No bags please (?! !)

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Right, the people at my local small supermarket have this thing with bags. A few staff members seem to resent me everytime I bring in my own bag. Whenever it happens, I see a frown, and they snatch off one of their own bags and have angrily started shoving the groceries into it by the time I've put my bag on the till table.

This doesn't happen when I don't bring in my own bag.

My question is simple. What is their God damned problem??? It's a bloody bag! WTF do they get so upset about? It's not like I hold up the queue. They are grumpy in that store.

It's not just you. They do that to me too. As a former grocery store clerk, I can tell you, it's a pain in the ass to use special bags and it slows you down. The grocery store clerks get "graded" on how fast they scan everything and get done with each customer. At my store, they would post everyone's scanning scores in the break room every week and they base raises on those scores. But even though it's a pain and it hurts their scores, customer service is more important to me. I think it's the fault of the people who make those rules. It's too bad they can't base raises on how nice people are because that is what brings you back to a store. So the really good cashiers are the ones who don't let you know that it bothers them. Maybe you could memorize who they are and try to only use them?

Oregon has outlawed plastic bags so we use paper sacks or bring our own bags and stores encourage that here. My husband and I would grocery shop at a grocery store here and you get a discount for bringing in your own store bags you bought from them for 99 cents. So it's the opposite here.

Also I don't understand how bags slow you down, I mean they just hand them your bag and you put the stuff in it and hand it back to them. How does that slow you down?

In California, he who does not bring his own bags, is penalized with a small fee for the use of the bags that the shop provides, in an effort to reduce some of the negative affects on our environment/environmental recourses.

That's the thing! Every other store is fine with me bringing my own bags, and some do charge for using their plastic bags because of environmental issues. It's just this little store that I go to. The most ever in a queue for each till is about 6-7 people on a busy day. Otherwise it's normally like 3, as it was today.

Mercedes11, thanks for explaining that to me; I understand why now. I completely agree with you that customer service is far more important. I decided after that man got cross with me that I'm not going to bother with that place anymore. I mean, it's not just for that one incident - they have been grumpy with me before, and I remember one woman muttering about me to herself and ignoring me afterwards. I almost told her to go f*** off. Anyway, I want to be treated like a person, not a nuisance that should be shoved out of the way as soon as possible. I hate being treated like that, there should be absolutely no need for it.

not all of Oregon, just a few cities.




I work in a college book store, and I can tell you using special bags like backpacks and such does slow it down. But i'd never be rude to the customer. I just use their bag and some nice people help bag. while they want us to go fast, huge lines, the customer leaving happy is more important. I like making people happy and getting to chat with them.
sorry they treated you that way, maybe they shouldn't be in a customer service job.

have you washed the bag recently?

sly279, does it really slow down the queue that much? I mean, surely it takes only 5 seconds to put the bag on the till table. I'm glad that you prefer the customer to be happy too.

Dantac, what do you mean?

Plastic bags are banned here in Melbourne although some people can still use them if they don't have their own bags.
The cashiers don't mind using my green bags where I live and you can still use them if you get your groceries delivered.

for like the res useable bags that shaped like plastic bags now, but for backpacks and such yeah. so many zippers and slots.
the res useable ones are just a tiny bit though. mainly its breaking the pattern of reach down grab bag , stuff stuff in bag. its really not that big of a problem in my mind, even though the store is out of the ban area, some people like to bring their own bags, now the ones who let me bag it in plastic then say oh I want it in my bag i don't like plastic, those upset me a bit cause now I have to rebag the stuff and refold the plastic bag. but as long as you don't yell or scream at me for stuff I can't change I generally don't mind. the screaming stuff is bad enough for nt people ,but I'm extra sensitive to it as aspie makes me afraid.

Yeah a few little facts on those wonderful reusable "green" bags.

1) They're not green. They're made of plastic. I've heard the kind of plastic they are made from is worse for the environment than the disposable plastic bags.

2) They don't last for ever. Sorry.

3) The so-called disposable bags are reusable too. I use them for freezer bags, or lunch bags, or doggie do do bags. What people don't factor in is that if people use "green" bags, they still have to buy lunch bags , freezer bags, and doggie do do bags. A cynical person might suggest banning disposable bags, or charging people to use them would be a good way to make money; while simultaneously charging people to buy "green" bags, freezer bags, lunch bags, and doggie do do bags

4) "Green" bags are bloody unhygenic. People don't wash them. They throw their dirty gym shoes in them, they have meat packs, leak all over them, as alot of them are black or have black bottoms, they don't notice, dont look, and they throw them in the cupboard till next week. It's been found areas that have banned disposable bags have higher levels of gastro.

its funny how countries differ.
a lot of shops in ireland and england wont give bags for free and they give 'bags for life' at a reduced cost to encourage people reususeing them and bringing their own.
tell them landfill aint getting any smaller.