Why you should never go to the grocery store hungry

That is a package of sliced cheese that my toddler helped unpack. (in defense of packaged cheese- it is 100% cheese- NOT processed cheese slices. The line at the deli was a week long and this cheese was on sale and thus 1/2 price of wait-for-a-week deli counter. )

He had also had 2 granola bars and a sippy cup of milk while we were in the store. I doubt he was THAT hungry.

*I* on the other hand, WAS hungry, so our total bill was $40 over what I intended to purchase and somehow a bag of Dorritos magically appeared in my cart. And then half of it magically diappeared in the 10 minutes between unloading the cart and unloading the truck at the house. (well, we ALL had some and when you have 5 of us munching on it, it disappears pretty quickly)

And ya know what is really frustrating?

Grocery baggers and cloth grocery bags.

I'm one of those who took the plunge and has a bunch of reusable cloth bags. I prefer the actual CLOTH ones- canvas opposed to the cheap and cheaply made in china versions commonly found in the grocery stores themselves. My ONE of those cheap bags has holes where the seams were and is falling apart after 2 months of use.

If I could, I would fire the baggers. They aways put my milk in the canvas bags and then the groceries in plastic bags. It makes me nutty. I have them for GROCERIES my milk don't need a bag- it's in a nice container with a handle already..but every time..

Today-- oh, today they put 4 gallons of milk in one canvas bag and in another they put 1 gallon of milk and every canned item they could find. I could barely lift them. However- the shaving cream- got it's own bag. The insulated bag got... the eggs and bread (huh??) and the others cloth bags were filled with about as much as you'd put into one of those flimsy plastic bags and then left empty. and my actual frozen stuff went into those flimsy plastic bags.

I know you don't need an advanced degree in engineering to bag groceries, but can you at least use a little common sense?

And the commisary is one of those places I just don't understand the system- they have unpaid baggers- they work for tips- and they'll carry/push your groceries out for you and load them in your car.. Which is very nice when I'm feeling weak and tired or trying to deal with extra cranky kids... BUT you don't have the option of bagging your own stuff. I whistfully remember the days in CT where you'd have to be disabled or sit there for a week and a day for someone to bag your groceries and then they'd make sure the eggs and milk were at the absolute bottom of the bag and cart- (it may have had something to do with my grocery shopping after 9 pm, but...) HERE- you have 2 of them bagging your stuff before you blink. And I have to make sure I have at least enough cash on me to tip them.

I thought I could outsmart them. I load my milk dead last onto the conveyor and the bags go on first. And in between is more than enough groceries to fill those bags - especially now that I'm trying to go less often than 1x a week. And yet they save the cloth "heavy weight bags" for the heavy stuff. I guess in 3rd grade logic it makes sense.. however in my "I-have-to-carry-this-stuff-in-the-house-and-would-like-to-make-as-few-trips-as-possible-logic" it makes no sense at all.

That gives me an idea.. I wonder how much tip I'd have to give them for them to come and carry the stuff into the house for me... hmmmm.... I'll let you know how that works out.