Do baggers hate canvas bags?

May 14, 2006 6:52 PM

Is it my imagination, or do grocery baggers hate canvas bags?

So I want to do the right thing by bringing canvas bags to the grocery store instead of using paper-or-plastic. But I could swear I get dirty looks from baggers every time I whip out the canvas bags. (I go to a grocery store where BYO bags are pretty rare.) I guess the canvas bags screw up baggers' routines. I'd love to hear a bagger's take on this -- how badly does it piss you off when people bring their own bags?

I know, it's totally neurotic, but it makes me uncomfortable, to the extent that I've gotten reluctant to use canvas bags. Maybe someone makes canvas bags that more closely replicate grocery bags?

posted by miriam to Society & Culture (28 answers total)

IANABagger either, but I bring canvas bags all the time and don't notice any animosity. When there's a bagger available, I make sure the canvas bags are the first things on the conveyor belt so they reach the bagger before any groceries, and I also put the heavy noncrushable things on the belt first, and the fragile things last, so the bagger can just jam things in the bag as they arrive. I figure that making it easier for them means fewer smashed tomatoes for me.

Also, my bags are about the same capacity as the store's plastic bags, so the bagger knows pretty much how much will fit. I bought the canvas bags at that grocery store, actually, so I guess they're officially endorsed!
posted by Quietgal at 7:10 PM on May 14, 2006

I've never noticed any dirty looks from baggers when I bring my own bags except for when they've already bagged the groceries and then I whip out my bag. If you are really getting dirty looks based on your bag, I'd say you might want to shop elsewhere-- say, the co-op, or somewhere you're encouraged to use your own bag.

If you are seriously considering searching out a bag that "closely resemble[s]" a grocery bag, I'd say yes, that's neurotic, and your problems probably go deeper than the check-out line.

I knew several countries ban altogether or have disincentives to stop using plastic bags at the grocery store, and honestly I can't see why anyone would not bring their own bag to begin with, except maybe out of a sense of entitlement along with SUV-driving or whatnot.

When I was a bagger we were made to watch a video on how to bag. It was called "The Big Bag" (don't know if you can rent it). Anyway, the video made a big fuss about how to bag things just so in their regulation-sized bags, and then there was a little test where management watched to see how you bagged and if you put x item here and y item there and in what order, and if you deviated they were not happy. If there is some animosity from baggers, that might be a source as well: once or twice I thought "They didn't feature this canvas contraption on The Big Bag-- what if I screw it up and management complains or the customer throws a fit?"
That's why I bring my own bag and bag things myself.
posted by baklavabaklava at 7:26 PM on May 14, 2006

When I bring my own bag, I bag my own groceries (or at least those that will fit into my bag). It's never occurred to me to give that bag to the bagger. For some reason that feels presumptious, although obviously they're expecting to bag my groceries no matter what the container is.
posted by nev at 7:26 PM on May 14, 2006

Yes, or at least I hated canvas bags when I was a bagger. They are much smaller than plastic bags, and hold basically nothing compared to their strength. So instead of using 5 plastic bags, i would use 7 or 8 canvas ones.

Also, often people with canvas bags were the ones who had coronaries over how I was bagging things. I bagged things based on how the store told me to in training, but apparently this did not comply with the "Let's seperate things by shape and color!" (or whatever strange bagging preferences the customer had) theory.

But actually, I far prefer canvas bags over people who would bring plastic bags for me to reuse and yell at me if I used a new bag.

So, I say it's okay if you continue to use them, but if you have special bagging instructions, please be polite about it. A rude customer can ruin someone's shift - whereas the nice ones always made me happy to be at work. :)
posted by Amanda B at 7:41 PM on May 14, 2006

As a former grocery bagger it was very rare and never bothered me. What's more bothersome is bagging with paper and being requested to double bag. This is experience from a small town grocery store I'm sure someone from a Town would have a different opinion.
posted by andendau at 7:44 PM on May 14, 2006

I ride a bicycle to the grocery store and have to do my own bagging nearly 100% of the time because the giant courier bag I use to transport my goods requires that I pack it in a very specific manner for correct balance and to keep lumpy stuff from poking me in the kidneys on the ride home.

I've never encountered any sort of animosity from the baggers. In fact they're so used to me at the local grocery that most will happily help sort stuff into 'sections' for me to make my bag faster and easier to load.

