Photo: Noel Hendrickson
Checking out of the local supermarket yesterday, my wife was thanked for bagging her own groceries. She stopped, then realized that in the U.S. supermarkets have baggers, while the local supermarkets that we shopped at in Germany did not. Over there, we paid for the groceries and then raced to bag them ourselves beyond the cashier’s table while the next customer’s purchases were scanned. Why the difference? One possibility is cost-based — the low-wage labor of baggers is relatively cheaper here. Another is demand-based — the average customer is in more of a rush here, perhaps because his/her value of time is higher. Any other reasons?
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Hmm, don’t recall ever having my groceries bagged for me in Canada. The idea of someone bagging my grocery for me seems silly.
The economic mechanisms supporting personal service tasks are completely different in each continent.
In Europe, everyone would assume that bagging was an add on service being provided at the expense of the store. Zero tips per day ensures that no one would take the (probable) minimum wage pay for bagging. In the USA, a healthy tipping culture ensures that pay is adequate for a job with (basically) no added benefits and very low pay.
In Germany especially, shoppers are very frugal and would cringe at the thought of the baggers salary being reflected in higher prices for groceries,
To the best of my knowledge, grocery baggers in the US are not tipped. Or have I been blind and stingy all of these years?
At one time, and I’m thinking back to the 60s in western Michigan, grocery stores had “carryout boys” who both bagged your groceries and carried them out to your car. I don’t recall my parents ever tipping them, and no one else did, either. Of course, in other areas it may have been different. I always remember an episode of “The Beverly Hillbillies” where the Clampetts shop at a store with carryout boys, one of whom loads the groceries in the Clampett truck. Granny leans over and whispers, “Jed, give the boy a tip.” And Jed Clampett, perplexed, tells the carryout boy, “Son, plant your corn early this year.”
Nope, no one tips baggers in the US. A friend was telling me once that he was offered a tip around Christmas and had to turn it down due to store policy.
Laura,
My sediments exactly. As I read about the ‘healthy tipping culture in the USA’ as it pertains to grocery baggers I suddenly felt extremely cheap and embarrassed since I have never witnessed such an action. You are not alone!
military commissaries are one exception. at most i’ve been to, there are signs explicitly noting that the baggers are unpaid and work solely for tips… and after the accordant discount of a commissary, a dollar tip is a minor concession.
this is the only environment i’ve ever seen (or participated in) the tipping of baggers.
No one tips baggers in the US. I was a bagger for 4 years during high school. Exactly one person tipped me during that time (A whole $1!). Believe me when I say that tips didn’t motivate me
It might be cultural as well. There is a strong sense of pleasing the customers in the US that sometimes goes to unthinkable extents. In some countries, some supermarkets aren’t even offering the bags for free anymore, giving environmental reasons for it (you can now buy a bag, but it’s a good quality, reusable one). That way, European clients are getting used to have less “customer privileges” for the sake of sustainability. I wonder how many US supermarkets would dare to stop treating their customers to bags…
Fresh & Easy tried it when they opened here in Arizona. Customers had to bring our own bags or buy a reusable F&E logo bag in the store.
The local store has since switched to using free plastic bags, same as every other store in the region.
My suspicion with the U.S. custom of using baggers is that it worked for some of the first grocery chains (look! shopping at our stores is just as friendly and convenient as at the rival market where the grocer fetches your food for you!) and became the “best practice” by imitation. Once “discount” supermarket chains staked out the territory of having customers do our own bagging, mid-tier markets had a disincentive to move to that plan.
Where I live, the lowest prestige of the mid-tier markets (Fry’s/Kroger) has self-scan aisles (with resulting self-bagging), but the higher-prestige mid-tier market (Safeway), the “aren’t we adorably local” market (Basha’s), and the upscale market (AJ’s) don’t. Safeway, Basha’s, and AJ’s could surely stand to save the money by having some cashier-free aisles, but nobody wants to be the first to depersonalize the customer experience that way.
Well at least US supermarkets give out paper bags, which is more environmentally friendly than plastic. Try paper bags here in Europe and you’ll make some people pretty upset. But there are efforts to change this; Italy for instance has put a country-wide ban on non-recyclable bags.
Up here in Canada we have these handy little platform-things that allow the cashier who’s scanning the groceries to bag them at the same time. It’s probably not quite as efficient as scanning then dumping them on the counter behind, but it’s far cheaper for the store than paying another salary entirely for a bagger.
I think it’s a speed thing too. These ‘super’ grocery stores want to churn through as many customers as possible. Oftern times we’ve got the main bagger, then assisted by the cashier, as well as myself bagging the bags. Dont want to clog up the line, now do we?
My favorite solution to this was the two-conveyor checkout at my old grocery store. The conveyor belt behind the checker had two lanes with a little guide wall between. One person would be checked through with their items going on one side of the conveyor. Then they would pay and start bagging. The next customer’s shopping would be put down the other side of the conveyor. By the time Customer #2′s items were rung up, Customer #1 would be finished with bagging, just in time for #3′s goods to be rung up.
I loved it. It didn’t rush the customers, and still allowed me to bag my own goods (which I prefer, as I sort them so they’ll be easier to distribute when I get home. Shampoo isn’t going to the kitchen).
We have the same thing in our Winco’s in Idaho. Since I’ve been in Germany I’ve missed being able to take my time while bagging since the cashiers do just pile drive through one customer and barely wait (and if they do, they act irritated) to start ringing up the next customer.
I agree that speed plays a role. My roommate in grad school, a doctoral student in physics at Harvard, was a cashier at Star Market. He would come home and tell me his scanning rate. The faster he scanned, the higher his pay. Obviously his scanning rate is going to be limited if he also had to bag, so they had baggers to process customers faster.
