Steve and I took a trip to the grocery store yesterday evening. It was pretty uneventful, until we got home and I tried to lift one of the bags out of the trunk of my car and it nearly ripped my arm off due to its excessive weight. It contained one large jar of pickles, three jars of pasta sauce, and one bottle of olive oil. The contents weighed in at 11 and a half pounds, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but it sure felt like a lot. Not to mention the fact that the glass jars could very well have banged together and shattered, leaving my car a mess.
I do take some care myself when I put my groceries up on the conveyor belt at the checkout. I try to group like items together, so frozen or refrigerated items will stay colder since they are all grouped together. I also try to put the heavy stuff on first, since it should go at the bottom of the bags, and the delicate stuff, like bread, eggs, and chips, last so that it goes on the top of the bags. Seems like they often don’t end up this way in the bags, though. I often end up starting to bag my own groceries when there are no baggers around, and I’ll admit it’s not as easy as it looks, but it’s not that hard either, and I’m pretty sure if I did it every day I could get the hang of it and make smart decisions about how I group items.
So, should I be able to expect my bagger to combine items wisely, or should I just be happy he double-bagged all those heavy jars?