Archived Bags....big bags, medium bags and baby bags and no bags.

[pellinore]

Our store has been having a very difficult time keeping up with getting bags. We were out of medium bags for three weekends and had to borrow them.
Now, we're out of big bags AND baby bags! I'm getting ready to tell guests that they now have to provide their own bags if they want them!

The bag issues now seem to be that it takes so long for the bags to arrive and we're always borrowing them from other stores....then when our pallets of bags come in, we have to give the stores (who've helped us) the bags we've borrowed and then suddenly we're out of bags again!

Of course, our store now is "fresh" and we're using medium bags like they are going out of style. There are just too many items that have to be bagged by themselves. Hopefully we'll adjust to the bagging soon!

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Hang in there! Hopefully your etl-ge keeps ordering bags every 4 days, to keep up with the demand.

 

[pigpen]

I have noticed the quality of the bags is horrible lately which has been causing us to use more bags then we use to. Have any other stores had issues with the bag quality

 

[AssetsProtection]

I think they changed quality recently

 

[GlobalJ]

I have noticed the quality of the bags is horrible lately which has been causing us to use more bags then we use to. Have any other stores had issues with the bag quality

I think they changed quality recently

Agreed. Many of our bags tear apart when we separate them and are ripped/poked through just as easily.

 

[go ahead]

Be lucky you have plastic still. My store has paper, just one size and if it doesn't fit no bag for you. Also they are 10 cents, it's a city ordinance.

 

[konk]

I have never had an order from Target bagged to my satisfaction. Bags would last a lot longer if TMs were trained how to bag properly.

 

[pellinore]

I remember reading about how strong the target bags were....strong enough to carry two gallons of milk for 30 minutes. Back in "the good old days" when quality meant something.
With the last two manufacturers I don't trust the strength of the bags at all.

 

[LittleWhiteRat]

Glad to know it's not just my store. I've been cashiering a lot recently, and the bags are more likely to rip in half than to separate neatly. I've been double bagging so many things because the first bag tore through or the handle ripped apart, making the whole thing useless.

It's even worse when guests decide to remove their own bags, like when I've only placed two items in one (for example, they'll have clothing and groceries jumbled together on the belt, so I put two items of clothing into the far bag and then switch to groceries for the near bag and the guest decides I'm done with the far bag and tries to take it, even though I was just trying to get to the rest of the clothing that they put at the end of the belt), because then I have to stop and help them separate their bag or they end up taking 3-4 bags with them and ripping everything in half.

Konk, what would you consider to be "bagging properly"? I'm a fairly new hire so the cashier training manual is relatively fresh in my mind, and there was definitely a bit on bagging in there. Like items together, big boxes and things on bottom and lighter smaller stuff on top. I stick to it as well as I can but it depends a lot on how the guest decides to stack things on the conveyor belt, and if they take my bag before I'm done. Bagging properly, as I understand it, also requires a ridiculous amount of bags depending on what the guest is buying. They could only have three items, but if it's a t-shirt, a loaf of bread, and bleach, you're supposed to use three different bags because none of those should be bagged together (though in this situation I would probably ask if they minded if I put the t-shirt and bread together). If there's a better way, I'd love to hear it.

 

[konk]

I place all my like items together on the belt, as I'm sure all of us do. It never fails though, the cashier will put produce with dry even though all the produce will fit in one bag. Just putting unlike items together and not filling the bags. I've started bagging my own, but I feel like it's too much trouble for them to set up the second belt. Also, there's not always bags at the end. That's when I use paper and fill em up to the very top.

 

[LittleWhiteRat]

Oh, wow. I would love it if anyone who came through my line organized their stuff on the belt. We don't really have a space where someone could bag their own stuff. Does your store have check lanes set up like a grocery store? Ours doesn't have anywhere for us to set things that we haven't bagged yet, which makes things difficult. If I use more than 3 bags, then the guest needs to start putting them into their cart or I'm out of room. Or if they have a purse that could double as a suitcase and decide to lay the whole thing out on the 1 square foot of counter space I have to work with, then I just have to hand the bags to them directly. I don't think my store even has paper bags. If we do, I've never seen them.