As for bagging, my impression was that in the old days, baggers knew how to bag efficiently given their experience. I don’t think that’s the case anymore. WalMarts have those carousels where the cashier can scan and bag at the same time. Personally, I look for the self-scan, self-bag registers. I’d rather do it all myself. The lines tend to be shorter.
As a European I really feel not comfortable with baggers.
1/ Cashier already is a “poor” job, that could/should/will be replaced by machines, hiring someone to “bag” really lowers human condition, in a way (no skill is required for that)
2/ You feel you have to give back something. A tip ? a smile ? Man, it’s already a chore to shop for grocery, why shoud I feel obliged to make another fake smile, I just wanna go home
3/ Practical : may be I’m a Tetris fond and have my particular way of putting groceries into bags.
4/ Ecology : I may be against more bags and have my own. So what, the guy just watches me making my bag ? lol
5/ Silly service : I guess some marketers (and financial staff may be) worked a few weeks on the concept thinking “yeah, let make the supermarket more human and put a bagger at the end of each payline”, which is ludicrous
May prove useful for some persons (pregnant, disabled, etc), but in this case, make them truly useful servants, not just dummy bots
@Marshkxx, from France
(great job this blog by the way ! love it !)
I believe it is more cultural than any items being stated so far. In the past (US here), baggers where intended to safely secure food, so it made it home in good condition; offered customer service in helping the customer load the car, if requested; and served primarily as an entry level job for high school kids. Not intended to be a living wage job.
We used to call this customer service, and a business decision for a vendor to offer a higher level of service to their valued customers.
All of this new age snobbishness is a tad silly. If you don’t want to be bagged, either go to a self serve lane, or a vendor that offers lower levels of customer service.
In the US, the baggers do not really effect price – at least by my observation.
Marshkxx,
I hope you do not think that there is something inherently degrading about jobs that can be performed by low-skilled people – in fact, it is a great way for people who have not yet developed skills to be a productive part of the economy. When I was in high school, I worked at a fast food place and then bagged groceries at a store because I had not yet developed the skills and knowledge necessary to perform more lucrative work. I didn’t get paid much, but I learned a lot about customer service and developed good habits such as time and money management. The money I did earn allowed me to pay for my own car insurance and gas, and it eventually helped me pay for my collegiate education, where I developed the skills and knowledge necessary for higher-paying jobs. Now I’m an attorney, but I still make a point of thanking young people who prepare food or bag my groceries and let them know that I started out just like them.
Dave Roland has the best answer on here. Dont overthink it. Its jobs for youth and at very little expense. I do not understand the complaints at all.
Yeah, I think that’s one of the big differences between the US and Europe: European kids don’t work while they’re in school but American kids do. So where a European might see a below-poverty level wage for someone trying to support a family, an American sees a great opportunity for work experience, a reference or two, some responsibility and something to put on a resume for a teenager, with the added benefit of gas money.
On the other hand, from what I’ve noticed, the demography of grocery store baggers has recently shifted from young kids to upper-middle aged adults. I wonder if it corresponds with the recent increases in minimum wage, or with the recent recession and increase in overall unemployment.
There is no difference between the US and the Netherlands (I can’t speak for the whole of Europe). Kids do work while they’re in school. For the same reasons as in the US, I believe.
About bagging: In the Netherlands we have been used to bag our own groceries for decades. A lot of people use their own bags and crates. The European Committee is currently talking about banning the free grocery-bags. For the slightly better bags (thicker plastic) we have been paying for years now (about 0,35 dollarcents). I think it’s a great way to help the environment.
It think that the German logic also applies for the Netherlands. If the consumer thinks his groceries will get more expensive by letting them be bagged, they will go to another store.
Mascha (Netherlands)
Marshkxx,
In Canada the cashier usually bags your items as they scan them. Sometimes there is a teenaged guy or girl bagging your groceries when the store is busier. It is probably their first part-time job, so the baggers are usually not making a living off this income as they tend to live at home at that age. The money they get probably goes towards their hobbies rather than living expenses.
I think the teens bagging groceries also have shelf re-stocking duties and bagging is something else for them to do if their section has been recently restocked or the cashiers are really busy. Just a guess. I see the same people bagging and stocking shelves at my local store.
I’ve never seen anyone tip a bagger, or cashier, now that I think about it.
If you want the cashier/bagger to use your reusable bags instead of store plastic/paper bags, you just put them in front of your queue of groceries. It’s not weird over here, it’s the norm. Some stores give you a 5 cent discount per bag you don’t use.
The cashiers and baggers all know how to load a bag properly so your delicate purchases don’t get crushed and each bag is not so heavy that it will break.
If you want certain things grouped together you place them together on the counter. Often times I’m asked if I want fresh meat or cleaning products bagged separately from my other groceries.
If you want to do it yourself, you just let the cashier know.
However, if you go to discount grocery stores, you usually have to bag your own groceries, and pay for the store’s disposable bags if you don’t bring your own bags.
I don’t known what the big cost centers in running a grocery are; but when I was in college I shopped at a discount grocery where I bagged my own groceries. Now that I’m in the working world my local super market is significantly higher end and has baggers.
Store-paid baggers are an inefficient form of labor. they have to work a shift that may see multiple slow periods for one or two busy periods.
They don’t sit around during idle periods. There’s always something to be done at a grocery store.
It’s socioeducational related. Here in Mexico it,s normal, there in every 3rd world country it’s normal and it’s because the grocery bagger is some one that doesn’t really have any other income way better than bag.