However, I almost never use the self-checkout because I find that for some reason using the messenger bag causes major angst with the monitors. Most likely because my bag doesn't fit on the 'approved' bagging stand and I'm guessing they have some method to weigh/monitor item counts to deter shoplifting (?)
posted by lonefrontranger at 7:51 PM on May 14, 2006

For what it's worth, they always thank us (and have a raffle for a gift certificate) at Trader Joe's when we use our canvas bags, but they look at us a bit funny at the regular grocery store. That having been said, they really seem surprised but not really upset. I think as long as you're nice to the baggers, they usually don't mind.
posted by JMOZ at 7:53 PM on May 14, 2006

Response by poster: So interesting! Well, clearly I'm, like, incredibly neurotic. It's good to have independent confirmation of that every once in awhile.

Seriously, though, the grocery store I go to features cashiers and grocers who seem particularly embattled -- long lines, not enough employees, etc. Given that grocery shopping is something I have to do a couple times a week, and given that for some deepseated psychological reason these tense encounters bother me, I'm always interested in ways to smooth the interaction somehow.

I've tried bagging my own groceries, but that usually doesn't end well -- I disrupt the bagger's system and feel stupid.

Obviously, what I should do is wield my canvas bags with devil-may-care insouciance, and who cares what the bagger thinks? I'm just curious about what goes on on the other side of the bag.
posted by miriam at 8:03 PM on May 14, 2006

As a former bagger, and also someone who is ecologically minded, I always thanked folks who brought canvas bags. I have found that there are essentially two types of canvas bags- one is essentially a canvas pocket with a handle on it and the other is sewn more like a paper bag with a flat bottom. The latter is far easier to deal with than the former. A half gallon of milk sits particularly well in these bags, as do the drink-box-like containers of soy milk or chicken broth. And also, I found that people who regularly brought canvas bags tended to shop for one or two meals at a time, rather than tackle grocery runs once a week. And I have to agree with Andendau, double bagging paper is far more of a pain in the arse. Worst comes to worst, politely ask to bag your own. Generally, baggers don't mind when someone else does their job for them (let's face it, they're not generally getting paid enough to care that much, lord knows I wasn't).
posted by fantastic at 8:11 PM on May 14, 2006

I am currently (unfortunately) a clerk at a supermarket and I can say that there is something of a rhythm to bagging that gets thrown off when people bring their own bags. But the only real annoyance is that the canvas bags won't stand up on their own and are slightly more difficult to fit products into.

Still beats "paper in plastic" though :)
posted by superconnected at 8:17 PM on May 14, 2006

I've tried bagging my own groceries, but that usually doesn't end well -- I disrupt the bagger's system and feel stupid.

I sympathise. if it helps, what I usually have to do with the giant messenger bag deal is pretty much slam everything in there fast and get it close to good. then I get the hell out of everyone's way and do the fine tuning afterwards. I am totally with you on not getting underfoot and being a high-maintenance asshat when they're busy/understaffed.

as to the 'disrupting routine' deal, the way I handle this is to simply smile at the bagger when they ask my bag preference and say 'thanks but I kinda hafta load this myself...'. the baggers in my store are always polite and accepting of this. most of them are curious, intrigued by the whole cycling deal and usually make some incredulous commentary about the unreal amounts of stuff I can cram in there (it's shocking how much a Metropolis holds... the limit is rarely volume, it's whether my girly arms can hoist the load).

plus like I said once they realise what I'm dealing with, they're happy to just sort stuff into groups and watch the fun.
posted by lonefrontranger at 8:25 PM on May 14, 2006

I was a bag boy for two years (fifteen years ago, sigh). I really didn't mind canvas bags, although unless you were carrying your groceries home there were rarely enough for the groceries people bought.

Most people don't know it, but the best bags to pack (besides boxes) are paper bags. They have flat bottoms, you can stack them nicely (8 to a cart before using the seat) and double bagging is easy and lets you put a lot in them.

