Grocery Checkout and Bagging

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I went to the grocery store today for the first time in months (live at home, so don't HAVE to grocery shop), and as I usually do, when I got to the checkout line, I began loading my groceries onto the conveyer belt in 'categories'...heavy refrigerated things, light refrigerated things, heavy non-perishables, and light non-perishables. I do this so that it's easy for the clerk to bag my groceries, which will hopefully leave me with less bags to carry and make it easier to put the food away when I get home. However, the girl still ended up bagging the groceries in a random order, reaching around and picking groceries to put together that she deemed fit. The result was two or three items in some bags and refrigerated items with non-refrigerated items.

Anyway, when I got home and started putting the groceries away, I had a sudden vivid memory from my childhood of me standing at the end of the conveyer belt and bagging my grandmother's groceries as they rolled to the end (which was the bag person's job). I would do the same thing...categorize the food by types and weight, and bag accordingly. I remember my grandmother being embarrassed that I was doing the bag boy's job, and the clerk laughing and remarking that I would make a good bag girl when I was older.

Just thought it was amusing to see this very Aspie-like trait carry over to adulthood that way. I don't have very strong memories of my childhood, nor do many of the adults in my life (as I was kind of handed off between relatives a lot), so it's interesting to have a distinct memory of an obvious AS trait.

Any of you do this now, or as a child?

Yeah, I do actually. How weird. I didn't even think about it until now.

I do that, but only after I spent a few months as a bagger. Really appreciated the few customers who did it, made my job much easier.

I do the same thing. I try to put all the cold items on the conveyor belt, all the bread items and can goods together. I don't worry in the end how it gets bagged and I would never be rude to the bagger, I have seen that happen before and I just don't think it is polite.

I organise my conveyor so it's an easy transfer to our food storage areas at home. So bread/pasta together, tins, fresh/frozen etc. This has a practical purpose of saving time when emptying at the other end, it's also a good distraction from the queue awkwardness, that can become stressful.

It was an interesting experience yesterday as I was in my usual big shop supermarket where I would normally do this, with only a handful of items. I caught myself tapping my keys together the entire time I was queuing, an obvious, but new stim behaviour.

Jason

No, sorry but I just can't imagine you ever being rude. You seem like such a kind and peaceful person.

Actually, the grocery thing happens so fast and I am so busy paying with credit card that it often is done before I can even watch it. I usually shop at Publix because it is the closest here and the staff is really nice. It is a very pleasant experience. I used to hate grocery shopping and could not stay in the grocery store very long, not sure why. Anxiety I guess?

I don't have it that bad. But I do like when the cold items are bagged together that way they stay colder longer. I also like to keep the veggies together. It makes things twenty times easier for me when I get home and need to unload too. I am not rude to the bagger, however, I do kindly ask, "Is it possible to keep the cold items together?" Generally they are nice about it and say yes.

Maybe next time just sort of ask the bagger nicely if they would keep the refrigerator stuff with one another. Don't go all out with the crazy request, however, just kindly explain you want to keep the cold items together.

Yup! I always thought I was just being practical and hadn't even thought of this as a trait. Surely no one wants to crush their loaf of bread and end up with odd shaped sandwiches .

Being British I get to do it myself so I can go with a backpack to put all my tins in and the plastic bags can relax with just carry the light stuff.

This is something that I find very stressful and difficult to cope with, for several reasons because of dyspraxia, poor motor skills as well as anxiety and so on and so forth plus bags are bloody fiddly things at the best of times.

I might talk about this some more tomorrow.

Yeah it feels like something I've always done, but I'm not great at remembering what I was like as a kid.

I also always find that the cashier will scan the items in any order, but part of me likes the challenge of a messy conveyor belt as you can have several bags waiting and then have to quickly decided which bag to put an item in without them piling up. Although thinking about it that probably is aspie behavior so I can focus on something and ignore the rest of the supermarket.

Huh. I've never put any thought into this, but now that you mention it....I do this!! !

It really bugs me when I go to the grocery with my mom because she just unloads everything onto the belt all willy nilly.....instead of helping her unload things from the cart, I usually end up just rearranging the items that she's already unloaded....haha. It never even crossed my mind that most people don't care if groceries are in order!

This reminds of something else I used to do as a kid.....I ALWAYS used love to fix all the product displays, realign crooked items on shelves, and return stray objects to their places. I HATED when the order or pattern was messed up.

My mom would always be calling me to catch up with her because I would get so engrossed in aligning and organizing that I would get left behind in the aisle! She would always say, banana, stop worrying about it! Somebody gets paid to do that!! And I'd say, ok.....just one more shelf.....

I still often get the urge to do this, but since I realize this is not acceptable behavior unless you WORK at the grocery, I am usually able to refrain from doing so.

But sometimes, if I am in an aisle all by myself, I'll just fix a couple things....

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.