My evil side reared yesterday

[Abbey]

I am 9 hours of bagger training out of 20. (I love this job!!) The manager was so impressed that I get out of the remainder of the training. Yep...I'm a rocket scientist.

I am also the only one who was bumped from the traditional 20 per week to a full 40. If I can do this for 3 weeks, I get benefits!!

This is where the evil part comes in.

Yesterday we had this exercise where they had two huge carts of groceries that we had to show how quickly and properly we could bag. There are 8 trainees, me tripling the age of anyone there. So the first kid goes up, starts his bagging, then the manager evaluates your speed and how efficiently you pack the proper things in the right kind of bag. As she evaluates, she hands the items whoever is closest and we put them back on the belt for the next person.

I noticed after the first kid that when they put them back, they put them in clusters. Soft things together, canned goods together, etc. So after the second person, I made a plan. I conviently stationed myself behind the manager so *I* put things back the belt. I mixed EVERYTHING up. Bread with canned goods, meat with cleaning products, yadda.

Fast forward to me being last, when I put the stuff on the belt I sorted it all. I was twice as fast and used less bags, which is huge with them. Ok, ok...I kind of felt bag sabotaging a bunch of 16 year olds, but hey, I couldn't contain myself.

So today I start unattended bagging and tomorrow three straight 9 hour shifts. Next week checker training and then WATCH OUT OSHKOSH. DJ DEMO IS BACK!!

Oh...the downside is I think I caught my manager's cold. Maybe that's payback.

Abbey

 

[tiredmommy]

Where's your corner, Abbey?

 

[PonyGirl]

You go, girl!! And if any of those kids ask about your age? You just say, "I've eaten lots more birthday cake than you have!"

Peace

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

I wish I could get a bagger like you. When I do the grocery shopping, which I frequently do (and I've done all of it for the past 4 weeks while wife has been recovering from surgery), I carefully group things together that I'd like bagged together and the kids still manage to mix 'em up.

I moonlighted as a checker many years ago, when we were hitting a rough patch financially. I went through training with a bunch of kids, like you, and also "graduated early". The managers loved me, I was always on time and never asked for prom night off!

 

[Marcie Mac]

Well, I can tell you for sure SO will never make it as a bagger. When we go to Winco we have to bag our own groceries - don't use plastic but our own Save the Earth material bags (and they give us a credit for each one we use each time). He takes maybe 8 minutes to bag, eyeing what we bought, putting stuff in, taking it out and rearranging it. Its a good thing that they ave a double sided check stand because always at least two or three people have gone thru the other side when he is finally done. LOL

But good for you = a little competition is good for the 16 yo's

Marcie

 

[Hound dog]

Thanks Abbey. You made my morning.

 

[janebrain]

Wow, Abbey! I worked at a grocery store when difficult child 2 was a baby and never had any bagger training--was put on the cash register with a few minutes training and that was it. (The cashiers bagged as they went)

I wish you could bag my groceries for me too. My husband and I shop together every week and we try to get in a line with a more "mature" woman as the cashier because they seem to understand that like things go together (husband and I try to organize the items on the belt in categories). When we get in a line with a teen guy doing the cashiering and bagging you can bet he will come up with the weirdest combinations in the bags and also will slam the fresh fruits and vegetable on the scanner as if they were cans and just seem generally clueless. The teen girls seem better.

You are so evil--I love it!!!!

Jane

 

[mstang67chic]

Evil? Nah. Seems perfectly fine to me.


Oh.


So THAT'S why people say I'm evil! Oh well.......it's fun and in cases like this, can prove to be educational.

Yeah, that's it! Educational!!!

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

Yeah, that's it! Educational!!!

That's the ticket!

 

[Star*]

You know -

TOWANDA comes to mind here -

You're a scream!

 

[witzend]

Are they using paper or plastic? I worked grocery for 8 years, and started before plastic. We were taught to bag those groceries into the bag in such a way that if the bag was cut away, it would still stand by itself. I am still not a fan of plastic. I can get four times as much into a paper bag as I can into a plastic one. The new bring your own cloth bags are shaped like a paper bag, so it's easy to imitate that.

I always load my groceries onto the belt in the order I want them bagged in. Cansm milk, and bottles first, bagged veggies and boxed items next, then soft items and finally produce. They can never figure out why I did it that way. I usually want to rebag them. It's too much of a hassle to re-do it though.

