Grocery Baggers and Carry-outs

One day grocery stores around the country were bustling with baggers and carry-outs eager to help with the most labor intensive aspects of grocery shopping, and the next, they were GONE. They've either disappeared entirely or become like unicorns or bigfoot, impossible to track down. I'm embarrassed to say it took me a while to notice their absence. I certainly didn't appreciate them like I should have.

Of course, the pandemic that brought us conveniences like grocery delivery/pickup and inconveniences like worker/supply shortages played a role in the disappearance of baggers and carry-outs. It was of course safer and cheaper to have as few people interacting with each other as possible. However, I think this has created a massive problem.

In the United States in 2023, we let our fear of a potentially negative social interaction rob us of all social interactions, diminishing our opportunities for positive ones. We're suddenly having more and more negative interactions with the people we encounter in our days. Quick to honk at the last minute lane change that causes us to brake, to avert our eyes when walking down the same aisle as someone else. However, the more we socialize, the more opportunities we have to see the goodness in others and to build our own social skills. We no longer have the practice we should.

You can run errands all day long and be able to count on one hand the number of people you looked at, talked to, or helped out. Conversely, you need more digits than you have to count how many people you see wearing earbuds. This is so incredibly disheartening.

Of course it's cheaper for the store without these jobs. Looking at the grocery store, there's even more ways our human connection is at risk: the self checkout. One way we've been conditioned to use it is the way it's laid out. When using the self check out, everyone waits in one line for the next available checkout. There's no agonizing over which check out line will be fastest, and we're led to believe that line is "faster." While standing in line, one would think we could visit with those waiting with us. Occasionally that happens, but, even with an adorable, squawking baby in tow, it's rare. And yet, we continue to choose that line.

Without grocery baggers or carry-outs, bringing kids along to the store can be hard. How do you bag up all your items while keeping kids content and safe? How do you return the cart to the cart corral? It's clumsy, intimidating, and lonely.

We were not made for this isolation. We live in the most connected time in history, where we could call loved ones anywhere in the world at the drop of a hat, and we still are struggling with what's really important. It isn't about convenience or money. We need to quit being afraid to actually connect. After completely neglecting the baggers and carry-outs and their quiet extinction, I hope to find and appreciate all the things still accessible that bring us together.

-J