Originally Posted by
Dhalin
There's a flipside to this, too.
I hate it when customers tell me how to bag their stuff. You see, some of us cashiers who have been working that job for multiple years, have a lot of experience bagging things. We do it all day long, every day we work, for years. There is a _reason_ I bag things the way I do.
What I particularly dislike, are people who insist I cram everything into as little bags as possible. So you have 2 extra bags, wow. You know what? You can slip your arm into even more bags, and you won't have to make any extra trips... that's the beauty of plastic shopping bags. The problem with cramming stuff into bags:
1). Sometimes bags rip/break if too much weight is placed in them. Bag breaks, item falls to the floor and breaks, suddenly we're expected to replace that. Yeah, nice. Because _you_ insisted we cram it as full as possible, now _we_ have to pay for that.
2). Sometimes things get smashed. No, I do NOT want to pack your bread/eggs/etc with your meat/cans/whatever heavy items. I know, you'll get out the door, to your car, and you'll be "OMG my bread is smashed! I need a replacement!" or later on, call and complain to management that I smashed your bread. Um, no I didn't. You did.
3). Soap/Laundry Detergent/Dryer Sheets/Other Odorous Product + Deli/Meat/Produce = Nasty. I don't care what the customer says, I refuse to pack these two together. Last thing I need is yet again, someone gets home, then calls the store and complains that their deli meat or produce "tastes funny" and is probably "bad". Now, the customer is going to want a refund or replacement. Um, no thanks. If I see you switching the bags after I packed it, I will be sure to write down a note and give it to the manager.
Some stores like to save on bags, and others give you the "million bags" for extra precaution, but there are also other reasons, like those I mentioned above, as to why we pack what we do, in the way that we do. Some customers are too stupid (what the heck, re-tar-ded is filtered!?!?) to realize that some of the above scenarios are not only bad for the customer, but also bad for the store too.
Otherwise, I couldn't care less how stuff is packed. I'll do my best to pack things logically together, and fill the bags reasonably full, and I test the weight of each and every bag that looks questionable before allowing the customer to walk off with it. I have a pretty good feel for what a bag can take and what a bag can't.