posted
I'm 17 as of January, just for a frame of reference.
I have been actively applying for jobs since Mid-May of 2004. I have applied to my local Kroger four times.
On Sunday, I applied for the fifth time.
On Monday, they called me in and offered me a job.
Amazing how fast it goes, hmm?
Anyways, I'm a 'Courtesy Clerk', the PC term for 'bagger'. I get paid minimum wage (I expected that), and whatever tips I make. Some people make no tips, some make $50 in tips a day -- from what I've been told.
So, as a vaguely introverted fellow, I need advice (it seems that is the only thing I ever post for on here...), especially from those in the food-services industry:
How can I make tips, besides being nice and smiling? What is it that makes the difference between $5 in tips and $50?
Posts: 515 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
Wow, baggers can take tips? I didn't know that. I always thought it was one of those industries where you didn't do that.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
put the bread on top, ask them if they want stuff left out, smile, basically take their advice in what they want bagged where.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
My brother worked as a bagger for most of high school- Most tipping will take place in the parking lot, he got the best tips when he chatted with the customers as he walked the bags out with them. He was very conscious about eggs, bread and tender fruit and veggies.
A smile and "yes, ma'am/sir" go a long way.
Good luck! I hope you enjoy your new job!
Posts: 862 | Registered: Oct 2003
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quote: Anyways, I'm a 'Courtesy Clerk', the PC term for 'bagger'. I get paid minimum wage (I expected that), and whatever tips I make. Some people make no tips, some make $50 in tips a day -- from what I've been told.
I'm baffled. I have never tipped a bagger. Moreover, when I used to work for a grocery store, we were expressly told not to accept them.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
Tom, some stores have the baggers carry stuff out to the car. (I have never atually seen this happen, mind you) That would be tipworthy in my book.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
"Bagger at grocery store - Check in advance to see if the store has a no tipping policy. Most have one. If it doesn't, then $1-3 for the bagger and $1-5 for the person who loads your car."
posted
The grocery store here in town loads the bags directly into the car on request, and they've still got a no-tip policy.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Boon
unregistered
posted
At the grocery store I frequent, the baggers ALWAYS take your groceries to your car, unless you physically carry all your groceries yourself. There are signs up to discourage tipping, and if they accept them anyway, they'd be fired.
posted
Where are these bag-carrying baggers? I have never actually seen one. I use something called a grocery cart.
There are a whole heck of a lot more customers than baggers, so who is bagging while the baggers are carrying?
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
I did the bagger thing at Kroger’s in college for a semester. At our most people wouldn’t even let you help them out to their cars. It was nice when they did let you so you could get out of the store for a bit. But anyway, not that many did offer tips even in the parking lot. Might of just been the whole college town thing. So you’re town could be totally different. $50 in tips sounds extreme for bagging. Some people like to talk it up just to sound cool. I wouldn’t accuse them of this since these type of people who talk it up tend to be totally offended when their stories aren’t believed, since they’re usually not true. Anyway, good luck. Enjoy paying those union dues. I remember how much that stank. Paid the same amount as a full time person and they didn’t do anything to get ya more hours or anything. Oh well. Be watching for openings in other departments too. Bagging stinks and other areas of the store are a lot more enjoyable.
posted
Tipping baggers? That's utterly weird. And, incidentally, baggers are just one more example of Americans using makework jobs to conceal the real rate of unemployment. In Europe you bag your own groceries and like it. (In fact, I do like it, because these cursed bagger have apparently never heard of balancing things so the bags weigh about the same. And they're so slooooow.)
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
Yeah, all the stores I frequent have no tip policies and signs that say they don't accept tips from customers.
At any rate, I always take my own groceries out, because you have to load my van a certain way to keep the groceries from sliding under the seat when I decelerate, so I figure it's easier to do it myself.
Main thing to remember is pack light. Most women I know would prefer the bags to be lighter, even if you have to use more bags. Especially if using plastic - I can't stand it when a bagger puts a gallon of milk in with something else heavy and the bag rips when I try to pick it up out of the car.
Oh, and anything (like milk) that tends to have moisture condensed on the outside needs to be in its own bag so the rest of your groceries don't get wet. The raw meat thing has already been mentioned. I also prefer if non-food items like shampoo or deodorant aren't put in with food items.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
I've never tipped a bagger, nor have I ever seen a bagger take groceries out to the car for a costumer. The most they will do is put the bags in our carts for us, so we can wheel them out.
Of course, this is Stop & Shop. What's Kroger's?
Posts: 3852 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
Hmmmm. I always shop at Dillon's, which is a division of Kroger's (It was a large regional grocery chain until Kroger's bought them out, so now they are just a sub of Kroger's).
However, they have always told me no tips are allowed. So how come Kroger's, but not Dillon's - when Kroger's owns them?
posted
HRE, it occures to me that I never even congratulated you on your new job. Congrats! Whether you get tipped or not, you will love the feeling of having your own money in your pocket.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
I biked uphill both ways in the driving snow to my first job as a chambermaid. You, MSquared?
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
You walked? Oh, what I wouldn't have given to have been allowed to walk. We had to crawl on our hands and knees along a path of broken glass. And we liked it!
Seriously, though, all of you who are saying that you've never seen baggers take groceries out to a person's car--you didn't even see this when you were younger? In Kansas during the 70s it was pretty much the norm for baggers to help people out with their groceries, I think. Could me that my mom always took advantage of the offer to do so, and that I just have a skewed impression of how often it actually happened in the population as a whole though.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
I wonder if Union rules have anything to do with it.
I expect that you will have plenty of hours until your initial union fees are paid. Then you will find them cut back so that the real union members can get their full hours.
posted
Elizabeth, the only times I've seen it in jolly old New England is when someone has asked, or someone frail/infirm is the shopper. We New Englanders are to Puritanical to have someone else carry our bags for us!
posted
Bok, do you have Roche Brothers near you? I think they do it. I wonder if you are right about the Puritan thing. I think of it more of a Yankee thing. You can give help, but never ask for it. I see that a lot. (obviously generalizing here, folks!)
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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