AITA: Grocery bagging

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mid-morning weekday grocery shopping at Harris Teeter. Naming the time, because this wasn’t Monday night or Saturday morning — store was quiet and uncrowded, with no line behind me and other registers open. Naming the store because I think they try and position themselves with their customer service. I had a small load of groceries — filled three reusable bags. Not a massive shopping trip.

As I wheeled up, the checker announced “We’re going to work as a team. I’m going to scan and you’re going to bag.” I said, “No thanks. I was counting on you to bag my items.” She then frowned and went silent for the duration of the transaction.

I’m physically able to bag my own groceries, and I did it without a second thought during the height of the pandemic when we were worried about contact. I’m happy to do it at Aldi or Lidl, where prices are cheaper because that’s part of the deal. But at a “full-price” regular grocery store, I don’t want to. I’m not getting a discount, and frankly I want to use those few minutes to check my email, send a quick text to someone, update my shopping list, mentally plan the evening scrum of sports/homework/dinner, or just veg out for a few blessed minutes. I don’t refill my own drink at restaurants, I don’t loosen the lug nuts on one wheel while my mechanic rotates the other, and I don’t pre-rake my leaves for the landscapers. I will smile and make small talk and say thank you and gratefully acknowledge their much-appreciated help. But I’m not interested in doing someone else’s job. I’m tired enough just doing my own.

Is bagging your own groceries when asked a thing now? AITA for objecting?

I would have bagged - cashiers make little money and have a boring but important job. What does it hurt to bag your own stuff?

Maybe you should ask them to step aside so you can scan your groceries too? What does it hurt to do that?

.

Does this make you feel self justified about in being a twat?

It is not the same thing at all.

I actually prefer to bag my own groceries as I place things in the way I prefer.
It makes it go faster and is not a big deal.

You can’t answer a question without name calling…maybe you should rethink who the twat is here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love bagging my own groceries. I actually am disappointed if a bagger shows up. I group things so it’s easier to put away at home.

And I hate bagging. I move slowly and I get anxious that everyone behind me is impatiently waiting on me. That's why I go to a full service grocery store, so that I can watch the prices, arrange coupons, pull out my credit card, and put the bags back in the cart while someone else bags.

It would be fine to say “sorry, do you mind if I watch the prices instead? I’ll help you bag after” but that’s not what op said. OP was unnecessarily jerkish about the whole thing.

This thread should not be about whether a customer should or shouldn’t bag their groceries. It’s about whether you need to shove it in a service workers face even if they asked you something that was technically wrong of them. It’s always better to be gracious and cooperative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mid-morning weekday grocery shopping at Harris Teeter. Naming the time, because this wasn’t Monday night or Saturday morning — store was quiet and uncrowded, with no line behind me and other registers open. Naming the store because I think they try and position themselves with their customer service. I had a small load of groceries — filled three reusable bags. Not a massive shopping trip.

As I wheeled up, the checker announced “We’re going to work as a team. I’m going to scan and you’re going to bag.” I said, “No thanks. I was counting on you to bag my items.” She then frowned and went silent for the duration of the transaction.

I’m physically able to bag my own groceries, and I did it without a second thought during the height of the pandemic when we were worried about contact. I’m happy to do it at Aldi or Lidl, where prices are cheaper because that’s part of the deal. But at a “full-price” regular grocery store, I don’t want to. I’m not getting a discount, and frankly I want to use those few minutes to check my email, send a quick text to someone, update my shopping list, mentally plan the evening scrum of sports/homework/dinner, or just veg out for a few blessed minutes. I don’t refill my own drink at restaurants, I don’t loosen the lug nuts on one wheel while my mechanic rotates the other, and I don’t pre-rake my leaves for the landscapers. I will smile and make small talk and say thank you and gratefully acknowledge their much-appreciated help. But I’m not interested in doing someone else’s job. I’m tired enough just doing my own.

Is bagging your own groceries when asked a thing now? AITA for objecting?

You’re entitled. Power trip for you.

[Anonymous]

You both sound like a--holes.

