Whenever I go to Trader Joe's the checkout lines are long and they move slowly. The long lines are indicative of a store that draws a lot of shoppers, but the slow moving checkout lines indicate that something is amiss. The bottleneck occurs when a customer reaches the cashier and simply stands there while the cashier scans the groceries and then piles them up on the counter to be bagged by either a bagperson or the cashier themselves. The customer simply stands there and does nothing.
Being the geeky Geometry teacher that I am, I find it fun and a creative outlet to try and pack my groceries into as few bags as possible, while still maintaining the shape of the bread and protecting the integrity of the eggs and fruit. The logical part of me finds it a moral obligation to utilize myself at this time to perform the act of bagging the groceries to minimize the amount of time I spend in the cashier transaction. My line moves just a bit faster.
The cashiers are always grateful by my act of bagging my own groceries. I always reply that were Trader Joe's (or any grocery chain) an economic incentive (i.e. 2% off your bill) for customers to bag their own groceries, it would obviously have the lines move faster, but there would be many more unintended benefits. For example, the company would save money by needing fewer cashiers and bagpeople.
Yup, if I ruled the world.....
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