We don't shop at the commissary, which causes misery in more ways than one. The last grocery shopping expedition resulted in my kitchen floor being littered with a sea of plastic bags, and my cat wondering who possessed his mother's body and caused bad words to flow from her lips.
When I returned home from the grocery store and began unloading the bags, I was thinking to myself, "Sheesh, did I buy twice as much as I usually do?" The bags stuffed inside my trunk would seem to indicate as much. It wasn't until I began going through the bags that I realized what had happened.
The bagger had put about three items in each bag.
I have one of those plastic bag holders that I stuff the empty bags into so that I can recycle them and use them for various purposes in the future. I filled the holder and still had dozens of bags left over. I think it will take me a year to go through all the bags from this one visit to the grocery store! Even with an upcoming PCS move.....
And if that wasn't bad enough, the items were not packaged in any organized fashion. The meat wasn't packaged with other meat. The veggies were not with their cousins and there was no possible way to unpack in an organized fashion because stuff was everywhere. It was a mess.
Now, to be fair, this experience was the exception, not the rule, but it did make me think that this is one reason the commissary is so wonderful. They know how to bag like nobody's business. I've never had a bagger who didn't use every square inch of the bags, and use it well. And they don't tend to stick the frozen broccoli with the Oreo cookies.
So, I think it would be beneficial for military families who aren't in close proximity to a commissary, and civilians, if there were some sort of cross-training program. Commissary baggers could train their grocery store counterparts and maybe there could be a "take your grocer to the commissary day" where the grocery store baggers could observe the commissary baggers in their natural element. Because, I have to say, I've never had my feminine products bagged with the salmon at a commissary. Never. That's just wrong on so many levels......
Today, I will hit the grocery store again. I'm bringing my own bags.
