Grocery Bagging Skills

You might not think of bagging groceries as a skill. If you don’t, I’m guessing you’ve never seen the documentary Ready, Set, Bag!

I was able to share this gem of a film with a cashier this morning at Trader Joe’s. This was after I asked him to show me the trick to opening the second paper bag inside the first (having seen him do several in a row quickly and failing to do it even once myself), and he shared that learning this was one of the more humbling experiences he’d been through - having previously thought of bagging as simple and requiring no skills. Then he consoled my poor performance by saying that he found this morning’s batch of bags particularly frustrating because the glue off and they were extra sticky.

So many things fly under the radar like this. At least, that is, until they go wrong and you suddenly realize that there is specialized knowledge attached to nearly everything that keeps our modern world running.

Don’t dismiss a job until you’ve done it. And don’t devalue skills you haven’t attempted to master. Anything can be done with dignity. Pride in achievement is available everywhere.

Notice when someone has skill and praise them.

And go watch Ready, Set, Bag! It’s a good film for our time. All the good feels.