Online Food Shopping - Do/don't you?

[Gravy Queen]

Do you all have someone who is there to specifically pack your shopping? We don't have that here. The person on the till will ask if you want help and if you do, they will assist you but mainly most people pack their own shopping.

 

[taxlady]

Do you all have someone who is there to specifically pack your shopping? We don't have that here. The person on the till will ask if you want help and if you do, they will assist you but mainly most people pack their own shopping.

In most stores there is someone who packs your groceries for you. Most of them do it badly.

The cashiers don't have any where to sit. They stand up the whole time!

 

[FrankZ]

Do you all have someone who is there to specifically pack your shopping? We don't have that here. The person on the till will ask if you want help and if you do, they will assist you but mainly most people pack their own shopping.

Generally speaking there are three ways it is done around these parts:

1) Self service end to end. You scan it and you bag it.
2) A cashier scans and bags it as they go (or does it at the end). You can help.
3) Cashier scans and a dedicated (or shared) bagger does the bagging. This generally happens in nicer or higher end places here as it costs extra.

On option 1 they usually have 1 person running 5 or 6 self service lines and they sometimes bag for you if they aren't resolving issues like the person who can't figure out where the coupon goes, or the kid trying to buy cough medicine, or the fact it WON'T SCAN MY FREAKIN BLUEBERRIES!

Hope that helps.

 

[Steve Kroll]

Do you all have someone who is there to specifically pack your shopping? We don't have that here. The person on the till will ask if you want help and if you do, they will assist you but mainly most people pack their own shopping.

I think it's different everywhere. Where I live, most stores don't bag your groceries for you. But there are a couple of high end places that still offer bagging and help with loading groceries in your car. However, those are also the kind of places that have carpeting in the aisles and charge three times the price everyone else does for meat.

 

[GLC]

Do you all have someone who is there to specifically pack your shopping? We don't have that here. The person on the till will ask if you want help and if you do, they will assist you but mainly most people pack their own shopping.

Here (Texas), there is almost always a bagger at or near each checker point. In the store I use, they are well trained, and I have seen some of the same people in the job for years and later advancing through positions in the company, so they do a pretty good job of keeping cold things together, putting drippy meats in plastic, and not crushing delicate goods under cans and such. If there happens to not be one on station, the checker will bag them after she (rarely are they male) completes the transaction. They will carry them out, if you wish. This is standard in all large general groceries in all neighborhoods. A store would be thought negligent and neglectful of their customers if they expected you to bag your own.

We are just now getting to the point of non-disposable cloth grocery bags being common. Some cities are banning plastic bags altogether. Just as well. The disposable plastic bags used by the stores have become so thin as to be a hazard to anything that would be spoiled by a drop to the ground when the bag gives way. I've used a set of cotton canvas bags for years. They are much easier to carry.

You do also have an option of using the self-service check-out, and it's okay if you don't have too much and you remembered to use the scale and price tag printer in the produce section and don't have any marked down close-out goods that were repriced by hand and have to be handled specially by the checker.

In the 1950's, they were "bag boys," mostly young boys who worked for tips.

Typical bagger.

Typical check station.

Not too different from 1950. (Just add another zero to the price total.)

 

[Addie]

i guess the "stealing legally" concept applies foremost to myself. i recognized (then used) my supermarket's system weakness to bring home extra produce and other goodies i wouldn't have purchased otherwise. to ease a guilty conscience, i eventually began to make the price corrections prior to buying my groceries. but some things just don't change, or take a long time to correct. i could walk into that supermarket today (many months later) and emerge with a free bag of apples, half gallon of milk, pound of bacon, etc,etc,etc--only i won't

When I look at a flyer and it says that Grannjy Smith apples are 89 cents a pound and they ring up as 1.49 a pound, the normal price, I have no guilt taking the apples home free. It is the error of the store and like Greg said, they are cheating me. I would not have purchased the apples at their regular price. In Massachusetts that is called "Switch and Bait." An illegal activity in this state. And it calls for a hefty fine for the store. Had the Inspectors caught that error, they would have come down hard on the store. I am only getting a free bag of apples.

I probably have to be the most honest person you will find. I once found a $100 bill on the floor of the bank. I picked it up and when I got to the window I gave it to the teller letting her know I just found it. She knew who had lost it and would give her a call and let her know that she had deposited it to her acccount. So I placed the need to continue the honesty on to the teller. But I had a clear conscience. A free bag of apples is a bonus I earned for keeping the store as honest as I am. I simply cannot Would you consider a BOGO deal stealing? (Buy one, get one free)

 

[Claire]

Do you all have someone who is there to specifically pack your shopping? We don't have that here. The person on the till will ask if you want help and if you do, they will assist you but mainly most people pack their own shopping.

Everywhere in the USA that I've been, they have baggers, you actually have to ask if you prefer to bag your own. When I was in Europe last (Slovenia, 20 years ago) everyone bagged their own (and you only got a store bag if you asked for it, everyone brought their own). Now we're getting in with the bring your own bags thing, but most of us are so used to using the disposable store bags we haven't gotten with the program!

Where I live the local, smaller grocery store actually has a covered pick-up point where the baggers load your groceries into your car for you (not common elsewhere). You are not supposed to tip, either.

Where I lived in Florida, there were young men with Down's Syndrome who worked bagging and for the multitudes of elderly, they'd take your bags to your car, then round up the grocery carts left in the parking lot. It was a great program and the local group homes took great advantage of it.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

i guess the "stealing legally" concept applies foremost to myself. i recognized (then used) my supermarket's system weakness to bring home extra produce and other goodies i wouldn't have purchased otherwise. to ease a guilty conscience, i eventually began to make the price corrections prior to buying my groceries. but some things just don't change, or take a long time to correct. i could walk into that supermarket today (many months later) and emerge with a free bag of apples, half gallon of milk, pound of bacon, etc,etc,etc--only i won't

It never occurred to me to do that. I'm not even sure how that would work since you don't know what they'll scan until you're going through checkout. Well, perhaps, some markets have price check scanners located throughout the store that customers can use to check products. But not really that prevalent. My local Ralphs had just one scanner available to customers and it was always broken.

Generally speaking there are three ways it is done around these parts:

1) Self service end to end. You scan it and you bag it.
2) A cashier scans and bags it as they go (or does it at the end). You can help.
3) Cashier scans and a dedicated (or shared) bagger does the bagging. This generally happens in nicer or higher end places here as it costs extra.

Same same in the city of Lost Angeles.

When I look at a flyer and it says that Grannjy Smith apples are 89 cents a pound and they ring up as 1.49 a pound, the normal price, I have no guilt taking the apples home free. It is the error of the store and like Greg said, they are cheating me.

It's far worse than that. If the price is marked at 89 cents and they're charging $1.49, they've cheated every customer before you who saw the 89 cent shelf price. That is why they give away a free product to the person who discovers the error. At least they're being honest (as far as I've seen) and the person they send to check it takes the shelf tag down if it isn't in agreement with what's scanned. At least they aren't lying about the prices after that, and aren't continuing to cheat customers.

The issue was settled to my satisfaction here in Los Angeles. I still memorize the prices but the scanners always come up in agreement with the prices I memorized. They fixed the problem and that's fair to everybody, both the market and their customers. The only losers are the media who don't have any "supermarkets are cheating you out of your money" stories to cover.