groceries:To Bag or Not to Bag?

[ericdharma]

What is the answer to this riddle in BA? I feel embarassed because I have been here too long to be asking the question but I seem to get irritated looks from clerks regardless of what I do and I have recieved contradictory information from local friends. In the US the clerk bags the groceries all of the time. It seemed to me for a while that this depended on the quality of the store here. I thought that the higher end stores like Disco would do the bagging for you and the others like Coto or Norte would be self-bagging. That seemed to be the pattern that I saw when I was living in Recoleta. Then I moved to Palermo and I noticed a different trend. It seemed that the women were bagging and the men weren't. Then I thought that since this is a "machismo" society that maybe the women felt that they should do there own bagging. Then I thought that perhaps they would only feel that way if the teller was male because I saw an older lady in a very long line stand there while the girl who was helping her took 2 years to bag her collection of a million items. Then I thought that maybe it was an age respect issue and maybe older people didn't have to self-bag but younger people should. Recently I saw a couple of guys making a huge purchase and self-bagging in Disco and I realized that most Portenos live with their families and guys usually make small purchases and don't necessarily do the "family" shopping. Maybe this was the reason why I hadn't seen many local guys bagging their own things. I decided at that point to start unilaterally self-bagging whenever I went shopping for groceries. I usually don't go for delivery because I don't like the idea of my frozen things sitting out and thawing while they are waiting to be delivered and I also don't like having to stay home and wait for the delivery guy to bring the stuff. Well, a couple of days ago I was in a Disco in another neighborhood and I started bagging my things while the girl was ringing them and she looked at me like I was crazy for doing it. There always seems to be some kind of new grocery ritual to learn when you are in a different country (in Austria and Costa Rica you have to purchase the plastic bag) and it is about time that I learned this one.

 

[igor]

In the US the clerk bags the groceries all of the time.

Deep discount stores like ALDI in the US sell bags to customers and don't do any bagging. People usually hang around the store trying to find empty cardboard boxes to put their groceries in.
But may be it's just because it is a german company.

 

[Jessica]

I've seen people take the plastic bags, tie them together, and make a grocery bag that they can use regularly.

 

[Elpanada]

What a bunch of talk about nothing, someone here has to say something usefull and that someone is gonna be Me!. Use Cotodigital http://cotodigital.com.ar/home.asp and do your shopping online, it's saves you alot of time and carrying and it's cheap too.

 

[nikad]

I usually improvise: if I am about to pay and some employee starts putting away the stuff, then I don´t bag ( this can happen at any supermarket, and it must depend on how much they need to speed things up imo ), if the cashier looks lazy/slow/fed up and moves like a turtle then I bag, if I am feeling tired, I pretend to look into my purse and somebody has to come and bag, other times both the cashier and me bag the stuff: there is no rule.
Dia and Eki discount stores sell the bags and you have to bag your stuff.
V

 

[Jessica]

What a bunch of talk about nothing, someone here has to say something usefull and that someone is gonna be Me!.
Use Cotodigital http://cotodigital.com.ar/home.asp and do your shopping online, it's saves you alot of time and carrying and it's cheap too.

Hey, I posted that a few days ago! I do love cotodigital! I am addicted!

 

[Jessica]

YEP! I wondered that too, but is it really any different than going to the produce stand? Every produce stand I've been too picks for me anyhow! Their quality of produce has by far exceeded my expectations. The bananas were the perfect shade of yellow and green to ripen in a day, and last a few more. They gave me the first head of lettuce here that was absolutely white on the base. I don't order meat from them, simply because there is a carniceria that delivers and is cheaper than they are. I did however order merluza (a white fish), that arrived fresh, with no smell, and firm. Try it once!
Happy shopping!
Jessica

 

[ericdharma]

What's the usual turn around time for the delivery?

 

[Jessica]

They give you a four hour time frame that they will show up. Everytime, they have made it within that time. I ordered one day at 9 am, and they delivered in the next time frame which was 13-17, and they came at 2 pm. You can chose though. I usually order at night after dinner, and it comes by 1pm the following day. The time frames are 9-13, 13-17, and 17-21.
Jessica

 

[Elpanada]

They charge 5 pesos per delivery, you need to tip 1 or two pesos and frozen stuff arrives in good condition.