It Was My First Time Bagging Groceries Today And I Want To Cry

My specialty department is closing down thanks to the hoarders. All the trucks need the space for grocery items that you guys keep buying. So we won't get any product in for who knows how long. I actually still have product in the freezer I can make but they don't want me to because other parts of the store need help. If you want items from specialty departments remember you're not getting them because of the hoarders. If everyone buys bottled water for example, then that's what they are going to send in mass. No deli, bakery, seafood or floral. No sodas, just multiple trucks of bottled water, canned goods and toilet paper.

They sent me to help bag groceries today. For some reason this really triggered my social anxiety. In my department I'm fine because I'm use to doing my skill and talking with customers about my department. Even when they throw a hissy fit I'm still semi OK because I can laugh about it later. But today I was scared someone would yell at me because I bagged their groceries wrong. I felt so awkward without my apron and with my hair down getting in my way. I don't worry about makeup in my department so that's not part of my routine. Yeah I talk to customers but I'm not constantly exposed to them like up at the front. So I already felt awkward and my anxiety was acting up.

The first 2 hours bagging the customers weren't so bad. People were very nice. A lot of people said thank you. Usually when people tell me thank you I just say your welcome or thank them back without much of a thought. When I was just sanitizing things the day before I didn't think much of it either. Just cleaning around the store was boring and I hated it. A couple people said thank you but I was angry and bored out of my mind so I didn't care. But I really appreciated the people who said thank you to me when I was bagging. Because it meant they weren't mad about how I bagged things. I tried to put things together that were the same and double bag the glass stuff and not squish anything. But I'm not used to bagging so I was awkward and slow. Plus some people were buying tons of stuff. They'd still be loading their groceries onto the belt and I would be running out of room for everything! I felt so overwhelmed. Some of the cashiers scanned stuff so fast. One kept scanning as all the groceries collided together then got mad at me. Then the customer got mad at me. Some cashiers told me to do stuff I had never done before and acted like I was stupid. Some threw customers tote bags at me. One nice guy opened them all first before scanning but another older lady just threw 5 of them at me. Some of the customers were very rude and picky about how their stuff was bagged. One just threw a fit and started ripping bags open to re bag them.

It was especially hard when the customer wouldn't give me their cart to put things in. Or had a tiny cart for tons of stuff. Some were still loading stuff onto the belt but a lot of people just kept their carts way back and to themselves for no reason. Then I had no were to put the groceries and got overwhelmed.

So in short be nice to everyone exposing themselves so you can buy your groceries. People are getting pulled out of their specialty departments and have to do other things they aren't used to.

Grocery stores