[Anonymous]

I worked in a grocery store and absolutely believe one of the cashier's duties is bagging unless the customer specifically says they prefer to do it themself.

I've also noticed a trend (I shop at Wegmans, not sure if this is universal) that more cashiers are sitting now. Sitting makes bagging more awkward / difficult so more often than not I just start bagging my own groceries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you come off as a jerk. While you’re technically correct it was antisocial of you to refuse to help when asked.

The cashier is being paid to bag. OP is not. If the cashier needs the customer’s “help” to do a simple job, we have a problem.

[Anonymous]

Please bring robots

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mid-morning weekday grocery shopping at Harris Teeter. Naming the time, because this wasn’t Monday night or Saturday morning — store was quiet and uncrowded, with no line behind me and other registers open. Naming the store because I think they try and position themselves with their customer service. I had a small load of groceries — filled three reusable bags. Not a massive shopping trip.

As I wheeled up, the checker announced “We’re going to work as a team. I’m going to scan and you’re going to bag.” I said, “No thanks. I was counting on you to bag my items.” She then frowned and went silent for the duration of the transaction.

I’m physically able to bag my own groceries, and I did it without a second thought during the height of the pandemic when we were worried about contact. I’m happy to do it at Aldi or Lidl, where prices are cheaper because that’s part of the deal. But at a “full-price” regular grocery store, I don’t want to. I’m not getting a discount, and frankly I want to use those few minutes to check my email, send a quick text to someone, update my shopping list, mentally plan the evening scrum of sports/homework/dinner, or just veg out for a few blessed minutes. I don’t refill my own drink at restaurants, I don’t loosen the lug nuts on one wheel while my mechanic rotates the other, and I don’t pre-rake my leaves for the landscapers. I will smile and make small talk and say thank you and gratefully acknowledge their much-appreciated help. But I’m not interested in doing someone else’s job. I’m tired enough just doing my own.

Is bagging your own groceries when asked a thing now? AITA for objecting?

I would have bagged - cashiers make little money and have a boring but important job. What does it hurt to bag your own stuff?

Maybe you should ask them to step aside so you can scan your groceries too? What does it hurt to do that?

.

Does this make you feel self justified about in being a twat?

It is not the same thing at all.

I actually prefer to bag my own groceries as I place things in the way I prefer.
It makes it go faster and is not a big deal.

You can’t answer a question without name calling…maybe you should rethink who the twat is here.

Yeah right that was a snide rhetorical question and obviously not a real question.

It was a false equivalence between overstepping the mark and trying to go cashier’s job for her and merely bagging your own groceries, which I prefer to do anyway .

You’re grasping for the moral high ground here is unconvincing ..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you come off as a jerk. While you’re technically correct it was antisocial of you to refuse to help when asked.

The cashier is being paid to bag. OP is not. If the cashier needs the customer’s “help” to do a simple job, we have a problem.

I didn’t read every page of the thread, but there was a time not too long ago when stores employed grocery baggers in addition to checkers. It sounds like checkers are being asked to do more work now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I don’t know what the cashier’s earning, and I hope it’s a living wage (naive hope). That said, you weren’t the AH, she was, and as several others have noted, I would know immediately that the person being asked to bag her own purchases would be a woman, likely between 30 and 60. I hate that kind of sh!t and find it disturbingly sexist. If one can bag groceries for a man making valid purchases, that courtesy — that job requirement and duty, let me correct myself — should be granted without pert, obnoxious, manipulative little asides to everyone.

I happen to disagree with the concept that every job out there should be paying a living wage. Minimum wage jobs were never intended to be full support jobs. Minimum wage jobs were originally designed to be supplemental income. These jobs were for people who were in a household that already had one primary wage earner and they needed to supplement. Whether that was a SAH parent who needed extra income, a teen or dependent who wanted personal income, or even a primary earner who needed to earn money, these jobs were intended to augment household income. It was not intended to be one to raise oneself on. The fact that we are turning jobs like supermarket cashiers into full-time, personal or family support jobs is the concern. People should not be looking into these minimal wage, unskilled jobs to be primary support. For one thing, it means that it takes those opportunities away from people who do need the supplemental income and it also puts a higher burden on the employers and customers to support these individuals and possibly their families. If you are an adult that needs to support yourself or your family, a minimum wage job should be a stepping stone to something more rather than a career. Think, it is part of the journey, not the destination.

