Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

The baggers at the store I go to do an excellent job with the actual bagging: meats separated, cleaners separated, etc.
The problem I have is with the checkers. The scan the items, then fling them down the belt to the bagger. tomatoes (fling!) bread (fling!) bananas (fling!) canned goods (fling!) Ach! you've just ruined everything! cracked tomatoes, crushed bread, bruised bananas, split yogurt. At least the yogurt gets noticed (usually) and I don't have to pay for it.

I totally agree, greenfield. People talk about the slippery slope, but ALL of morality is a slippery slope. Each of us needs to stake out a place on the slope where we can keep our footing - whether that entails a dietary restriction or not. With the inter-relatedness of each element of the earth, every action we take has consequences - intended and unintended. No one can achieve an impact-free life, so its a matter of reaching a point where we can deal with the results of our actions. Education is an important part of the equation - we can't judge whether we're comfortable with the consequences of our actions until we know what those consequences are. And that's why I really like this article. Informative and curious, without getting too judgemental.

Full disclosure: I've been an ovo-lacto vegetarian for almost 20 years. I never eat meat (though I still get the occassional unsatisfied craving for a liverwurst sandwich), and I try to avoid cheese made with animal rennet though I'm not rabid about it.

From the other side of the fence, I work at a store that has self checkout but we often help the customers bag their groceries. Just like you all get annoyed that the checker just throws the items down to the bagger, we get annoyed when customers place things on the belt in an order that guarantees squishing unless we jump up and move things aside. I saw a women scan a watermelon and a cantaloupe directly after a loaf of bread and another scan a gallon of milk right after her eggs and bread. Not to mention the people who stand their bottles of wine (or other things) upright on the belt when there is obviously a problem when the item gets to the end of the belt.
Most of us have no problem bagging to your specifications as long as you let us know before we start bagging. I've seen the people who are incredibly interested in avoiding cross contamination as well as the people who don't care and just want as few bags as possible. If you tell us, (especially let us know you have your own bags before we've bagged half of your order) you'll save yourselves the anger or annoyance you've been expressing here.
And can I give a big thank you to people who scan (or place on the belt) their groceries in a logical bagging order, I love you all.

I had a frustrating experience at my local grocery store today (Wegman's) and remembered this thread on SE. My bagging rules are very simple and common sense: cold items together, heavier stuff on the bottom, lighter stuff on top, don't put all the heavy stuff in one bag. I don't eat meat so that's not an issue, and my favorite cleaning supplies are baking soda and vinegar so I don't care if those are together. I live a 5-10 min walk away from the store and I don't have a car, and I like being "green" so I always bring my own bags. It is much easier to carry 3 sturdy but heavier canvas bags than 12 flimsy plastic bags. Actually, they are the bags that the store sells, so you think the cashier would be used to them, but no.

The set up of the register is challenging if you have the reusable bags. Instead of having a belt that moves your items from the scanning area to the bagging area, there is an open space next to where the cashier stands that has the hooks with plastic baggies on them. That way, the cashier can scan the items and place them directly into the plastic bag. If you have reusable bags, which are a bit bigger, you have to loop the handles around the hooks. Some cashiers will just pick the items up and moved them to the bagging area, which involves *gasp* actually physically turning around! Now, today I was in a bad mood because the woman 2 people in front of me in line didn't have enough cash to pay for her groceries and had to get some items removed, which took a while. I only had $30 worth of groceries, about 1-2 bags worth. The cashier was a very pretty girl in her late teens/early 20s. First she asked me if I wanted her to "pass the items back" to me, and I had no idea what she meant, so I respectfully declined. Then she asked me to "hold the bag open" for her while she dropped the items in. I patiently explained how the other cashiers handled the reusable bags, and she whined, "But they fall off when I do that!" Honey, I am not your boyfriend, and batting your pretty little eyes at me is not going to get me to do your work for you. Funny how they don't fall off when the other cashiers do the same thing!

There is one very pleasant older woman who works there who actually thanks me for using reuseable bags. The rest are bored teenagers who seem pissed because they can't just use the plastic bags that are already there. I had one once who put the canvas bag I was buying INTO A SEPARATE PLASTIC BAG! I understand that earning $8/hr is not the pinnacle of your 16-year old life. But, please, exercise a little common sense and thought and you'll be much more prepared for whatever job the future holds, and you might even get a promotion, raise, or recommendation out of it!

@feistyfoodie - The dreaded folded gift bag situation! I so hear you on that one. I will be sure to incorporate the proper technique for "bagging" gift bags in my training video!

I work in a grocery store in Virginia,I bag my own grocerys. I am almost pschotic about my watermelon. In tne winter months when you can't by a whole watermelon for $4.99 I buy a section that has been cut and wrapped in the store.Usually about 1.00 a lb. not cheap. I take my time to pick out the best looking piece,nothing that looks bruised. I get up to the check out and carefully lay it on the belt.The check out person then procedes to scan it by dragging it face down across the scanner,then the bagger grabs it and has to literely put his thumb through the wrap to pick it up,In as little time as that takes my piece of watermelon is running with juice and hand and THUMB prints indented in it.Ibag my own grocerys!!!

I hate, (and have made a spectacle of myself by rebagging), when the bagger bags cleaning supplies and food for my animals. Yes, I know that it is not people food, but my animals eat this stuff, and would rather not like cleanser on the cat/dog/guineapig/fish/goat food.