Bagged
Unpopular post time, I’m sure. I feel like this is a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation anyway, but it’s been under my skin enough that this post finally welled up and had to come out. So, la, it will be what it will be.
I see people posting relatively often on social media chastisements about making the choice to use self-checkout at stores. It takes away a job, don’t do the corporations any favors, etc. And I get it – I do.
But here’s why I use the self-checkout: Because I only have very finite resources to buy my food.
I also have one really irksome allergy to corn syrup that means that all of those pre-packaged foods that people like so well and that make life so easy aren’t part of my reality. The vast majority of the foods I can actually eat are either things I make fresh from whole ingredients or cost a frikkin’ arm and a leg to purchase, meaning that very finite resource mentioned above has less stretch than it might for other households.
And every time I go to the grocery – I mean EVERY SINGLE TIME – no matter where I go, my food is treated by employees like they are playing bocce ball and they are playing to WIN.
So, yeah, I prefer to pack my own groceries. I know better than to put a five-pound bag of potatoes on top of my bananas. I understand that throwing eggs down the length of a grocery conveyer belt means they are pre-opened when the time comes that I want to actually use them. I comprehend that my eight-pound jug of cat litter really doesn’t belong on top of my now-full cart. And, frankly, I understand how my reusable grocery bags work and don’t have to inspect them like the Neanderthals with the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey. They. Are. Bags. Nothing magic.
And let me just say here that I also understand that this lack of care and training is also part of the corporate overlord problem. Due to seemingly intentional lack of training and leadership I’m being manipulated to WANT to scan and bag my own groceries, which I also find crappy. But at the end of the day? I can’t afford – LITERALLY cannot afford – to NOT use the self-checkout. It’s the only way that my food gets home in the same condition it was in when I put it in my cart.
I suppose I could take on an item by item directive method with the scanner and bagger, leading to becoming that crazy lady who tells people what to do and who everyone hates, taking on a grass-roots training approach. I could stridently hope that the low-paid checker and bagger will suddenly find an inherent value in the pride that comes with a job well done and take it upon themselves to learn their trade and ply it with finesse. I could open my own grocery and do it “right” and become a sensation, write a book, and change the entire market culture.
Right.
So, instead, each grocery trip becomes a question of supporting the workers who are definitely going to trash my food or supporting my family and ensuring we have enough quality food to eat each week. I don’t like that selection of choices. If I’m honest I’ll admit that I think about it probably too much and I try to split the difference – sometimes I use the self-checkout and sometimes I just admit I’m going to have food loss and give the employees the work. I never fully feel good about either choice I’ve made. I try to appreciate the fact that I have a grocery that carries enough food options that I can have whole foods to turn into things I can eat that don’t make me sick. And I try to avoid judgmental engagements on social media. Some days I do better on these things than others. (c) Regan Wann 2018
