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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to feel frustrated at the supermarket check-out!

71 replies

lill72 · 14/01/2016 16:04

I know this may seem silly, but it gets on my nerves every time I go to the supermarket. I cannot bear the way the people at the check-out sit and do nothing whilst someone is packing their bags? Could they not help you pack your bags to speed up the process?

It also frustrated me the other day that the lady waited until I had unpacked everything to start putting things through??? Why could she not start and then help me pack at the end?

In Australia, it works so differently and much more efficiently, I believe. The check-out staff are all standing up and they are trained in how to pack bags properly (yes there is an art ha ha!) and they will put everything through very quickly and have it all packed for you. They are never standing around twiddling their thumbs if a customer is there.

I guess as this is what I have seen growing up, I find the British approach of sitting down, let's slowly put things through the till and then wait and do nothing whilst watching the customer flail about trying to pack and pay and juggle children etc very ineffficent!

I sometimes ask them to help me pack when I have my baby with me, as it is tricky trying to do all these things whilst looking after a demanding baby!

So I guess there is no reason why they can't pack - or am I missing something!??

Is anyone with me??!!

OP posts:
SaucyJack · 14/01/2016 16:40

My mum was a checkout supervisor at Tesco Jorah. It most certainly did work like that when she was there.

lazyarse123 · 14/01/2016 16:41

I work in a supermarket, but just a small convenience store. We always ask if you want your bags packed. I can't stand watching men pack bags they just put stuff in anyway it will fit (or not). My colleagues laugh at me because they can see me itching to take the bags back and do it properly. We had some training where a manager packed a bag completely wrong and i ended shouting at him and taking it off him. Really at my age i don't need teaching how to pack a bag. I think i must have ocd of the carrier bag.

LagunaBubbles · 14/01/2016 16:42

I dont generally want help, in Morrisons they always ask you right away though. I was quite impressed last year when I was in holiday in California and we were at the checkout in a Walmart, there was a wee carousel thing with bags at the end, the operator filled a bag at a time and then spun it round to the next one. Not a highlight of the holiday obviously but it sticks in my mind! Grin

WhereYouLeftIt · 14/01/2016 16:49

lazyarse123 Grin. I am very fussy about packing, and had a couple of regular customers who would come through my checkout so that I could pack for them. And yes it's a cliche, but some men's packing could make me shudder. But only middle-aged men, strangely. Young men's packing was OK, elderly men's packing was careful and meticulous.

marfisa · 14/01/2016 16:50

Clearly Australia and the US have the same cultural practice because I am American, and in the US the customers don't pack their own bags either!

The funny thing is that after many years of living in the UK, I find it quite frustrating when I go back to the US and staff start bagging my food shopping without asking. I have my own bags and my own packing system, as others on the thread have mentioned. I put heavier stuff in my backpack, lighter items in other bags to dangle off the handlebars of my bike, etc, etc. I don't WANT help! Grin But when I politely try to stop the person from packing my bag, they look genuinely puzzled.

The default assumption in the US that customers won't pack their own bags is related to the failure to re-use shopping bags there. Every time you shop, your stuff is packed up into loads of brand new plastic bags. Such a waste. I much prefer the European way.

cleaty · 14/01/2016 16:51

I know in Australia the staff at checkouts all stand up. Trade unions here fought many many years ago for all staff to be given a chair that they can sit on. Have you spoken to anyone who has worked at checkouts in Australia for many years? Standing all day in a limited space is extremely bad for your back.

GreenishMe · 14/01/2016 16:58

I work at a checkout and tbh I can't bear it when people who are perfectly fit and capable of packing their own bags expect it to be done for them....having said that I always do it for them if that's what they want. Of course if somebody's elderley, has a young baby or some kind injury or disability, I automatically help them to pack without being asked.

Packing peoples' shopping away for them means it takes longer to finish the transaction, so that the people behind have to queue for longer.....I don't understand why some lazy people feel hard done to because they pack their own.

We're not minions.

Arfarfanarf · 14/01/2016 17:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Scholes34 · 14/01/2016 17:01

The offer to pack is always made - Tesco, Sainsbury's, Waitrose (obviously not Aldi) - and always declined. I'm very methodical in my packing.

Arfarfanarf · 14/01/2016 17:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

GruntledOne · 14/01/2016 17:07

I just pack while they put the stuff through, that seems to me much more efficient than me standing around twiddling my thumbs whilst they pack. I'm a pretty quick packer so there's usually not much of a time-lag.

