I’m just wondering what the title asks: do you organize your groceries in the order you will check them out, if doing self-checkout, or arrange them on the belt/counter in a standard checkout line, in the hope that they’ll be bagged in a specific way?
I didn’t know there was any other way people do it, but just learned some people prefer to checkout/bag without pre-arranging things. I’m kind of curious to see what’s more common, or if there’s some other options I haven’t considered?
Heavy first, light last. This way the light stuff won’t get squished. And we bag stuff ourselves here, we aren’t that lazy.
Heavy items such as milk goes in first, so that they will also be at the bottom of my backpack. Light and fragile things, such as salad goes last.
My recommendation is to wait until you get home to make the salad. That way you’re not eating a big salad out of a backpack in the park like a crazy person.
Definitely drink milk from the bottom of your bag though, that’s fine and normal.
One trick I’ve learned over the years is that it doesn’t matter what order you pour your milk into your backpack in. It will always end up at the bottom.
Strange. I always access the milk from the top.
Check your backpack’s orientation
Just as nature intended
Reverse alphabetical, duh.
Can’t have my aardvarks at the bottom of the bag.
I put the heaviest and least breakable things first in line so they end up at the bottom of the bag(s). Canned food, stuff in plastic bottles, then all the cold/ frozen stuff altogether, light and delicate things like bread, chips etc last
Heavy stuff first, cold things together, fragile stuff last.
Yeah I’m trying to remember how we used to do it (the last time I went through a normal checkout with a full shop was probably 10 years ago) and this seems right.
Gotta have the heavy stuff handy so you can put it straight into the bottom of the bags. Anything else is wasting time!
Do you have conveyor belts going straight to your fridge now?
Not OP but home delivery got very common since covid lockdowns in my country.
It’s been common for a lot longer than that in the UK, we’re very lazy :D
This is the way
This is the way
Basically this, but with cleaning products/ chemicals last.
And for me, it’s the snack I just bought to eat now that’s last.
Last? I want those first, they are usually in very sturdy containers so putting some stuff on top is fine. They are also usually heavy and heavy stuff goes first. Also if they leak, I want them to leak out of the bottom of the bag and not over all the groceries and then out of the bottom of the bag
I see. I always put them on a separate bag so they’re always dead last. If they’re on the same bag, then it makes sense to be at the bottom.
Seperate bag seems smart. I usually don’t have a whole lot of groceries and a big grocery bag, so if I can I try to get it all in one bag.
I used to work at a checkout operator, long ago.
I ALWAYS order the belt, cans and heavy stuff goes first, then usually cold/frozen stuff, veg and fruit, baking products (flour, sugar etc), then finally the light/soft stuff.
Never worked as a checkout person but that’s how I do it too. Seems just common sense to me. But of course there are some baggers who don’t have a clue and will put the soft stuff in one bag but then place it in the cart with something heavy on top of it.
Oh absolutely. They are arranged in the trolly before even getting to checkout too but you are querying a crowd on Lemmy that is going to be biased towards programmer / engineer types that tend to function well in their world due to compulsive features often considered pathologic by others.
Initially I felt bad about being considered pathologic, but it’s right there in the word: path o’ logic. I know it’s not the etymology but I’m going to embrace it. To hell with those pathodumdums.
You reminded me of when a partner and I entered a grocery store to buy sun screen lotion. I narrated my thoughts figuring out where it would be and found it immediately. She commented on how she’d never have found it that quickly. All I did was make logical deductions based on my knowledge of grocery stores.
Truly, people think differently. What is natural to me might be alien to another.
The only logic I can think of is to look for it in the same place where all the other lotions are located. I guess that section should be close to the toothbrush section. I wonder if deduction would actually work in my local supermarket.
you are querying a crowd on Lemmy that is going to be biased towards programmer / engineer types that tend to function well in their world due to compulsive features often considered pathologic by others.
I feel personally attacked. :D
Edit: also to answer the question. Yes I absolutely arrange things on the checkout belt.
I group these items: Liquids. Fridge. Cans and bottles. Fruit and veg, heavier ones first so the potatoes don’t crush the berries. Frozen gear near fridge gear. Chemicals / cleaning gear separate.
I should add that I’m buying for a lot of people so the shopping trips tend to be large and there would be a full bag of most of those groupings.
Soft and fragile things on top, heavy things on the bottom, square things in the middle, circular things on the outside, cold things in one bag, non-cold-things in another bag, and anything that can’t be organized in this way in a third bag.
Since I usually self check at Walmart and other places that have it, I place the big items in the cart with the bar code accessible for hand scanning without removal, frozen/refridgerated items generally together, everything else in cart doesn’t really matter to me. The upper cart space (where toddlers/baby could go) is where I place my eggs, bread, and fresh veggies. Then I scan in this order: Frozen items, regular cart items, eggs/bread, weighed veggies, (bagging and putting back in the cart as i scan them) lastly use the hand scanner for the big items. Sometimes I scan the big items first if i know i need to place bags on top. Once I see that everything has been bagged and back in the cart, then I’m confident that I didn’t miss anything, pay, and then GTFO. I’m an efficient self checkout machine, haha
My only hard rule is refrigerated/frozen items together so I can handle that bag first when I put groceries up.
The stuff at the top of the basket goes first so I can reach the stuff at the bottom?
Have you considered using one of those carts you can open from the bottom?
I just scan and bag as I go in the supermarket and pay at the end. Much easier than staying in line and bagging everything at the end.
A Tesco where I lived introduced this system couple of years ago, but since they left the country entirely no other supermarket chain picked it up; not sure why, to be honest, doesn’t seem much more prone to theft than regular self-checkouts.
Items in perfect order of robustness on the conveyor, but more than one bag…
I’m a car-free city dweller, so I always put heavy stuff first so I can pack it in my backpack, lighter stuff next to fill my reusable bags, with fragile stuff last so it’s packed on top.
Makes it easy to walk or bus home with everything.
Fuckin… No!
I also tell the cashier that they can stuff it any which way so they don’t stress.
