Bagger
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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 or grocer's shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a retail store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday US usage, however, "grocery store" is a synon ...
.


Job profile

The primary duties of a bagger revolve around putting
groceries A grocery store (American English, AE), grocery shop or grocer's shop (British English, BE) or simply grocery is a retail store that primarily retails a general range of food Product (business), products, which may be Fresh food, fresh or Food p ...
into a
shopping bag Shopping bags are medium-sized bags, typically around 10–20 litres (2.5–5 gallons) in volume (though much larger versions exist, especially for non-grocery shopping), that are used by shoppers to carry home their purchases. Some are intende ...
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 #Name, other names, is a wheeled cart supplied by a Retail#Types of ret ...
. Upon requests, baggers may take the groceries out to a
customer In sales, commerce, and economics, a customer (sometimes known as a Client (business), client, buyer, or purchaser) is the recipient of a Good (economics), good, service (economics), service, product (business), product, or an Intellectual prop ...
's
motor vehicle A motor vehicle, also known as a motorized vehicle, automotive vehicle, automobile, or road vehicle, is a self-propelled land vehicle, commonly wheeled, that does not operate on railway track, rails (such as trains or trams), does not fly (such ...
or supply other forms of service. Some baggers in stores will do this unless the customer refuses and wishes to bring their 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 performing cash pickups on registers, counting tills, balancing the cash office, researching cash discrepancies, detecting wire transfer fraud, filing wire transfer reports, managing, reviewing and maintaining wire transfer records, performing cash drops, researching customer transactions, ordering supplies, balancing lottery, performing time clock overrides, contacting and following up with customers regarding complaints and/or concerns, logging in-store safety and/or policy violations, performing routine maintenance on cash registers, lottery machines and computers, loading and picking up cash in self-checkouts, performing self-checkout scan overrides, taking customer complements/complaints, organizing and distributing prizes for customer complements, conducting various customer transactions including but not limited to refunds, lottery, purchases, wire transfers, dry-cleaning, bus ticket sales, payroll check cashing, taking and redirecting all in-store phone calls, employee training, conducting cash office, accounting and lottery audits, 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 (German pronunciation: ), stylised as ALDI, is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 12,000 stores in 18 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and ...
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.


See also

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Checkout divider A checkout divider is a small sign or bar meant for placement between items on a conveyor belt at a checkout in a supermarket or other retail store. Its purpose is to separate one customer’s items from another’s. Checkout dividers are usual ...
*
Right to sit The right to sit, also known as suitable seating, refers to laws or policies granting workers the right to be given seating at the workplace. Jurisdictions that have enshrined "right to sit" laws or policies include Austria, Japan, Germany, Mexico ...


References

{{Wiktionary, bagboy Bags Personal care and service occupations