WHY DON’T AMERICANS BAG GROCERIES? (COMMENT). Dick Weisfelder commented here that in Sweden customers bag their own groceries, and Lee Bryant commented that stores in California are experimenting with requiring customers to bag their own groceries. An economist might wonder why there aren’t more stores in America that do the same thing. Custom could be an explanation, but stores have forced changes in customs over and over again; getting your own groceries off the shelf was a bigger change. I suggest that an explanation is the American desire for quick service. Bagging by employees moves lines faster. I have been told by gasoline marketers that customers like self service because of the speed as much as because of the lower price.
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I shop at Costco now and then. When I do, I buy a lot. It used to be the customer had to find her own boxes, from a big bin of miscellaneous ones, and box her own groceries or other purchases as they were being rung up. I guess that really slowed things down. Then, suddenly, there was SERVICE. As you were being processed, some helpful employee would grab some boxes and skillfully pack your stuff away, into a cart that you could use to get your things out to the parking lot and near your car. Now we seem to be back to the Bad Old Days of “sauve qui peut.” I guess I should just arrive with a bunch of grocery bags or tote bags and stand there and distribute my purchases for myself. After all some of those boxes get very heavy. The service was nice while it lasted.