’ myself.
Spend hours and hours playing with this might be the source of that.

In a number of supermarkets in our area the baggers are mentally-challenged persons that are glad to be working in the mainstream. I am glad to support this practice. When I shop at other places, I’m glad to bag if they let me. I’ve never noticed anyone actively refusing to bag their own groceries.

@rebbel Indeed, and it’s not just different countries. Some of the stores where I live now have self-checkout lanes, which I have to admit gave me a bit of a shock the first time I saw one. I love using them when I can. Try bagging your groceries in a normal lane, though, and you’ll still get looked at like you just insulted someone’s sainted grandmother.

I wouldn’t necessarily call a person a jerk for not helping to bag their own groceries. The cashiers and baggers are paid to do this for us. Luckily where we live we have baggers on hand at all times to assist the cashiers. If a bagger isn’t in sight the cashier will call for one on the loudspeaker. The baggers also carry our groceries for us to our car if we have more than two bags to carry. One of the many reasons why I love small towns.

When we lived in a larger town I always helped to bag my groceries if there wasn’t a bagger around. I have noticed that some cashiers don’t like it when the customer helps. Maybe these people you have noticed who don’t help have had a bad experience so they just let the cashier do their job.

Where I live, it’s not really an option. The stores pay people to be “sackers”. They also always offer to take the groceries out to my car but I decline that part.

@WillWorkForChocolate Our baggers have a small cart they use to load the groceries in so we really don’t have the option to decline their help. Only when we have just a few bags that don’t need to be carted. I have declined before but they always insist!

Everyone bags their own stuff in Germany.
In fact, if I remember correctly, Walmart tried to introduce baggers here. It was firmly rejected by customers.

In the UK, most people bag there own stuff. Every so often I am asked if I need help with putting everything in bags but I always say no. Sometimes the Brownies or Scouts will be volunteering in the stores as baggers but I haven’t seen that for a long time.

@jonsblond Ahh, I see. They don’t do that here. They put your stuff in the same basket you pulled up to checkout… but at least ours ask if we want help taking it out. I always just say, “No thanks, I’ve got it.” They’re not real pushy here.

Usually where I shop there is someone besides the checker there to do it. At some places, the bags are on the other side of the checkout counter so I couldn’t even if I wanted to.

Interesting responses so far. If there is a dedicated bagger whose job is to help, of course I can see why you wouldn’t knock him down to do it yourself.

I shop mostly at Trader Joe’s, and invariably I am there buying 1 thing while the oblivious soccer mom ahead of me is buying 4 weeks’ worth of groceries and sighing at her iPhone while the checker frantically tries to move the line along.

The baggers here in Central Florida’s Publix actually wear big pins saying “No tips, please”, because people coming from states or cities where baggers are volunteers just assume that every bagger is a volunteer, rather than an employee.

At our Trader Joe’s everybody seems to be pretty good about bagging their own stuff. I’ve never seen a logjam.

Yep, at Publix you don’t get a chance to bag your own, and they walk the cart out to your car.

As has been said, in the UK you bag your own stuff so it took a bit of getting used to standing there while someone did it for me in Australia. I didn’t like it at all. Even now I am a bit ‘thingo’ about what goes in what bag, so now I am very careful about what I put on the conveyor so things are bagged as I like them to be.

We do now have at least one grocery chain where you are expected to bag your own stuff. I am so out of practice though.

@JilltheTooth Well, she is in California. Not the friendliest or most helpful people I’ve ever encountered before. ;)

Whole Foods might or might not let you bag. They have it set up for the cashier to bag, or when things are busy, they have baggers. They don’t really like you bagging, although at times you can. It’s a complicated dance, I’m afraid and doing your own bagging is not always the thing to do. I prefer it, because I want my things bagged by where they will be unloaded and by weight. Unfortunately, I don’t get to do it much. And even when I do, they try to take over and they always ruin things at the end. So fuck it. Let them bag if they want. It’s not worth the hassle of making them do it my way. Sue me if their returns are higher as a result which stuff gets ruined because of the way they bag.

At Trader Joe’s, they take the stuff out of your cart, scan it, and put it into a bag, all in one motion.

Can I just comment that I’ve never heard a cashier/clerk at a grocery store called a “checker” before in my life? I love English! New surprises all the time.

