This is crazy, I'm in the UK and we have to do it ourselves, I didn't even realise it was a thing that people packed your bags for you just buying your food. For me that feels like a service you should tip for.

Most places I go to do not do the bagging anyway.

I used to work as a grocery store bagger and it honestly depended. I always said "yes" when somebody asked because I was more than happy to let somebody else do my job, but there were definitely instances in which they bagged things so badly that I had to take over and correct them. Believe it or not, there is a tried and true "method" for bagging (both paper and plastic) and there were some things people did that made it borderline dangerous for their health or just impractical. Think: putting cleaning chemicals with the meat, or putting heavy stuff on top of the bread.

I definitely also much preferred people asking compared to people walking over and just pushing me aside, which they did many times.

If you don't trust yourself to bag things "right" so that you don't end up with a mess in your car when you get home, then just let somebody who's trained do it for you. If you do trust yourself to do it, then at least ask politely.

No, I often help bag my groceries. It moves things along faster. I don't see why anyone would have a problem with it.

There's usually a self checkout. I almost always scan and bag my own this way.

I don't know how they'd react if you asked in the regular line tbh 🤔

I don't know when it changed, but here in Canada they stopped bagging them. If you buy those reusable bags, they just throw them at you so you can start bagging.

They used to have dedicated baggers at the end of each line. They disappeared. I never really noticed the transition.

I don't ask, I just start bagging. If they get done scanning before I get done bagging I switch to paying and either finish bagging after I'm done, or they finish bagging for me. You can wait for them to scan and then bag but honestly it makes me feel like a jackass to just stand there and watch them do it.

This is mostly at Ralphs/Kroger, but I wouldn't hesitate to just start packing my stuff in any grocery store unless there was a bagger standing right there. Very rarely do I see any stores that hire enough people to keep baggers around though, usually they just make the cashiers do both jobs.

No grocer in my area bags a customer's groceries for them anymore, so it's not rude; it's the only way your shit is getting in bags.

I usually bring my own reusable bags and regardless if a bagger is there or not, I offer to bag my own groceries unless it's more efficient/faster for me to just ring up my card. I used to be a cashier and I absolutely hated when people would just stand there and watch me bag 3-5 bags of groceries while there's a line of 4 people behind them. I always appreciated customers who do it themselves. A lot if the time people who bag groceries that aren't cashiers also clean messes, gather shopping carts, face aisles etc, so if it's a huge supermarket they'll probably be happy to skip that job.

I appreciate all the responses! I think we just need to be firm when asking to bag. Often, there isn't a bagger so my partner will start (he used to work at a Target so he's pretty quick and particular), and an employee will come over and take over even if he insists he would prefer to bag.

Back a long time ago when I worked as a cashier, it was store policy for us to bag everything for the customer. They could offer to bag, but we were expected to just start bagging automatically unless they interjected.

when I worked as a grocery store cashier for a few months, I dont think I was ever given any kind of rule that customers couldnt bag. Usually both the customer and I would bag things, sometimes they'd stand and let me do it, and once or twice they were just like "It's okay, let me take care of it" and Id let them do it. Never considered it rude or anything.

What... Wh.. what do you have against my ba... Bagging? I played so much Tetris to get this good...

It really depends on the store and where you are. Some don't have enough folks to bag, so if you want it done you pretty much have to do it yourself. If there are baggers standing there and not otherwise engaged, it's probably rude to jerk it out of their hands (as it were).

Ever since the plastic bag ban, most places I’ve been to rarely bag groceries. Especially if you don’t buy their 20 cent bags.

In Australia the cashier typically bags your groceries. It was a shock for me when I first moved to the UK and the first cashier I was served by was like "Are you ready?!" And then started hurling a barrage of groceries to at me to bag.

It may depend on the store. My local publix trains it's employees like Chick-fil-A does, and they probably would be offended if you didn't let them help you.

The baggers at my local food lion (if there is a single one in the store) are offended that they have to help you at all (probably because they're expecting you to be the fifth person today to come back in the store demanding a refund for the one cracked egg in their dozen)

I mean, I'm in New Jersey. We don't get plastic bags anymore, and most places don't offer paper bags, so it's kind of mandatory to bring your own bags or buy reusable bags from the store. But you are definitely bagging your own shit.
Edit: I used to cashier and bag when I was in high school anyway, so I'm still fast with it.

Are they unionized?

Depends on the situation. Is it just a cashier ringing up your stuff? No. In that case, I line things up on the belt the way that I want to bag it and start bagging as they ring things up.

Is there a cashier and a bagger? I've helped bag things in this situation but tend to be slower than the person who bags groceries all day. They might be offended, but that is probably mostly annoyance that the process will probably be slower.

I've never heard of a rule. Maybe with booze or smokes? Maybe some states or cities have some weird law like NJ does about gas.

I've bagged my own groceries before when it was just the cashier or other baggers were busy or something. Also there is the self checkout. If anyone were to complain I'd just joke, "don't worry, I was a professional in a previous life". I did actually work retail and bagged stuff while being a cashier like a decade ago.

They might think you're odd or think it's weird if you rebag things like they did it wrong. Maybe be annoyed if you were slow. I don't think too many employees would actually care or get insulted. No one under management gets paid enough to care.

I think its all in how you ask. I always bag my own stuff because the baggers here act like bag costs are coming out of their paychecks or they're competing for "most items in one bag". I spend hundreds of dollars and don't want them to damage my food.

If I'm as kind as possible and they're still offended I can't bother worrying about it. Groceries aren't cheap.