Grocery Checkout and Bagging

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I once saw a comedian once who had a routine about buying items in a supermarket that have been left in the wrong place. This amused me as I've always noticed things like this (usualy around the offers). For about 6 months now I've been fighting the urge to do an entire shop with the rule that I can only buy things that are not in their correct place!

I also feel the need to put other people's CDs and DVDs back in their case and can't quite figure out why everyone is happy yo leave them in the player or scattered around the room.

I hate that feeling of having a whole queue staring at you and holding YOU personally responsible for holding everyone up, whilst you're trying to open these fiddly bits of thin plastic. I don't have time at the supermarket to sort my items AND open the stupid bags myself. Even if I take my own bags, I get the feeling that they want me away from the checkout as soon as possible. Even putting my purse back into my back seems to take too much time for these people.

Oh, yes. I know that feeling only too well, I'm afraid.



And then you're having to judge how you don't flatten or damage the things you've actually bought, nor that you don't overload the bags so they break.



And I can feel the pressure inside my head creeping up all the time. It's classic fight-or-flight stuff. Sometimes you get so stressed that you struggle desperately and just can't wait to get out of there. It's not so bad if you've only got a few things but if you're doing a lot of shopping it can be very stressful.

Last edited by Tequila on 12 Mar 2012, 9:06 am, edited 1 time in total.

supermarkets are to overstimulating,, i just put everything in a bag and leave,

How about going through non peak hours?

When I end up in supermarkets there aren't a lot of people generally.

The grocery store closest to my house is open 24 hours, so I used to go late...any time from 11PM to 3AM, and it would be great.

I waited to go to the store today, not thinking that everyone probably goes on Sundays, and it was horrible. I hate having to navigate around people with my shopping cart, or worrying that I'm in someone's way. I also get very self-conscious, because it sometimes takes me a while to decide what I want, and I'll pick things up and put them down, and I feel like people are watching me.

It's actually a fine experience when no one else is around.

m grocer bags b hat order so cna end up with few more bagsbecause they are typed but they do not do it well i categorize by shape too, so i bag heavy at bottom, and on bag may have squares neatly packed in so i can be efficient though they auto ba by temp i only do relative to my trip time. if trip is short it doesnt matter relatively to me hoe i pack, less so if i am in a hurry

Anyone can tell you Sundays are always generally busy because they are the start of the new work week. Thus people get stuff. I find Sundays busy. Saturdays are much quieter, but I love going on the Weekdays during non peak hours where it is nice and quiet.

My only problems sometimes is navigating through a grocery market I have not been to. Those are always a nightmare for me. If I don't know the store by heart there feels like something is wrong.

The baggers place in items that will not end up making the bag too heavy so it ends up breaking. Though once they put a 2 litre bottle of milk in an already heavy bag. The bag broke.

I don't categorize my items. The supermarket is chaotic enough and I'm preoccupied with trying to remember what items to buy and hope I don't forget something this time. On one of those conveyor belts I carefully place the items and make sure they are lined up though.

I go to my local corner store super market whenever I completely run out of food so I can't wait for days where there are hardly any people.

Same here. As I usually use a backpack I sort the conveyor heavy/strong to light/fragile. For some reason I hate carrying things in my hands for any distance. I usually walk about a mile to the supermarket and try to fit everything in a backpack. If I run out of room I put the lightest items in a bag then wrap the handle round my arm so my hands don't take the weight.

i tend to put the items on the conveor belt by weight and size rather than the way you do it.

the biggest and heaviest items go onto the belt first and the light stuff last. this can be a pain as the heavy stuff is usually at the bottom of the trolley.

oh yeah and lucky you. in britain, having somebody pack your bag is pretty much non-existant. they just let the stuff pile up at the end and leave you to do it yourself. everybody in the queue then starts to get annoyed at you for not hurrying up.

ost people I know like to put the heavy items in the bags first then fill the rest up with the lighter items. That's just common sense.

I'm all fingers and thumbs when I'm bagging groceries, so I tend to stuff as many things as I can into one bag. It just comes from my social phobia, where I think people are watching me all the time and I have a fear of people watching me do tasks, so I just try to rush out of the supermarket as quick as possible.

yes i am the same. i can feel the eyes burning into me. i always try to fill the bags as quick as possible and i seem to go into this zone where i become sensitive to how i am performing the task.

I always find it weird that people are paid to do that. It's not a necessary job.

I roughly categorize my groceries, but if I'm not a fanatic about it. My mother was, which is how I learned to do it with moderation. What does bug me, however, is reaching down into the cart to retrieve items--I'm just too uncoordinated and short-of-arm. So I shop more frequently and pile everything in the upper rack, where it can be easily transferred to the conveyor belt.

I always speed through the supermarket where i do groceries on monday, i get extremely nervous so i'm just glad when i get my groceries in my backpack :o And we don't have a bagger system here, you have to pack your stuff on your own here, thats why i carry my trusty backpack, but i do the shopping baskets straight if they're piled up weird or if its not straightly aligned with the conveyerbelt, because it saves the person who has to clean them up atleast one repetive action of putting them straight again, i hate how some people just pull a basket out like a maniac at the beginning of the supermarket, they just leave them on the ground if they fall over :S Some people also leave used coffee cups in them, which i think is disgusting :o But then again i dont see why the supermarket needs a round sitting area with a coffeemaker.

Anyway sorry for rambling.