Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Doing It Right!

I got my first REAL job when I was 16.

I was a bagger at a local Safeway store. I had to wear dress pants, dress shirt and dress shoes which kind of made me feel like a dork but that was nothing compared to the stupid red vest I had to wear.

It was a good job. It paid well and there weren't a ton of hours to work each week, just enough to cover my needs. After a year I became a Food Clerk. That meant I was a stocker and if I was needed a cashier. That's when I really started to make the big bucks. By the time I quit working at Safeway seven years later I was making $17.10/hr. Not bad at all for a 23 year old with no obligations.

Although I no longer work at Safeway, I always prefer to shop there. Maybe I was brainwashed or something but I just like that store. I like the customer service. I like the normal sized shopping carts. I like the wide aisles. I like not paying extra for bags. Most of all I like having people pack my groceries for me. Most of the time.

I don't just want my bags packed, I want them to be packed in the proper fashion. I even lay out my groceries on the conveyor belt according to how I want them packed.

I put the produce together, I put the meat together, I put all the frozen and cold items together, I put all the bakery items together and I put all of the non-edibles together at the end. It should be very simple for the bagger to load'em up the right way. And there is a "Right Way". I've seen the training videos and participated in the testing process. They are supposed to pack your bags in the above specified categories. Maybe one time out of five they get it done correctly.

Last weekend I went through a till with a "Cashier in Training". This cashier was not only in training, she was also without a bagger. This is something I don't get about our local Safeway. They have all of these tills running and they all have bagger stations attached but there is only ever one bagger working at any given time so the cashiers usually ends up packing the bags themselves.

It seems that this cashier in training should still be a bagger in training. She screwed everything up! I had produce with my fish and shampoo with my bread. It was a nightmare (Ok, maybe it's only a nightmare if you're as anal as myself when it comes to groceries). I couldn't figure out how she managed to screw it up as much as she did. The stuff was laid out in order! All she had to do was grab an item, scan it and stick it in the bag. My groceries practically bag themselves.

The only answer I can think of is that she was purposely messing with me and my groceries. I imagine she noticed my impeccable grocery organizing skills and became resentful.

"Oh look at the hotshot with his categorized food. Let's see how he likes some frozen juice packed in with his bananas. What a dick! I see some soap down the line. I think I'll put that right in the same bag as the garlic bread with the non-sealed bag.Yah! You like that? Ooh, he's got some fish too! I'll just put that in with this bag of sugar. Anything else for you today ya jerk-off?"

I'll bet that this is exactly what she was thinking too. She was out to get me. She knew how I wanted my groceries bagged. She just didn't DO IT. She's just like the rest of them. They want to play mind games with me. They don't think I know about bagging. WELL I DO KNOW ABOUT BAGGING! I DO KNOW!! I'VE FORGOTTEN MORE ABOUT BAGGING GROCERIES THAN THEY'LL EVER KNOW! WHY IN MY DAY IF I'D PUT SOMEONES SHAMPOO IN A BAG WITH...

Whoa. I have to calm down.

Anyway I hate it when they don't pack my groceries properly.

1 comment:

Kris said...

You're not alone. I hate that shit too. And I live right close to the Safeway on Pembina (Winnipeg), so I shop there all the time and notice the same damn thing. Last time I actually corrected the bagger. "Hey, I don't really want that poisonous toilet cleaner nestled up next to my apples" She shot me with icy daggers of death from her eyes. Don't fuck with a Safeway bagger. Great blog by the way.