Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Grocery Bagging Protocol

I can still remember as a little boy, standing in the checkout line at the grocery store, watching my mother placed all the groceries in our cart on the conveyor belt, as each item made there way to the cashier.

And what always amazed me, was how quickly the cashier would manually enter the prices on the cash register.

(this was before the NEVER working SKU scanning came into use)

I use to love to watch her fingers fly across the register buttons, and then finally hit the TOTAL key.

(wow…$45.00 for a whole family!)

My secret dream at that time…was to one day BE a cashier.

(I set extreme goals for myself)

And another thing that I noticed, was how the cashier carefully bagged our groceries. She would separate the COLD items in one bag; placing them all TOGETHER.

To me, that just seemed logical.

I mean if you bag all the cold items together, then they help to keep everything COLD, right?

(I even failed science class…and I know THAT)

Well, tell me…..where has this logic gone?

It seems that bagging groceries has become a “lost art.”

The cashier just seems to throw everything together.

My shampoo bottle ends up with my frozen veggie burgers.

(it’s that a tasty marriage?”)

And I especially love when they toss my bread in the bag, first…and then pulverize it with all the canned goods.

(this is especially helpful if the only reason you purchased the bread, was to feed the ducks)

Today while I was waiting in line at the grocery store, I actually heard the customer in front of me explain to the cashier, that he wanted all the cold items together.

DUH!?!?!?

And MY question is this…..

“Why did the cashier even have to be told?”

You see…this is WHY I always bag my own groceries.

And for good reasons…

…1) to help the cashier move quicker, so I can get the HELL out of the store.

And 2) to make sure all my groceries get home ALIVE.

Maybe I should write a book about proper grocery bagging.

And I could call it….

What do ya, think?