Oh, and what superconnected said :-)
posted by furtive at 8:29 PM on May 14, 2006

I'm glad somebody asked this. I bought some of these a while back with the idea that they'd fit on those bag frames that the plastic bags do, thereby making it relatively easy to fill them. But the baggers won't put them on the racks, even though I've pointed this feature out. They generally just shrug their shoulders and go on stuffing them. They seem happy enough to use them, and several cashiers have remarked on them favorably, but I'm not so sure the baggers like them, since, of course, they don't stand up on their own at all. They do seem to appreciate the fact that they hold a lot more than their plastic bags, though, since they won't break if they're overstuffed. (One guy seemed to take special delight in seeing how much he could fit in there, so much that I could barely carry it out!) I try to do the bulk of my grocery shopping at the coop, where nobody bats an eye, but I feel kind of funny at the supermarket. I've concluded, though, that it's enough that I like them, and that I'm doing the right thing.
posted by redheadeb at 8:53 PM on May 14, 2006

I shop at a co-op and all I get are pleasant smiles everytime I bring one. People that dont are the ones that usually get dirty looks from baggers.

PS: I live in a uber liberal california town.
posted by special-k at 8:54 PM on May 14, 2006

I was only a bagger for a month or so and never dealt with canvas bags, specifically, but I can see why anything out of the ordinary might get to a bagger.

People are really, really picky about how their groceries get bagged, and make it more difficult than it really should be to avoided being perceived as a truly terrible person.

If you put too few things in the bag, you're completely destroying the earth with your wasteful use of resources.

If you put too many things in the bag, you should have known that the customer couldn't possibly carry that bag and you know you're breaking her poor back with your damned lazy childish ways, you damn punk kid.
posted by dagnyscott at 8:59 PM on May 14, 2006

A long time ago, when I was a bagger, I remember feeling upset whenever canvas bags showed up... But it usually had more to do with the people than the bags. The people who brought their own bags were people that didn't trust our plastic bags to hold groceries (this was in South Dakota, eco-hippie-ness is very foreign there). In fact, I'd have ladies that would bring their own bags, but have all of the produce bagged in plastic so it didn't get the bag wet, and all of the meat would be individually wrapped in it's own plastic bag.

I think it's more of the persona of the people that brought their own bags BEFORE the whole "be good to the environment in as many ways as you can" trend.
posted by hatsix at 8:59 PM on May 14, 2006

As someone who bagged groceries for more than a year at two different stores I can only say that the whole concept of a canvas bag for the grocery store is foreign to me. A canvas bag is something that people around here use for the library, not the grocery store (at least I never saw or heard of a canvas bag being used at the stores I worked).

Maybe it's a regional thing, since the biggest grocery stores in this area are Wal-Marts, and everyone just tosses their plastic bags of groceries into the back of their cars or trucks or SUVs. It's infeasible to carry any quantity of groceries on foot in this city, as there are no sidewalks and limited transit services.
posted by meditative_zebra at 9:41 PM on May 14, 2006

hades, is that first picture the bag you're talking about? It's fatal flaw is no shoulder strap; it will suck to walk or bike with over any sort of distance.
posted by small_ruminant at 10:19 PM on May 14, 2006

I'm guessing that it's more likely the looks you're getting are looks of confusion, not animosity.

People using canvas bags at grocery stores is pretty rare except in certain areas. Where I lived in the Chicago Suburbs, for example, I don't think I ever once saw canvas bags or even knew that people would/could bring them to the store. I can imagine the 16 year old baggers at Jewel there just not "getting it", and wondering why you're bringing your own bags for them to use -- this could illicit some strange looks.

I suppose that in some areas of the country, canvas bags are common enough that you won't get these kinds of looks. I, for one, can honestly say I've never once in my life seen someone using them.
posted by twiggy at 10:59 PM on May 14, 2006

I know, it's totally neurotic

Kinda off-topic, but I don't think you're neurotic at all, maybe just supplied with a little more empathy than usual.

We could do with more people who worry about whether they are making the bagger's day better or worse. Kudos to you for giving a damn, I say.
posted by sennoma at 11:05 PM on May 14, 2006

Since leaving the States, all 3 countries I've lived have charged for bags, so bringing your own was normal. In Germany, baggers did not exist. As soon as you paid, you were 'in the way' and expected to bag your stuff and get-the-hell-out, fast. Now I find I seeth when I see some shit buying 3 items, then waiting for someone to place them in a bag for them.
posted by Goofyy at 3:56 AM on May 15, 2006

I just marvel at the fact that supermarkets have baggers. I worked as a checkout operator for 8 years, and we not only had to scan the items but pack them as well. And I dare say our system was faster than an operator-bagger system ever could be. Also, I just have tickets on myself for being a super-fast scanner and packer. And boy, was there ever a system to packing my bags the right way.

