When You’ve Got Bagging In The Bag

My first official job was at a grocery store, bagging groceries. I worked the job for about a year and a half, and after that amount of time, you get really good at bagging groceries and you never forget how, kind of like riding a bike.

Fast forward twenty-five years. I’m at the local grocery store I usually visit. This grocery store chain is one where you bag your own groceries. I’m very particular with how I place my items on the belt for the cashier to ring things up; this way, the items come down the next belt so I can easily bag my groceries.

I finish unloading my groceries on the first belt, and the cashier has been ringing things up at the same time, so there’s a small pile of groceries (cans, boxed goods, and such) building up at the end of the other belt.

I make my way to the end so I can start bagging groceries. Across from me is the previous customer. She’s still slowly working on bagging up her groceries and standing next to her is her daughter who looks to be about five or six years old.

I line up a couple of empty paper bags and open up the plastic bag next to me for frozen items that will be coming down the belt soon. I start grabbing cans and boxes and whipping them into the bag with my right hand and catching them with my left and stacking.

After about ten seconds, I’ve got my first bag filled and moved into my cart, so I start on the second bag.

Small Girl: “Wow! Mom, look at him go! You should race him.”

Her mom laughs.

Mom: “I don’t think I’d do very well against him; he’s pretty fast at it.”

I look up from what I am doing and give the girl a smile.

Me: “I don’t think it would be fair. I worked bagging groceries for my first job, and I got really good at it.”

Small Girl: “I guess. But you’re so much faster than Mom. She’s slow with bagging. Can you bag our stuff when you’re done with yours?”

Mom: *Speaking to her daughter* “Slow and steady works for me, and we’re almost done. He’s got his own groceries to bag and doesn’t need us getting in his way to slow him down.”

Small Girl: “But, he’s almost done bagging and he has more groceries than us!”

I finish up bagging my groceries, pay, and wave to the small girl as I’m leaving. The mom and her kid are putting the last few items in their cart as I walk by. As I’m walking away, I hear the small girl talking to her mom.

Small Girl: “He beat you and you even started first! You need to get a job bagging groceries!”