Today’s Kvetch: The Dying Art of Grocery Bag Packing

I rarely feel the urge to kvetch to a store’s management strongly enough to actually write a letter or fill out a feedback form. However, tonight’s experience at Whole Foods Market in downtown Baltimore irritated me enough to post the following comment through the store’s “Contact Us” page:

I love Whole Foods Market. There are many wonderful things to eat and drink (the vegetarian chicken General Tso’s – to die for), and the ever changing variety keeps me coming back for more. I shop there at least once a week, and rarely leave without spending at least $50 to $75. It is all very wonderful, except…

…except that your cashiers seem to be challenged when it comes to packing grocery bags. Every visit I try to load my purchased onto the belt in the manner that would encourage sensible loading of my grocery bags, and yet I end up with situations such as tonight where I had to repack my bags when I got to the car.

- A daal lentil wrap, and two plastic lidded deli containers with a gallon jug of milk? Potentially disastrous.

- Strawberries and salad greens with two 1/2 gallon juice bottles in a fishnet sack? Not a good arrangement, even in a sturdier sack.

- A salad bar container (albeit “secured” with a rubber band) and a paper deli box (not “secured”) dropped (I do not use this word lightly) into a sack with a couple of Naked bottles with bruisable grapes and bananas? Disgraceful.

I did not bring this to the attention of the manager on duty, because I don’t want to get any one individual in trouble, because honestly it isn’t just any one individual cashier. I do not know if it is lack of training, lack of oversight or lack of caring, but what is lacking is “service”. Your store does such a fine job in so many other areas, with helpful and cheerful staff in various departments, that this particular failing stands out.

Attention to this one detail would significantly improve the overall experience of shopping at Whole Foods Market. It is disappointing to have an otherwise enjoyable shopping trip end with an apparent lack of consideration for the customer or the money the customer is spending for higher quality foodstuffs. I would rather have my trip take a few minutes longer knowing that I won’t have to spend the time saved re-packing my grocery bags to avert potential damage and mess in transit, and I suspect that I am not alone.

Respectfully,

J. Gregory Wright

Highlandtown

So, should I have made a stink in the store? This isn’t (as my letter states) the first time I’ve experienced grocery bagging #fail, and I really didn’t want to get someone in trouble for something that seems more systemic than just a problem with an individual. And if I am being brutally honest, I probably didn’t want to cause a scene because those kinds of things make me uncomfortable and feeling more than a little guilty even though I am the customer.

Or am I just being a whiny biotch?

The Today’s Kvetch: The Dying Art of Grocery Bag Packing by J. Gregory Wright, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.