HANDS OFF, I'VE GOT THIS!

I'm a fickle shopper and I'm sure most people fall into this category. Where I shop depends on wherever I find the best deal. I follow the grocery ads & specials in the newspaper. I'm not in the habit of going to the same supermarket every week. And many personal and kitchen items I buy at the Dollar Store.

However around the corner is a major supermarket and naturally it's my go-to place when I need an item or two in a pinch. It's not unusual for an employee to approach me and ask, "Are you Ok? We haven't seen you in here for awhile!"

I smile and tell them the Winn-Dixie down the street has been having better specials lately. Usually the prices are better on fresh fruit & vegetables there. However this store carries more frozen items I like, but the Walmart bakery beats them both when it comes to dessert.

The close store however, is the only remaining one that offers to wheel your groceries to your car and load them for you. I'll admit I'm a fussy, opinionated person who likes everything done a certain way. Naturally, this seldom makes me likable.

I enjoy grocery shopping and I like this store. But I resent having to argue with the baggers about going to my car with me. I just prefer doing it myself, period!

"Hey that's what we're here for!" one told me, recently.

"But I do it perfectly!" I replied.

From the expression on his face, I could see that every time I entered from that point forward he'd be shaking his head and thinking,"Egads! There's Miz I-do-it-perfectly, again!"

The last time I let a bagger do it was about 6 or 7 years ago. The cap on a big bottle of juice came loose and leaked all over the back of my station wagon. An emergency trip to a car wash was required to have the inside of my car shampooed. But it still smelled like blueberries for weeks after. I'm thankful it wasn't a bottle of bleach! Also I've had cakes overturn on the drive home!

After the juice incident, I decided that no bagger would ever be loading my groceries ever again! This was a job strictly for Dianne.

I have my own system now. My old car is a hatchback which I love. If I'm ever carjacked, I know I'll never have to worry being locked in the trunk! -- Shot or stabbed perhaps, but at least there's no place to hide the body.

Moving right along, here's the way I load groceries into my car. I suggest you take notes, because I do it PERFECTLY! 

Below is my system:

Cakes & pastries along with ice cream, & frozen seafood go on the floor behind the driver's side. Everything else goes in the back. All liquids I place upright inside a large plastic laundry basket with remaining groceries packed firmly around them.

I wish baggers were this careful, but they're not!

The majority of baggers seem to be men over 50 with a few under 20. Whenever I tell one, "I've got this!" Instead of trying to persuade me otherwise, I wish they would just go help the invalid in the next aisle, or the 90 year old two aisles over.

In the most recent case, the bagger was a geezer around my age. Unlike me, he looked the part! The guy grabbed my cart suddenly just as I was exiting the store. As I unlocked my hatchback I told him he could go, I'd take it from there. But he remained insistent!

"I really prefer doing it myself," I told him again, raising my voice.

"And if anything spills you'll be responsible, too!" he snapped.

I gave him a hard stare. "Sir, that NEVER happens when I do it!" I stated firmly. "Because I do it perfectly!" (In other words, I do it better than you.) SO THERE!!! Get lost.