I'm surprised that they are training you to bag. I thought that was a thing of the past.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

It's kind of tough getting them in heavy/sturdy first, crushables last order on the belt, though, since the heavies are in the bottom of the cart -- we need to invent a first-in, first-out grocery cart.

 

[Abbey]

They use both paper and plastic. It's a tough call. On one hand, the company is very enviromentally concerned so you think they'd use paper, but they're 3 times as expensive as plastic. We sell a lot of the cloth bags. The plastic bags are shaped in a square so you can get more in them than usual.

Also, it's an older population so you can't make them too heavy. They say 15lbs. is the max, but I can't imagine some of them lifting that much.

I swear I loaded two flatbeds of 12-pack soda today. I'm sure I'll feel it tonight. When it's on sale, they buy a good dozen of them. It seems silly, but when you're busy, you need to be efficient. So when I see Grandma come through, I offer to take her sodas out of the cart...belt them, run them back to her cart because you can't put bags in if you don't. Needless to say, I actually broke a sweat today. Doesn't happen too often for me. I hate to see it when cases of bottled water go on sale.

Yes, it is odd that they train baggers, but I can see why it is important. For someone my age who has grocery shopped all these years, it's just logical. But for a 16 year old it is not. Bread on bottom...a few cans of spaghetti sauce on top, toss in some eggs, then a few more cans. Duh. Oh wait, I can put this bag of chips in, squish it down then a few more cans.

Witz...we LOVE people like you!!

Abbey

 

[mrscatinthehat]

You are not evil. You think ahead. If they don't have the wherewithall to plan their attack not your problem. I organize as I stack also. If anyone shops with me it hurts me when they try and help put the stuff up on the counter/belt. One of those things I prefer to just do myself.

Go get em Abbey.

beth

 

[susiestar]

Abbey,

YOU ROCK!!

I am glad that somewhere, some store does training. OUR baggers and checkers are trained - to put the raw meat in with the fresh bread and veggies so that the meat juice drips all over the other items.

I wish I was kidding. I had to take 3 entire bags of groceries BACK last week because raw meat was put in each and it ended up all over my bread, veggies, etc... and in 1 of them cleaner spilled out onto the food.

No one here keeps raw meats in a bag by themselves. I swear they do everything they can so that something punctures the plastic so the ick leaks all over.

I check each bottle of cleaner to make sure it is closed, otherwise it ends up leaking all over. I hate this.

I am glad you are getting lots of hours and soon get to go back to being DJ DEMO!

 

[Lothlorien]

I always try to group things together that I want in the same bag and inevitably, the cashier always puts the bread in with a heavy bag of apples and my chips with bottles of juice. NJ airheads.

 

[Wiped Out]

Abby,
I love it!

 

[Andy]

And none of them noticed!? Not even the trainer?


20 hours to learn how to bag?

difficult child loves to go through the self serve lane (me too). He runs the register and hands the product to me. We have only three bags set up. Bigger things can go on a side that is still "weighed". If we have a huge load and I try to remove a bag to start a new one, the machine goes bonkos - just has a major fit, "Item removed! Item removed!" - SO WHAT??

Anyway difficult child has been watching while I figure out how to load the three bags. We can hit "Skip bagging" so that helps to some extent.

difficult child can find the items (knows to watch expiration dates and if on sale) and can run the register so now I think it is time to allow difficult child to bag his own (with supervision). That way he may be ready for a bagging job once the time comes.

I worked as a cashier at Target two Christmas's ago. I love scanning and bagging. The others (mostly collage age kids) would just look at me funny and laugh when I told them it was my hobby job. I had always wanted to do that and once difficult child is old enough to be home alone at nights I may try it again. Seasonal was great! Don't think my feet could handle year round. Abbey, you must be very healthy and fit to be on your feet all day.

 

[Abbey]

Well, it should get interesting tomorrow. A manager I have not met came up to me in a during a BIG order showing me all this paperwork for all the codes to be a checker (stuff that doesn't go into the computer). She says it will be at the podium tomorrow when you come in. It's got your name on it. Okay...

In the meantime, I'm throwing these flipping soda cases onto two...yes, two carts. I couldn't talk.

Hello? I haven't been trained as a checker yet!! Last time I was a checker we used manual machines and were not allowed to look at the keys as you put things through.

Yikes.

Abbey

 

[tiredmommy]

You'll blow away the 16 year olds at this as well. I'm sure you know the difference between zucchini and a cucumber and broccoli stalks and crowns. They won't.

Here's a few links for you:

http://supermarketpage.com/prucodes.php

http://www.wikihow.com/Memorize-Produce-Codes