AITA: Grocery bagging

[Anonymous]

During early COVID, the cashiers stopped bagging things when customers brought their own bags. I think that’s a good practice. When I bring my own bags, I either pack them myself or ask for store bags — which I then put — packed — into my reusable bags. I don’t think the OP was wrong for not wanting to pack her own bags, but her comment could have been nicer. Her comment about the cashier going silent was problematic as well. Someone ringing up your groceries and packing your bags isn’t obliged to chat with you for your entertainment. You indicated that your priority was service — rather than kindness, and that’s exactly what you got.

In the future, don’t pull out your probably never washed reusable bags from home. Then it will be pretty clear that you want your groceries to be packed in bags from the store. You can then take them as is, or put them in your own bags if that’s more convenient.

[Anonymous]

Funny, I prefer bagging my own groceries because most clerks don't do a good job. However, her identifying roles of what we are going to do as "a team" would have bugged me too, op.

I like that you were quick on your feet with shutting her down. Something tells me that she says that to customers often. Hopefully, now she will stop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My problem with bagging is that it keeps me from verifying the prices and discounts as the cashier runs items through. Every time I pay attention, I save a few bucks, or I end up canceling an item, because this 3lb bag of apples that was displayed next to the nearly identical $6 bags is not worth $12.

This is exactly my reason too. You have to watch those prices like a hawk, they are frequently wrong and its much easier to get it corrected before you pay than to be sent to customer service after you have already paid.

This! Especially at Harris Teeter. They are the worst for that.

[Anonymous]

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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.

I’m aware. You missed the entire point of my post, which is that it doesn’t matter. OP did not respond graciously, and that is why OP ITA. The fact that OP was “taken aback” at being asked to lift a finger is actually the problem….

So you’re saying it was totally ok for the cashier to be rude and literally tell OP she was going to bag - that the cashier is in no way an a$$hole?
Just want to make sure I’m reading this correctly.

Is your life so small that you cannot tolerate any impolite behavior? You're no different that those women who freak out because they were 'disrespected'. I've found that my life is happier when I just assume they are having a day and get on with my life but it you prefer to carry individual encounters at the grocery all day, more power to you.

OP merely said “No thanks. I was counting on you to bag my groceries.” That sounds like a pretty courteous response to someone literally telling her to do their job.
OP “tolerated” the cashiers behavior appropriately. Are you saying the only appropriate way to respond was for OP to follow the command and start bagging?

[Anonymous]

Going to Harris Teeter was your mistake. It's a trashy store.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't mind bagging and always do it so I can get out of there faster if there is no bagger. But recently the guy behind me in line who started checking out as I was paying and leaving was annoyed I wasn't going to stay and bag his groceries. I had to tell him I didn't actually work there and he was on his own.

How do you know he was annoyed you weren’t bagging his groceries?

Because he said something like "you're not going to stay?" and then "oh I didn't realize you were just helping". Seemed pretty clear he thought I worked there even thought I didn't have the apron and name tag on or whatever the uniform was. The cashier didn't ask me to help but she was scanning a few things, then scanning some more then bagging, and I just wanted her to scan it all and I bagged and it seemed more efficient that way and I'd rather get out of there than send emails and watch her do all the work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:During early COVID, the cashiers stopped bagging things when customers brought their own bags. I think that’s a good practice. When I bring my own bags, I either pack them myself or ask for store bags — which I then put — packed — into my reusable bags. I don’t think the OP was wrong for not wanting to pack her own bags, but her comment could have been nicer. Her comment about the cashier going silent was problematic as well. Someone ringing up your groceries and packing your bags isn’t obliged to chat with you for your entertainment. You indicated that your priority was service — rather than kindness, and that’s exactly what you got.

In the future, don’t pull out your probably never washed reusable bags from home. Then it will be pretty clear that you want your groceries to be packed in bags from the store. You can then take them as is, or put them in your own bags if that’s more convenient.

Packing the groceries in bags from the store is wasteful.

[Anonymous]

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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.

Social kindness and generosity is clearly not yours …

Really? Because I always bag my own groceries. I would just have a problem if the cashier TOLD me I was going to do it.

But go ahead - make some more baseless assumptions.

Making Mountains out of molehills towards people with poor pay, long hours and whom we realized during COVID how much we need.

Also asking bf snotty theoretical question with false equivalences hardly makes you a role model for self awareness

[Anonymous]

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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.

You are absolutely wrong about that. You clearly know NOTHING about the history of the FLSA, what its provisions are and mean, and why it was passed. Educate yourself before you pretend authority on this. Thanks.

DP, thank you PP for pointing this out.

Grocery checker used to be a unionized job with good pay and benefits. Used to be able to buy a home in Arlington on a giant clerk’s salary. In some states with strong unions, it still is. The grocery stores didn’t want to pay good salaries and benefits so they push self checkout.

I am more than happy to have a robot do this work. This job can be eliminated.

I’m not.

