Recently someone in my local paper wrote an article bashing local baggers. Since I sometimes work as a bagger I was offended by it and I sent a Letter to the Editor to my paper in response to the article. They published my letter today
Her letter basically said that she thought that "Local baggers had been drugged, abducted, and brainwashed by aliens or terrorists" and were told to do things at work that she doesnt agree with. Here was the letter I wrote:
As an employee of our local Kroger store in Harrodsburg, I was very
displeased to read the "This 'N That" article published in last week's
paper. There are a couple of things I'd like to clear up.
First of all, I don't disagree with everything said in the article.
Sometimes our baggers do have a lazy attitude and don't make as much
of an effort to carry groceries out to customer's cars as they should.
That said; keep in mind that this occurs very little. Most of the
baggers I work with are eager to take customer's groceries to their
car, as it helps pass the time and keeps them outside of the store for
a few minutes. True, sometimes they don't seem as enthusiastic when
bad weather rolls around, or anytime at all for that matter, but,
seriously, how many young workers do you expect to see excited about
their job? I've actually been quite surprised by the willingness my
coworkers show to help people. We certainly don't like to hear that a
customer feels they've been mistreated, but I feel last week's paper
was unfair to us as workers.
Just to clear things up; two complaints that have been filed in the
article are ones that our baggers are not completely at fault for.
First of all, we don't put your groceries in another cart out of sheer
will, we do it because it has recently been made company policy. The
same goes with what you call "faulty bagging". The "Strive for Five"
program that has been established at our store urges us to try to cut
down on the use of bags by putting an average of five items in each
bag. Sometimes this calls for bags to be slightly disorganized. I
understand that this isn't the way some people like their groceries
bagged, and that's fine, but please let us know at the check lane is
you want the bags packed lighter.
Please consider these points when judging our baggers' work ethic
again. I'll continue to do my job as I have always done it. I have to
go now - the terrorists are waiting in a spaceship in my backyard.
Sincerely,
Brandon <last name>
