I can't stand people that bring their own bags.

Moreso if it is to the grocery store that I work at.

Now, I don't mean the title of that in any personal attack or anything. I am very certain that, those who bring their own bags for grocery sacking, that they themselves are very nice, upstanding citizens of our society. But, really, allow me to give you some insight into why this bothers me so much.


As a sacker for a grocery store, I am expected to complete my tasks with an order in a swift, timely manner. Even more if the checker in front of me also happens to be in the Top 3 Fastest Checkers in the district. This means that, as items come down the conveyor belt and reach my area of reach, I need to get them sacked up in, circumstance depending, an amount at least 5 or higher, and get them into a shopping cart behind me, ready to do the same immediately after. The plastic bags we have are set up in such a way that we can do this efficiently, without having to worry about opening cloth or paper bags to make way for the variety of foods and boxes that are accumulating slowly in a gruesome, conglomafuck in front of us. We establish a sort of rhythm, if you will. A concept that...

I...

... am quite...

... familiar with.

Needless to say, I find my groove, and things get done.

How

Ev

 

Er 

This becomes increasingly, stupidly difficult when I prepare to start stuffing cans and veggies into plastic bags, and you decide to drop a pile of cloth bags in front of my workspace, and then expect the order to get done in just as much of a hurry.

Whenever you present to me these particular bags, this brings up several annoying factors that slow the assembly line down tenfold.

1. The bags tend to be of many varying sizes, none of which actually will fit onto the stand set up for groceries to rest comfortably while bagging ensues.
2. The bags tend to lack any necessary hooks or loops that will fit the holder for the plastic bags and keep them open, thus, the bag keeps folding in on itself, and I keep having to waste time to reopen it.
3. Sometimes, they don't even have flat bottoms in them, to give the groceries (75% of which tend to be in jars, cans or boxes) a foundation of which to rest on, and sometimes aren't even designed to be flat on the bottom at all! This adds clutter and makes for a very difficult task of keeping things organized and balanced, and keep them from spilling out at random.
4. Sometimes, the bags smell, because you never wash them. Ew.
5. You either have far too many, or far too little, and expect me to make magic happen with whatever options are available. While, as I've mentioned, I am struggling to fit the bag down, keep it open, keep it from falling off the stand, put items in, while it still refuses to stay open, and attempting to complete the task as quickly as you would expect it to otherwise take.

My preference, personally? I wish that folks would just deal with the fact that grocery stores have bags, made specifically for the use of bagging, that help the whole process go by a lot faster. Granted, I wish they were slightly larger as to fit the alarming amount of very large meats from the back of the store, but either way, they fit onto the stand for which they were made, they allow for quick speeds, and they are good for the organization of items, which I take advantage of to ensure your groceries do not smush and/or climb around all over each other while you try to take that sharp curve on the way back home.


I can sort of understand that there's, like, some kind of environmental advantage to this 'bring your own bags' thing, but... man, to me, the guy doing all of the packing, it really just doesn't seem worth it, especially if it means that dealing with these aggravating bags results in your dissatisfaction when I can't match up to a normal job that would usually come about with the plastic ones.


I have other work gripes, but I think I'll just hold off on those until later. We get to discuss the parking lot issues, guys!