I used to work as a checkout chick and bagger after school and on weekends. We had to memorise the specials. The regular produce was price-tagged - we had to do that, too - but we had to pass a test on the specials each week or we wouldn't work that week.
I got training on the checkout, but not on bagging. We got told, that was it. I remember using a new nail hardener on my nails one week at school, then went off to my job. The checkout person slid cans of soup down to me (to pack at the bottom of the paper bags) and as I reach for the first can, it hit my nails. *smash*
Not good.
I hated that job and really appreciate the checkout people I meet.
In Australia we don't have packers any more. The checkout staff do the packing as they go. If you bring your own bags, they will hang your bag where they have a stack of plastic bags at the ready. Or you can pack your own. They changed the layout of our checkouts a few years ago, to make it even more difficult to say, "no bags". We used to be able to grab cardboard boxes from a huge bin they had, and we'd pack our stuff into boxes. But the new layout means no boxes are available.
So we got a large plastic crate which lives in the back of the car. We tell them at the checkout, "no bags," and pack it all back into the shopping trolley. Then at the car we load from the trolley right into the crate. Once home, we unpack the crate. I unload all the fridge stuff into the fridge in the garage (we call it "Clancy" because that's for the overflow - as in the famous Aussie poem, "Clancy of the Overflow") then what is left can be easily carried into the house. We unpack the crate and then take it back out to the car.
easy child 2/difficult child 2 is very fussy about packing bags at her checkout - she makes sure that anything squashable doesn't get put on the bottom and that the bags aren't too heavy.
I've got a favourite checkout lady in my regular supermarket who will walk around to my side of the counter and scan the goods right back into my trolley. If I'm on my own, she gets a second trolley and will unpack my trolley, scan the items and pack them again into the second trolley. She says she's happy to help out and that it doesn't take her any more time.
I think she deserves a commendation!
We don't have self-serve yet. I think Aussie unions are still fighting them.
Marg