Target went downhill fast when they automated the check outs .

Sterile and human less ambience is not a good vibe for many of us .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NTA.

The cashier was the ahole.

+1


But the Harris Teeter I've been to didn't have great customer service either. People were nice.but so slow.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:She should have said "Unfortunately we haven't got anyone to bag working today so this might take a little longer than it ought to while I bag this up." And you should have said "Oh, I'll take care of it while you scan."
Our local groceries all employed disabled people as baggers until minimum wage laws made that impossible. Thanks Dems!

Minimum wage laws didn't make it "impossible."

Grocery stores simply enjoyed screwing over employees--including those with disabilities--when it was dirt cheap for them.

This is the second thread in 24 hours where the citizens of DCUMlandia have demonstrated their acceptance of a society of the haves and have nots where businesses take precedence and certain people simply don't deserve to be paid enough to make ends meet when they work 40 hours a week. What is wrong with everyone???

BAGGING GROCERIES is not a job one takes to make ends meet. It is for disabled people and young teens. If you think a grocery bagger should be paid enough to pay rent and raise children in an expensive urban area then you should understand why this job barely exists anymore.

Every full time job should pay enough to pay rent and raise children in whatever area the job is in.

Anyone who thinks they shouldn't supports modern day feudalism and should be cast out of civilized society.

Raise how many children? 1? 10?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:She should have said "Unfortunately we haven't got anyone to bag working today so this might take a little longer than it ought to while I bag this up." And you should have said "Oh, I'll take care of it while you scan."
Our local groceries all employed disabled people as baggers until minimum wage laws made that impossible. Thanks Dems!

Minimum wage laws didn't make it "impossible."

Grocery stores simply enjoyed screwing over employees--including those with disabilities--when it was dirt cheap for them.

This is the second thread in 24 hours where the citizens of DCUMlandia have demonstrated their acceptance of a society of the haves and have nots where businesses take precedence and certain people simply don't deserve to be paid enough to make ends meet when they work 40 hours a week. What is wrong with everyone???

BAGGING GROCERIES is not a job one takes to make ends meet. It is for disabled people and young teens. If you think a grocery bagger should be paid enough to pay rent and raise children in an expensive urban area then you should understand why this job barely exists anymore.

Every full time job should pay enough to pay rent and raise children in whatever area the job is in.

Anyone who thinks they shouldn't supports modern day feudalism and should be cast out of civilized society.

People should not have children that they cannot afford in any geographic area.

You cannot possibly be this much of a moron or ahole.

What about refugees? Immigrants with families? People with disabilities don't deserve living wages? People starting over?

Because all immigrants and refugees have no marketable skills or education?

The ignorance is astounding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NTA.

The cashier was the ahole.

+1


But the Harris Teeter I've been to didn't have great customer service either. People were nice.but so slow.

The cashier wasn’t an a$$hole - just overstepped boundaries a bit cluelessly but not an a hole.

OP made a big fuss out of a whole lot of next to nothing.

[Anonymous]

I’m from the uk where everyone bags their own groceries so I wouldn’t bat an eyelid but it is weird that she directed you. I do think you’re ta for not just doing it and instead pulling rank tho - why have that power struggle with a f-ing grocery cashier ya weirdo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She should have said "Unfortunately we haven't got anyone to bag working today so this might take a little longer than it ought to while I bag this up." And you should have said "Oh, I'll take care of it while you scan."
Our local groceries all employed disabled people as baggers until minimum wage laws made that impossible. Thanks Dems!

Minimum wage laws didn't make it "impossible."

Grocery stores simply enjoyed screwing over employees--including those with disabilities--when it was dirt cheap for them.

This is the second thread in 24 hours where the citizens of DCUMlandia have demonstrated their acceptance of a society of the haves and have nots where businesses take precedence and certain people simply don't deserve to be paid enough to make ends meet when they work 40 hours a week. What is wrong with everyone???

BAGGING GROCERIES is not a job one takes to make ends meet. It is for disabled people and young teens. If you think a grocery bagger should be paid enough to pay rent and raise children in an expensive urban area then you should understand why this job barely exists anymore.

Every full time job should pay enough to pay rent and raise children in whatever area the job is in.

Anyone who thinks they shouldn't supports modern day feudalism and should be cast out of civilized society.

People should not have children that they cannot afford in any geographic area.

You cannot possibly be this much of a moron or ahole.

What about refugees? Immigrants with families? People with disabilities don't deserve living wages? People starting over?

Because all immigrants and refugees have no marketable skills or education?

The ignorance is astounding.

DP - your logic is lacking.

PP was not arguing all immigrants and refugees can only get minimum wage jobs but that is one sub group of many who are badly in need of living wages. I have worked with refugee families through our church and many have to work at jobs far below the professions they trained for in their home countries.

That is only one example of people who rely on living wages.

I wish waitresses and waiters were paid living wages as they are in many parts of Europe and Australia so they wouldn’t have to rely on unpredictable tips.