When I started working as a checkout operator, it was in a hippy-ish area of town, so recycled and canvas bags weren't uncommon. Yes I hated it and that was because it threw me out of my rhythm that made me the super-fast operator.

However, supermarkets in Australia are encouraging shoppers to purchase reusable green bags, which are meant to fit onto the bag racks. So it's very common here now for customers to use them, but setting them up on the racks seems to take forever for the operators. I find it easier for me to pack the bags myself. I have my system and I'm fast, and I always seem to pick the register being operated by someone who is the polar opposite of myself.
posted by chronic sublime at 4:27 AM on May 15, 2006

In Rochester, NY, home of the fancypants Wegmans grocery store chain, I find that baggers are the exception rather than the rule at Wegmans, and all the other grocery stores around here - cashiers do most of the bagging. (Though maybe that is a function of the time of day?) The folks who I see with canvas bags definitely seem to cause a pile-up. And I feel like the cashiers definitely give a big sigh when I occasionally ask for paper bags instead of plastic - they can do plastic much faster because they are used to it. Wegmans has a big chart on the wall that ranks the cashiers on items scanned/bagged per minute - so I always assume anyone who varies from the (now) standard plastic bags screws up their rankings. (And possibly gets them annoying comments from management?)
posted by chr1sb0y at 5:57 AM on May 15, 2006

Can I just say that I'm totally amazed that dedicated grocery baggers still exist in the US? I have to bag my own 50% of the time and the cashier does it the other 50%.
posted by GuyZero at 9:00 AM on May 15, 2006

As mentioned, most canvas bags don't stay upright and they can be a bit fiddly. Here, the eco-minded stores are happy to see them in use, and the bigger chain stores reduce .03-.07 cents per bag from the bill.

I try to use the store's own canvas bag; tucked inside are about 4 brown bags. They're double bagged and last many months. I guess this gives them the option. If you generally fill up only one bag, and use the canvas as a convenience for carrying, maybe you could offer them the double brown bag and then put it in the canvas yourself.
posted by Feisty at 9:49 AM on May 15, 2006

Response by poster: I'm so gratified to see that I'm not the only one who has wondered about this. And I really think I might invest in some of those flat-bottomed bags that hades and fantastic mentioned.

I live in a university town, and passive checkout-line animosity is really yet another manifestation of our omnipresent town/gown, black/white tension. Probably I'm not going to correct decades of white flight and postindustrial decay by foisting flat-bottomed bags on the bagger, but, y'know, you do the best you can.

So thanks, y'all.
posted by miriam at 9:53 AM on May 15, 2006

I bring bags almost all the time, and I've never noticed any kind of negative reaction. At Stop&Shop, there are rarely dedicated baggers. However, almost every time I tell the checkout person, "I have bags", he/she gives me a blank look. As if I just said, "The chameleon is now blue", or other non-sequiter.

Amanda B - The bags I bring are BIG, and can hold many pounds of groceries. And if there's a bagger volunteering to load, I'm always polite. :)
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 10:00 AM on May 15, 2006

Good thread, and although I don't have a solid answer (having never been employed in a supermarket) I have a couple comments.

I used a canvas bag for quite a while, until I misplaced it. A positive reenforcement was at the time (mid 1990s) Safeway and/or Giant was giving a 5¢ rebate for every bag the customer provided. Then it became 3¢, then 1¢, then zero.

This was Inside the Beltway, DC area. One of the many aggravating aspects of life there (as opposed to California) is the slow, lacadaisical working atttude supermarket checkout personnel display. Although this may be a manifestation of the ethnic/class hostility mentioned by miriam, I've heard another reason: these workers are unionized in California, so get bigger checks and are motivated to do a better job.

(I often had to rearrange the groceries in my canvas bag, when checkout was completed -- were they stowed carelessly on purpose?)

Finally, an aspect of the plastic bags (which canvas bags also share) is how sloppy things get when you stash them on a flat surface, like in your car's trunk ("boot" in Britspeak). You drive home, and everything slides out as you make turns. When these bags first appeared, I installed a big carabiner on my VW beetle's passenger-side hand-hold, above the glove compartment, and would hang all the plastic bags from this heavy duty hook. Man, that was handy -- car manufacturers should install hooks for this purpose inside all automotive cockpits, for easy grocery transport.
posted by Rash at 2:43 PM on May 15, 2006