 

[konk]

My store sounds like yours, but I shop at a Super. I always forget to bring my own bags. Are those a hassle for cashiers?

 

[LittleWhiteRat]

I don't mind them, but they can be hard to get started since there's no good way to prop one open. Usually once I can get one or two big items in them, they will stay open, though, and from there on it's pretty easy. I like them since I can usually fill them up very fully and not have to worry about putting one too many canned items in and having the bag fall apart or anything like that; I appreciate that they're so sturdy.

Don't put them on the belt though. Unless they look very worn (or obviously from Publix or Kroger, etc), I don't know if it's a bag that we sell that I've just never seen before, or a bag that a guest brought in. Setting your one bag full of bags (which is how I see them carried unless they've only brought one) on the counter works well since I can pull from it as I need, and since those bags take us less space, losing the counter space isn't as bad as when I'm using store bags. If that makes sense...

 

[konk]

Yeah, I like to use the ones that open up like paper bags.

 

[pharmtechno]

The new bags SUCK!! You can't remove the filled bag to start a new bag without the handles ripping in half. And then guests are looking at me like I lack the proper bag-ripping gene or something. Come on people, work with me here!

 

[redeye58]

A trick someone showed me when your guest has those flimsy reusable bags: roll the top edge down about 2" & it helps hold the bag open.
If it's one of the nylon-type bags, lay it with the inside bottom exposed & stack a few items on it to hold it in place. Pull the sides up as it gets full.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

The bags are supposed to handled 22 lbs each. New ones, not! Tested with cat litter, doubled bag it.

 

[mrknownothing]

Hang in there! Hopefully your etl-ge keeps ordering bags every 4 days, to keep up with the demand.

It would also help if they would send us the pallets within a reasonable amount of time. No matter how soon my GSTL orders them, we almost always run out a day or two before they arrive.

I have noticed the quality of the bags is horrible lately which has been causing us to use more bags then we use to. Have any other stores had issues with the bag quality

Yeah, the latest batches of medium bags have been all kinds of horrible. They've been cut very poorly.

 

[Deli Ninja]

Be careful when you bring your own bags that they're not massive and also make sure you don't bring too few. As a backup cashier, I'll cram as much stuff as I can fit into those things if you only have a few. Also? Please wash them every once in a while. x__x I personally ask guests if I can put their raw meat into one of our plastic bags rather than put it into a reusable bag, but I'm certain that not everyone does that.

 

[StaticSun]

Every. Year.

 

[GSChaos]

If they were trying to save money on these new bags well...fail.

We have to toss nearly half of them because of ripping and once I opened a box to discover that the handles weren't even attached... what? o_0

 

[konk]

Should be able to return them for credit. That's how it was at Kroger.

 

[dutifulTM]

Be careful when you bring your own bags that they're not massive and also make sure you don't bring too few. As a backup cashier, I'll cram as much stuff as I can fit into those things if you only have a few. Also? Please wash them every once in a while. x__x I personally ask guests if I can put their raw meat into one of our plastic bags rather than put it into a reusable bag, but I'm certain that not everyone does that.

Seconded, so so SO much.

Had a guest a while back come in with a ton of reusable bags, and they were the most disgusting things ever... filthy, and covered in pet hair. It's like, really?? You do realise I'm putting FOOD in these bags, right? Ugh.

Totally overused the hand sanitizer afterwards, if only to feel a bit better about touching all that.

 

[Bored Food Aver]

BABY BAGS?

Like these??

Just kidding.

I had to think forever what a baby bag was though... I feel dumb.

 

[salesfloor10]

No medium bags is my favorite kind of bags. /not