I think it is wrong to make minimum wage jobs into living wage jobs. I think what we need is free job training for individuals who need to support themselves or their families to advance beyond minimum wage positions.

These are historical claims that require facts in support. What is your evidence for them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mid-morning weekday grocery shopping at Harris Teeter. Naming the time, because this wasn’t Monday night or Saturday morning — store was quiet and uncrowded, with no line behind me and other registers open. Naming the store because I think they try and position themselves with their customer service. I had a small load of groceries — filled three reusable bags. Not a massive shopping trip.

As I wheeled up, the checker announced “We’re going to work as a team. I’m going to scan and you’re going to bag.” I said, “No thanks. I was counting on you to bag my items.” She then frowned and went silent for the duration of the transaction.

I’m physically able to bag my own groceries, and I did it without a second thought during the height of the pandemic when we were worried about contact. I’m happy to do it at Aldi or Lidl, where prices are cheaper because that’s part of the deal. But at a “full-price” regular grocery store, I don’t want to. I’m not getting a discount, and frankly I want to use those few minutes to check my email, send a quick text to someone, update my shopping list, mentally plan the evening scrum of sports/homework/dinner, or just veg out for a few blessed minutes. I don’t refill my own drink at restaurants, I don’t loosen the lug nuts on one wheel while my mechanic rotates the other, and I don’t pre-rake my leaves for the landscapers. I will smile and make small talk and say thank you and gratefully acknowledge their much-appreciated help. But I’m not interested in doing someone else’s job. I’m tired enough just doing my own.

Is bagging your own groceries when asked a thing now? AITA for objecting?

I would have bagged - cashiers make little money and have a boring but important job. What does it hurt to bag your own stuff?

Maybe you should ask them to step aside so you can scan your groceries too? What does it hurt to do that?

.

Does this make you feel self justified about in being a twat?

It is not the same thing at all.

I actually prefer to bag my own groceries as I place things in the way I prefer.
It makes it go faster and is not a big deal.

You can’t answer a question without name calling…maybe you should rethink who the twat is here.

Yeah right that was a snide rhetorical question and obviously not a real question.

It was a false equivalence between overstepping the mark and trying to go cashier’s job for her and merely bagging your own groceries, which I prefer to do anyway .

You’re grasping for the moral high ground here is unconvincing ..

Self awareness isn’t your strong suit, I see.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You both sound like a--holes.

The correct answer and also the secret of life: everyone ita.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, anybody who likes standing there slackjawed while your groceries get bagged is an idiot. Help bag so you can get out of there and go do something more fun and interesting than grocery shopping.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love bagging my own groceries. I actually am disappointed if a bagger shows up. I group things so it’s easier to put away at home.

And I hate bagging. I move slowly and I get anxious that everyone behind me is impatiently waiting on me. That's why I go to a full service grocery store, so that I can watch the prices, arrange coupons, pull out my credit card, and put the bags back in the cart while someone else bags.

It would be fine to say “sorry, do you mind if I watch the prices instead? I’ll help you bag after” but that’s not what op said. OP was unnecessarily jerkish about the whole thing.

This thread should not be about whether a customer should or shouldn’t bag their groceries. It’s about whether you need to shove it in a service workers face even if they asked you something that was technically wrong of them. It’s always better to be gracious and cooperative.

But the cashier didn't ASK; she ANNOUNCED. And she got a short but polite response from the customer, who was clearly taken aback at being told that she was going to do part of the cashier's job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don't want to bag your own groceries, don't bring your own bags.

A lot of stores have a policy of not bagging customers own bags so they aren't responsible of the bag rips, zipper breaks, etc.

No they don't.

During the height of COvid this was true.