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BYOB Bitchiness.

Up here in Ontario (Canada) we have a law for grocery bags. It is a law I very much agree with too...

If you don't bring your own bag (BYOB) to a store, you are charged five cents per bag.

It is meant to help cut down on waste. And I am pretty good about bringing my bags with me usually. Occasionally I forget. But I am quite faithful about bringing them when I go grocery shopping. Though, I may stop doing that.

What I have noticed since this law came into play last June is that at grocery stores, the associates at the check-outs aren't all that good about packing your bags for you. I believe this is because in the past, whenever someone brought their own bag, they would just quickly fill it themselves. But if you were relying on store bags, the associate would have to pull it out and pack it for you.

I let this slide for a few months... Never saying anything. Trying my best to a good Canadian resident and very polite like most people in this country. But I have recently decided I am done being polite about certain things. And I am fully willing to be a bitch.

The place that I am the biggest bitch is at the Wholefoods in my neighborhood. And I feel this is completely justified. See, I am more than happy to pay for organic groceries and products. It is part of the reason I work and want to have a double-income household... I don't mind spending $$$ on groceries from Wholefoods. I love the products. I love the quality.

However, if I am spending dearly on products from this store... And I am making an effort to be a good citizen and bring my own bags each week, I think it is perfectly acceptable to expect the associate to at least make an effort to pack things for me. I don't mind helping, in order to move the line more quickly... But to not even make a move to pack them?

Well, fuck you.

This, of course, is all fresh in my mind... As I just got back from the store a few minutes ago. I had my weekly groceries on the check-out belt. I made sure to put all my bags at the front, so that the associate knew I wouldn't need ones from the store. They scanned all of my items. I paid. Then they just stood there.

"Could you help me get these packed?" I asked, very bitch-tastically.

They gave me a slight attitude. But they really couldn't argue with me. I asked for "help," and didn't make them feel like it was totally their job.

Which I believe it fucking is. Am I crazy for expecting this?
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Comments

The Mommy said…
You are totally not in the wrong, on any level. I ALWAYS pack my own groceries because the employees at every store in town don't know how to pack things properly. But I always say,"I'll pack". Otherwise it's just part of the check-out job to pack.the.effing.groceries.for.the.paying.customer.

When did that stop being an obvious part of the job description?
January 31, 2010 12:56 PM
JP Williams said…
Hardly! It's not like you're cutting their profits by bringing your own bags. If that was the case I could see them being all passive-aggressive. I mean, if you brought your own casket to the mortitian with your dead Aunt Edna, well I could see them getting pissy and making you put her in the box yourself. But yeah - I'd be all up the Whole Foods manager's shit telling them to get their staff sorted out.
January 31, 2010 1:10 PM
JPenn said…
I always pack my own bags at the store. I got used to doing this when I was living in Germany, which from what I can tell from your post, is how the Canadian markets opperate as well. I just hated in Europe that I felt like an idiot because I could not throw things in the bags fast enough...and the people behind me would get impatient.

I don't think it is too much to ask for the checker to help bag your items, but as you said they don't do a good job anyway, so maybe at the end of the day it makes more sense just to do it yourself.
January 31, 2010 2:52 PM
Duffy Pratt said…
Whole Foods decides what is part of the job description. If the clerks aren't helping you bag stuff, it's because the store doesn't expect it of them. In that case, you can ask for help. But it would help to realize that you are getting something "extra" from them when they do help. If you have a problem with the policy, take it up with Whole Foods management. The clerks are just doing what they are told.
January 31, 2010 5:44 PM
Me said…
I wonder if that is store-by-store. Because every other Whole Foods I have shopped at (Boston, Arizona, NYC) has the associates bag your groceries as they ring them up. I don't consider it something extra, based on experience at other locations.
January 31, 2010 6:17 PM
Melissa said…
Hrm. Call the manager and ask what their policy is. Maybe if you tell them what is going on (and you could even do this anonymously), maybe they will start discussing it with their employees. It's a progressive, upscale store. It'll happen.

I mean, even Trader Joe's empoloyees pack bags if you bring your own.
January 31, 2010 6:35 PM
Tiabla said…
Wow, the Whole Foods I've been to recently in Chicago, Colorado Springs and Honolulu always bagged my groceries....

The only grocery stores I've been to that didn't offer to pack groceries are low end/budget/wholesale grocery chains.
February 01, 2010 1:30 PM
Anonymous said…
Here on the other end of Canada at my grocery store(it's not Whole Foods) are more than willing to pack the bags I bring - customer service! So, I would say talk to the manager and find out what gives...
February 01, 2010 10:21 PM
sm said…
I am from Ontario too, and while I make an effort to travel my way down to Wholefoods I am sometimes stuck at Sobey's or Loblaw's or Metro and it is so very true. I was just mentioning this to a friend the other day. Not only grocery stores, but other stores too. It drives me nuts that it changed all of a sudden. It wasn't always that way. So amen sister. I applaud you for asking, I am going to take my overpolite Canadian genes and ask nicely next time.
February 02, 2010 7:46 AM
bikramarian said…
I guess this is some bizarro canadian thing, as I have never once experienced this. I even have to fight them off not to want to take my cart to my car for me, but that's at my regular grocery store. Haven't been to a whole foods in awhile.
February 02, 2010 4:02 PM
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