Bagger, packer, sacker or bag boy (US) is an unofficial title given to a courtesy clerk at a

grocery store A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, a ...

Job profile

The primary duties of a bagger revolve around putting

groceries A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, a ...

into a shopping bag and then into a

shopping cart A shopping cart (American English), trolley (British English, Australian English), or buggy (Southern American English, Appalachian English), also known by a variety of other names, is a wheeled cart supplied by a shop or store, especi ...

. Upon requests, baggers may take the groceries out to a

customer In sales, commerce, and economics, a customer (sometimes known as a client, buyer, or purchaser) is the recipient of a good, service, product or an idea - obtained from a seller, vendor, or supplier via a financial transaction or exchan ...

motor vehicle A motor vehicle, also known as motorized vehicle or automotive vehicle, is a self-propelled land vehicle, commonly wheeled, that does not operate on rails (such as trains or trams) and is used for the transportation of people or cargo. The ...

or supply other forms of service. Some baggers in stores will do this unless the customer refuses and wishes to bring his own groceries out. Depending on store policy, it may be customary to tip a courtesy clerk for this service. Depending on the store, other duties may include cleaning the store, cleaning the

bathrooms A bathroom or washroom is a room, typically in a home or other residential building, that contains either a bathtub or a shower (or both). The inclusion of a wash basin is common. In some parts of the world e.g. India, a toilet is typically i ...

, collecting carts, sweeping the store, fixing and maintaining the bottle recycling machines, giving customer assistance, putting back items left behind, and reorganizing products on aisles to make a neater appearance (commonly called "breaking down", "blocking", "facing", or "conditioning"). Some courtesy clerks can perform maintenance in the stores, such as minor plumbing, electrical, landscaping, child care, elderly assistance, and many more jobs. The duties vary vastly depending on the store and union regulations, and some of the previous duties, in fact, are actually prohibited from being done at some stores by a courtesy clerk due to union contracts.

Etymology

The title of ''bagger'' is the result of an extensive evolution of the position of ''courtesy clerk''. The title ''bag boy'' was adopted for some time, until it was finally shortened to ''bagger''.

Availability

The position of baggers is particularly widespread in grocery stores in the United States. There are volunteer baggers in Mexico who primarily offer services for tips. Other countries never adopted this service. There are no baggers in Norway. In Germany, self-service is standard and shopping carts are also used to load one’s vehicle oneself, ''without'' necessarily transferring goods to a bag first, with the American branch of

Aldi Aldi (stylised as ALDI) is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 10,000 stores in 20 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946, when ...

also utilizing this type of non-bagging service to reduce overall store costs (though bags are sold in stores to account for customers loading their own bags in the dedicated bagging section in front of the store after checkout). Convenience stores usually do not employ baggers. The customer frequency is too low. Instead, cashiers may perform the duties of a bagger (provided the purchase volume is significant enough). In territories prohibiting alcohol consumption in public, liquor stores bag individual bottles at the checkout.

References

{{Wiktionary, bagboy Bags Personal care and service occupations