I always bag my own stuff. I’m finally getting good at it. Obviously if there is a bagger, I let them bag, but most of the time there isn’t so I just do it. It seems like it’d be really awkward to let it pile up, then wait AGAIN while the cashier bags it.

@deni The supermarket next to me is a union shop. Ever try to do a union guy’s job for them? They don’t like that so much.

It’s not my job.

Every time I’ve tried, I’ve managed to put the beer on top of the eggs. It was a crushing experience in more ways than one because I am one of those few who actually deserves eggs in his beer.

I hope you never bag my groceries, @ratboy.

I have never been to any store in CA where I was allowed to pack my own groceries. It’s not even expected. I’ve never even thought about it. Not in my whole life. Unless you count Costco.

@tinyfaery Same. Nor in Nevada. Not sure how common it is elsewhere…

@nikipedia lives in CA, too. Now I’m wondering if I’m just an oblivious asshole who expects others to serve me.

In Germany, if you stand around waiting for someone to bag your groceries, armades of impatient mothers, irritable fathers and their sticky children will show you the way out. Germans think this is too decadent. I give it a year till we have grocery baggers everywhere. We can’t stand to seem less wealthy than America. ;D Mad World.

At the grocery store that I frequent most often, they do not like the customers to bag their items. They are typically service focused and are pleasantly assertive if they see you bagging. That said, if it’s a busy Saturday morning and they don’t have enough people to bag, they don’t get annoyed if I do it. And as others have said, I prefer to do it. It’s just not worth the hassle to tell the person to go away.

If I started bagging my own groceries I’d opt someone out of a job. Can’t have that happening!

It never ceases to amaze me that a business will have two checkers helping customers use the self checkout. It that the epitomy of irony?

Everywhere I have shopped in Australia, the bags are directly beside the scale and scanner so after the item has been weighed or scanned, the check out person drops it into a bag and that is that. I don’t like raw meat in with produce so I always request raw meats separate please. But my favorite is the self check out, I am faster than most of the employees. People do give you dirty looks though if you take a trolley full of groceries into the self check out although there is no sign that limits the number of items????

Most places here, it’s not even an option. The cashier scans and bags (even if you bring your own bags), all at once, so there’s no pile up. Since I’m really picky about how my stuff is bagged, I make sure to arrange the stuff on the conveyor belt as I want it bagged.

As we’ve seen in this thread, practices seem to vary around the country (and world), so maybe the people you’re noticing are tourists in your area, and unaccustomed to doing their own bagging.

As @Bellatrix says it’s not common for there to be baggers in a store, unless there’s volunteers from the scouts or some other group doing it to collect for charity. The cashier will usually ask if I need help. I always say no. I can imagine if I was a stressed-out parent with a gaggle of kids, or a disabled person*, I’d be grateful for the help.
* I am slightly disabled but not in any way that affects my ability to pack groceries.

Up north where I’m from, there are usually a few baggers but not enough to go around.
When you have a load of groceries and it’s just you and the cashier, it’s fairly expected that the customer steps up to the plate to bag their own groceries. .

I’ve noticed a trend lately where the cashiers will separate the groceries by putting refrigerated items together, frozen items together and boxed or canned items together when bagging the groceries. Only now and then will I get someone who doesn’t pay attention to how they bag the items and put something heavy with the eggs, for example. I wonder if anyone else has noticed this?

@jonsblond My eggs used to get broken by baggers all the time. I had to start holding them back to make sure they were the last item I placed on the conveyor belt and request that they be placed in a separate bag. I bring reusable bags, so this thankfully doesn’t get me too many funny looks—though it did take me some effort not to say anything when one bagger who had broken my eggs no less than four times remarked “a bit paranoid about your eggs, aren’t you?”

I now buy eggs exclusively from the store that has a self-checkout lane.

@Hain_roo what are you defining as “up north”? I grew up in MA and lived in upstate NY for 15 years, and never, EVER, was expected to bag my own groceries.

Hello Mritty, Boston’s North Shore, as a matter of fact. Small town. ~Ok, I shouldn’t say ‘expected’ but common sense dictates: “Hmm, I could do something instead of just stand here while the groceries pile up” (but I’m sure there are people who do that)

@Hain_roo and @MrItty: I think it’s appreciated when you bag your groceries, but not necessarily expected. (i live in southern NY if that helps).

Ok, but where I shopped it seemed more like…protocol.