Let ‘Em Do What They Do, Baby

This may sound strange, but when I returned home to Florida in 1999, one of the things I looked most forward to was shopping at Publix again.

In Maryland where I had lived for about three years, the grocery stores were weird, in my book. My most annoying peeve was that you couldn’t take your grocery buggy to your car. All the stores had concrete poles that kept the buggies corralled just outside the doorways. So I would buy groceries, push the buggy outside and have to leave the groceries unattended, then go get my truck and pull up front where I would load my groceries and be on my way.

Then there’s Publix. Friendly bagboys- and today, baggirls young and old- bag your groceries for you and take them out to your car, where they load them and then return your buggy.

For some odd reason, I see fewer and fewer people taking advantage of the baggers. People just want to take their groceries out themselves, it seems. That’s fine with me, but what really gets my goat is the fact that they take their groceries out themselves and then leave the buggy in the parking lot, pounced and ready to roll into someone’s car.

So this is my plea to all grocery shoppers: let the baggers do what they are paid to do!!! Let them take your groceries to your car. Then they will return the buggy to its proper place, and they will pick up all the stray buggies left by those other a-holes while they’re at it.

I actually DIDN’T let a bagger help me to my car yesterday, but I had what I thought was a good reason. My bagger was an elderly lady to walked as though she had a bad knee or hip. I just felt guilty making Grandma walk me to my car. But I’ve had a change of heart since then. She obviously is able to perform the normal duties, so next time I’m going to swallow my pride and let her do her job.