I’m just wondering what the title asks: do you organize your groceries in the order you will check them out, if doing self-checkout, or arrange them on the belt/counter in a standard checkout line, in the hope that they’ll be bagged in a specific way?
I didn’t know there was any other way people do it, but just learned some people prefer to checkout/bag without pre-arranging things. I’m kind of curious to see what’s more common, or if there’s some other options I haven’t considered?
Heavy stuff first, cold things together, fragile stuff last.
This is the way
This is the way
Yeah I’m trying to remember how we used to do it (the last time I went through a normal checkout with a full shop was probably 10 years ago) and this seems right.
Gotta have the heavy stuff handy so you can put it straight into the bottom of the bags. Anything else is wasting time!
Do you have conveyor belts going straight to your fridge now?
Yep. Heavy and dense first, all refrigerated together, etc. I shop at WinCo mostly so I bag my own. It’s very satisfying making it a super efficient process up front.
First heavy and non breakables or non crushables. Then crushables the veggies then fruits.
Oh absolutely. They are arranged in the trolly before even getting to checkout too but you are querying a crowd on Lemmy that is going to be biased towards programmer / engineer types that tend to function well in their world due to compulsive features often considered pathologic by others.
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you are querying a crowd on Lemmy that is going to be biased towards programmer / engineer types that tend to function well in their world due to compulsive features often considered pathologic by others.
I feel personally attacked. :D
Edit: also to answer the question. Yes I absolutely arrange things on the checkout belt.
I group these items: Liquids. Fridge. Cans and bottles. Fruit and veg, heavier ones first so the potatoes don’t crush the berries. Frozen gear near fridge gear. Chemicals / cleaning gear separate.
I should add that I’m buying for a lot of people so the shopping trips tend to be large and there would be a full bag of most of those groupings.
I put the heaviest and least breakable things first in line so they end up at the bottom of the bag(s). Canned food, stuff in plastic bottles, then all the cold/ frozen stuff altogether, light and delicate things like bread, chips etc last
Of course I do, is there another way? How else would one determine packing order and avoid crushing the more delicate stuff like tomatoes and eggs under the weight of the heavier items.
Same with stuff that needs to be frozen or refrigerated. Makes it that much easier to put things away when you’re back home.
Soft and fragile things on top, heavy things on the bottom, square things in the middle, circular things on the outside, cold things in one bag, non-cold-things in another bag, and anything that can’t be organized in this way in a third bag.
I go to scan-while-you-shop places then strategically bag as I walk around the store. 30 seconds to pay and then leave.
The stuff at the top of the basket goes first so I can reach the stuff at the bottom?
Have you considered using one of those carts you can open from the bottom?
Not sure what you’re referring to, but I’m guessing only because we don’t have those here. People either bring their own cart or use a basket
Since I usually self check at Walmart and other places that have it, I place the big items in the cart with the bar code accessible for hand scanning without removal, frozen/refridgerated items generally together, everything else in cart doesn’t really matter to me. The upper cart space (where toddlers/baby could go) is where I place my eggs, bread, and fresh veggies. Then I scan in this order: Frozen items, regular cart items, eggs/bread, weighed veggies, (bagging and putting back in the cart as i scan them) lastly use the hand scanner for the big items. Sometimes I scan the big items first if i know i need to place bags on top. Once I see that everything has been bagged and back in the cart, then I’m confident that I didn’t miss anything, pay, and then GTFO. I’m an efficient self checkout machine, haha
I just scan and bag as I go in the supermarket and pay at the end. Much easier than staying in line and bagging everything at the end.
I tend to do my primary shopping at a place where you bag your own. The order is generally produce and bulk items first (it tends to be the bulk of the purchase), then frozen things, boxed/canned things, and finally squishy things like bread, eggs, and uh, delicious Hostess fruit pies.
Items in perfect order of robustness on the conveyor, but more than one bag…
I’m a car-free city dweller, so I always put heavy stuff first so I can pack it in my backpack, lighter stuff next to fill my reusable bags, with fragile stuff last so it’s packed on top.
Makes it easy to walk or bus home with everything.
I keep cold things or products that are identical or related together most of the time. So all the bags of chips, or all the cans, all the meats, all the frozen stuff, etc.
And I guess like the other guy, I usually stick fragile stuff on one end or the other.