HesterShaw · 14/01/2016 17:12

Surely if you ask them to help you pack then you would end up with loads of supermarket bags?

This is how I shop. I don't expect praise or admiration for it, nor is it the right way etc etc. Just saying that it needn't be difficult.

  • approach the check out
  • when there is space start to put my stuff on the conveyor belt
  • When it is my turn, head to the end of the checkout with my trolley
  • as the checkout assistant scans items through, I stand ready to receive said items and put them in said trolley
  • When everything is scanned and put in trolley I pay
  • I push the trolley to the car where the bags are waiting for me and pack them into the bags at the car thereby choosing how they are packed.

This is Lidl. On my occasional forays into Tesco I am asked chirpily if I need any help packing to which I reply "I'm fine thanks."

FarrowAndBallache · 14/01/2016 17:15

I think with the bag charge things are different now.

I've found they've stopped asking if you need help now.

Babylove2015 · 14/01/2016 17:16

I'm Australian and know what you mean. I found Asda usually offer help. It's Sainsburys that just sit there and watch. It's particularly bad when you have a full trolley, can't fit it all on the belt, there are other customers waiting, and they just sit there.

While on the topic of Sainsbury's, they let in some charity, that packs your bags at the check out and then they expect a donation. I was happy to do it a couple of times but got frustrated because they were so damn slow.

So before Xmas I see them all at the end of the tills, I only had my card on me, no change. It's a woman with her two young boys about 5 &7 and I have a full trolley. Now I was asked and had to say no at five different times. At one point the mother tried to barge by me and I said it's fine. Her son's were loudly commenting on what I was putting in my trolley through out and loudly announced the total of my bill to everyone.

And talking about Saibsburys lol. I went into buy carrots last week and all the bagged ones had one date on them. That day. When I asked to buy fresher carrots with longer dates, the gentleman showed me the crates underneath all with that day's date on them and said he had two more trolleys out the back with only that date. How disgusting are they for "freshness?."

StitchesInTime · 14/01/2016 17:19

IME, the checkout staff usually ask if I want help packing.

homebythesea · 14/01/2016 17:19

Two words

Online. Shopping.

Honestly I cannot fathom why anyone (especially with a baby or toddler) would actually go to a supermarket for a big shop. Why would you want to put up with the (sometimes petty but no less real) annoyances at the checkout, in the aisles, in the carpark etc when you can get someone to bring the stuff to your door????

HesterShaw · 14/01/2016 17:20

Are they supposed to throw away all those carrots then Babylove?

diddl · 14/01/2016 17:23

Are there two staff then,in Australia one putting through & one packing?

My husband uses a Klappbox which is folded away at one end of the trolley whilst shopping.

He puts the shopping on the belt in the order he wants to pack them into the klappbox.

Out to car, box of shopping in boot, finished.

urkidding · 14/01/2016 17:23

They always used to offer to pack in Sainsburys, and Asda, when my children were young (about 15 years ago) but I have noticed that if you used your own carrier bags they didn't, and now of course we use our own.

Also I notice after they asked whether you needed help with the packing, and you did, they pressed another button, which perhaps means that they are being timed for productivity differently.

So they have changed their approach to customer service.

My nearest shop now is Lidl and the staff do not bother at all.

WhereYouLeftIt · 14/01/2016 17:26

"How disgusting are they for "freshness?."
Carrots are good for a month or so in the fridge. So the sell-by date (which is a stock-rotation thing that has little to do with freshness) of today is fine.

coffeeisnectar · 14/01/2016 17:26

I do my own packing but I'm always asked if I need help.

I have a system. I don't want it messed up.

CherriBlossim · 14/01/2016 17:28

OP, I'm with you on this one completely.

I've just been in Marks and Spencers and the till operator was so lazy he kept his elbows on the counter the whole time, acting like a zombie passing goods from right hand to left hand. These are young students who should be full of life and get up and go and glad to be earning money. I despair.

MrsDeVere · 14/01/2016 17:29

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TurnOffTheTv · 14/01/2016 17:29

Well what do you do whilst they are packing your stuff? Just stand there and watch?

SoupDragon · 14/01/2016 17:31

no one iin Oz would ever pack ANYTHING

Ah, so in Oz the customers are all lazy but the check out staff are not and in the uk It's the other way round... :o Wink

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