What if pay day falls on a Monday?

[Spekkio]

Sometimes meats leak and if it gets on veggies, there is the possibility of getting salmonella or some other kind of infection. People who have to drive far like their cold stuff grouped together so it keeps the temperature better, and it's quicker (e.g. less energy waste) to load up the fridge from just a couple of 'cold bags.'

Still, I personally don't find it a big deal and have never gotten food poisoning from the chicken being bagged next to the lettuce. It probably helps that all the produce is in plastic bags anyway so it doesn't touch the meat -- you don't just lay that stuff bare on the conveyer, do you? And if I were making min wage at a grocery store still, I care more about the grumpy customers getting out of the store in a timely manner than your picky bagging sorting preferences.

 

[PenguinGal]

Does it really matter?

Yes. It is a health hazard to have raw meat with fresh produce.

 

[ltedge46]

My biggeset frustration with baggers at the commissary in particular and other stores in general comes with the items they will bag together. Whenever I unload my cart I categorize it, frozen foods grouped together, refrigerated together, raw meats together, etc etc etc. Inevitably I get home and start unloading to find my lettuce bagged with my raw chicken and my canned goods with my ice cream. I don't get it. I really don't get it.

I always make sure to put any meat and produce in individual plastic bags for just this reason. Had a bagger throw a bottle of Lysol spray on top of a bag of produce, top was cracked and got home to find a bagful of lysol soaked fruits and veggies. Now I watch them closer and rearrange things like that before driving away.

 

[insanebikerboy]

Yes. It is a health hazard to have raw meat with fresh produce.

You don't put your produce in one of the produce bags and the follow on is you don't wash your produce before eating?

 

[PenguinGal]

You don't put your produce in one of the produce bags and the follow on is you don't wash your produce before eating?

1. I put all meat purchases into the plastic bags available at the meat department.
2. I put all produce in bags
3. I wash all of my produce prior to consumption.
That being said, I know that none of those methods are entirely foolproof. I like the additional safety of knowing that the items that could become cross contaminated are as separate as possible. Heck, when I'm shopping I even put all produce in the top part of the cart and the meat in the far back corner below the produce, surrounded by the canned/non-edible purchases just to keep the separation.

I didn't realise that my frustration with baggers was going to be this crazy or call into question my food handling methods. I just like my groceries packed in a certain way which is why I tend to gravitate to the self check outs. That way I can be assured that my cold items are packed together and my meats don't get near my produce. I can fully understand that baggers are taught to balance loads but given some of the 'balanced' bags I have gotten (seriously, a single pack of 8 tortillas in a bag by itself while another bag has only a package of bagels? Why can't they just be together?!) it seems more likely that most baggers don't pay that much attention to what they are doing with the same level of care that some of us would like shown.

 

[insanebikerboy]

1. I put all meat purchases into the plastic bags available at the meat department.
2. I put all produce in bags
3. I wash all of my produce prior to consumption.
That being said, I know that none of those methods are entirely foolproof. I like the additional safety of knowing that the items that could become cross contaminated are as separate as possible. Heck, when I'm shopping I even put all produce in the top part of the cart and the meat in the far back corner below the produce, surrounded by the canned/non-edible purchases just to keep the separation.

I didn't realise that my frustration with baggers was going to be this crazy or call into question my food handling methods. I just like my groceries packed in a certain way which is why I tend to gravitate to the self check outs. That way I can be assured that my cold items are packed together and my meats don't get near my produce. I can fully understand that baggers are taught to balance loads but given some of the 'balanced' bags I have gotten (seriously, a single pack of 8 tortillas in a bag by itself while another bag has only a package of bagels? Why can't they just be together?!) it seems more likely that most baggers don't pay that much attention to what they are doing with the same level of care that some of us would like shown.

Everyone has their own quirks, I get that. I wasn't busting your balls over that.

My point, I grew up on a farm that raised animals as well as produce. If you are that concerned about the packaging and cross contaminating the food at a market you should probably start growing your own food considering what the food goes through and is exposed to before it gets to the produce shelf.

 

[xj220]

Seriously.

Flt doc challenged me to eat his all natural, no preservative, organic, non-GMO, blah, blah, blah, diet for 2 weeks. That meant shopping at Whole Food$, and a 300% increase in grocery bills.

At the end of the experiment, I concluded that I'd rather eat the preserved Soylent Green from the Commissary and use the cost savings for Hookers and Blow. I may only live to be 50, but I'll get a hell of a lot more living in those years I do have.

Actually, with all those preservatives you'll probably live a lot longer and look better, too!

 

[Spekkio]

PG, no one's really getting on your case; you expressed exasperation that you couldn't understand why a grocery bagger would put meat and veggies, both of which are individually wrapped in their own plastic baggies provided by the store, into the same carry-home bag.

The motivation of a guy making min-wage bagging your groceries is to get bitched at by as few grumpy customers as possible and get everyone through quickly to minimize the bitching. The order of people likely to bitch are:
-Old people
-Middle-aged moms
-Everyone else

Just realize that what you think is a reasonable and intuitive personal request is different for every customer that comes through the register, and the default store policy displayed by a picture next to the clock-in station tended to piss off groups 1 and 2 on a frequent basis. There is no way (unless you tell them) for them to know if you're the type of person who wants to minimize the amount of bags, the type of person who likes everything super light and triple bagged, the type of person who wants all the soup separate from all the pasta so that they don't get confused as to which cabinet to put the food away into, the type of person who is paranoid about bacteria, or the type of person who doesn't give a shit because it's going to be driven home and put away in 10 minutes.

 

[BackOrdered]

*cough*Put SHs back in the NEX/Commissaries*cough*cough*

 

[PenguinGal]

Oh, I know that no one is getting on my case. I'm cranky today for reasons outside of commissary/grocery baggers. I am fully aware that said baggers don't know my preferences, hence my usual use of self check outs.

I would love to grow my own food, growing up on a farm taught me a lot about what real fresh produce is like. Sadly, even though I have a very small yard now, I spend so much time traveling for work that all plants would die from neglect.

I am sorry if I seemed defensive. I'm just really frustrated today.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Spekkio]

Since we're griping about things at the grocery store, the idiots who take 10 hours trying to pay with maxed out credit cards take the cake. They act all confused as their cards get denied before they whip out a wad of cash that they could've used to begin with.

 

[smittyrunr]

What I want to know is this: Why on earth would you do a full weekly grocery run to the commissary on a weekend with the entire family? (Mom, Dad, 2-5 small kids) Single parent, or just one at home with the kids during the weekday, yeah I can see you might have to bring the clan. But if you have both parents, why torture the kids (and the rest of the aisle)- by bringing them along??? Have one take them to the park next door, the toy aisle at the NEX, ANYTHING!!

I also love those that want to argue about coupon expiration dates.

I use the commissary- I've found I really save a lot on some of the basics i.e. milk, bread, eggs, toilet paper. But unless I'm going to use it that day, I never buy produce there, regardless so far of what base I'm on. Nice to have great produce stands here in WA!

 

[BusyBee604]

Does it really matter?

Probably not to Hillary, to her... nothing matters!
BzB

 

[Flash]

......Honestly, I always assumed that the commissary had a profit, and like the NEX extra $$ went into base MWR programs. Truthfully, I can't think of the last time I have actually been in a commissary, I prefer other supermarkets out in town.

Commissaries sell their stuff with a 5% surcharge so they can pay for the overhead like facilities, shipping, storing etc. The commissaries still cost DoD over $1billion or so because of employee and some facility costs.