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josephrjusticeThis is my answer to the OKC question "You're at the grocery store and you've got a lot of items. There is only one cashier and a couple of people in line behind you. Do you bag your own stuff?" The possible answers are: (1) Always; (2) Sometimes. When I'm in a hurry; (3) Rarely; (4) Never. That's their job!
Ummm. Most of the grocery stores I go to either (a) would have (or call up) someone to be a dedicated bagger in that sort of situation, and/or (b) would be set up such that it wasn't really *feasible* for me to do my own bagging -- instead, there'd be a path from a conveyor belt over top of a bar code scanner into a plastic bag held open inside of a well in front of the cashier. And, of course, even if it *was* feasible for me to bag, I wouldn't necessarily think of it; if I bagged or didn't bag, it wouldn't be so much because I was or wasn't in a hurry as it would be that I realized "Gee, it'd be a good idea if..." You know? More just if I was being clueful or not. But, if I did think of it and it was feasible and useful for me to do so, then sure, I'd bag my own stuff. Why not?
However. What I think is more interesting, but isn't addressed by *this* question (maybe there's another one where it is), is whether in this situation whether I'd let the people in line ahead of me assuming the cashier hadn't already started doing my transaction. Well... At least in the situation where the people behind me had only a few items or otherwise had much less stuff to purchase than I did, yes I would usually if not always let them go ahead of me in line. I figure in this case I wouldn't wait all that much longer before I could leave (assuming my time in line was dominated by the time it took to ring up all my own items rather than the time it took to ring up the other person's / people's) but they could be done quickly (because they wouldn't have to wait for me before they could do their transaction), while if I *didn't* let them go ahead of me I wouldn't save all that much time for myself (since I'd still have to take the time it took to ring up all my stuff) but *they* would have to wait a lot longer before they could leave (because their transaction would still be quick, but they'd have to wait for my purchase to be completed first before they could even begin). So, me letting them ahead of me in line costs me not that much, while it minimizes the overall time everyone together has to wait. And, I think that's more efficient and in some ways fairer for everyone involved. (There might be special situations where I wouldn't do this, but I think those would be the exception and not the rule.)
Note: I'd like to hope that others would do the same for me, if they were ahead of me in line and had a lot of stuff while I only had a few items. However, I wouldn't *assume* that to be the case, or expect them to do it or be particularly upset if they didn't. If they let me ahead of them, cool, but if they didn't I'd just have to wait. Oh well, so be it.
Anyway. Based on this, I'm going to say Always because I think that's the closest answer to my position concerning this question. But, I'm going to say that any of the answers by others to this question would be acceptable to me.
Ummm. Most of the grocery stores I go to either (a) would have (or call up) someone to be a dedicated bagger in that sort of situation, and/or (b) would be set up such that it wasn't really *feasible* for me to do my own bagging -- instead, there'd be a path from a conveyor belt over top of a bar code scanner into a plastic bag held open inside of a well in front of the cashier. And, of course, even if it *was* feasible for me to bag, I wouldn't necessarily think of it; if I bagged or didn't bag, it wouldn't be so much because I was or wasn't in a hurry as it would be that I realized "Gee, it'd be a good idea if..." You know? More just if I was being clueful or not. But, if I did think of it and it was feasible and useful for me to do so, then sure, I'd bag my own stuff. Why not?
However. What I think is more interesting, but isn't addressed by *this* question (maybe there's another one where it is), is whether in this situation whether I'd let the people in line ahead of me assuming the cashier hadn't already started doing my transaction. Well... At least in the situation where the people behind me had only a few items or otherwise had much less stuff to purchase than I did, yes I would usually if not always let them go ahead of me in line. I figure in this case I wouldn't wait all that much longer before I could leave (assuming my time in line was dominated by the time it took to ring up all my own items rather than the time it took to ring up the other person's / people's) but they could be done quickly (because they wouldn't have to wait for me before they could do their transaction), while if I *didn't* let them go ahead of me I wouldn't save all that much time for myself (since I'd still have to take the time it took to ring up all my stuff) but *they* would have to wait a lot longer before they could leave (because their transaction would still be quick, but they'd have to wait for my purchase to be completed first before they could even begin). So, me letting them ahead of me in line costs me not that much, while it minimizes the overall time everyone together has to wait. And, I think that's more efficient and in some ways fairer for everyone involved. (There might be special situations where I wouldn't do this, but I think those would be the exception and not the rule.)
Note: I'd like to hope that others would do the same for me, if they were ahead of me in line and had a lot of stuff while I only had a few items. However, I wouldn't *assume* that to be the case, or expect them to do it or be particularly upset if they didn't. If they let me ahead of them, cool, but if they didn't I'd just have to wait. Oh well, so be it.
Anyway. Based on this, I'm going to say Always because I think that's the closest answer to my position concerning this question. But, I'm going to say that any of the answers by others to this question would be acceptable to me.
