A Trader Joe’s worker says you’re supposed to bag your own groceries. She’s got some other insider trivia you might not know.
TikTok user Anabel (@puranegrita) recently shared a TikTok slideshow of “Things I learned from working at Trader Joe’s.” In the caption, she kicks off the list by writing, “crew members are the coolest … this job is 90% lifting outrageously heavy boxes & 10% ‘trying’ the merchandise.”
In the first slide, Anabel writes over a selfie of her and a co-worker. “Crew members are NT flirting with you. We ARE judging you for not bagging your groceries or putting your cart back,” she writes.
The second slide finds Anabel outside the store in the parking lot. “The fall seasonal items are the bane of our existence but fall stuff starts the beginning of September,” she adds.
The third slide is a photo of a carton of eggs. “AT THE REGISTER you can return pretty much anything for any reason,” she writes. “We either throw it away or donate it to a local shelter.”
In the fourth slide, Anabel takes a selfie in the bathroom. “Anytime you buy flowers you can ask for a bucket with water to keep them fresh,” she says.
In the fifth slide, Anabel is holding a banana like a phone. “You can try anything at the demo station before you buy it,” she writes.
In the final slide, Anabel offers a peace sign. “There’s a morning truck for all the perishables And there’s a night truck for frozen and shelf stable stuff,” she writes. “We stock alllllll the time so if it’s completely out and we go to the back it’s just to make you feel better.”
Trader Joe’s customers and workers weigh in
The slideshow has amassed 819,000 views as of Monday morning. In the comments section, it appears the statement about bagging your own groceries is causing the most controversy.
“Wait we’re suppose to bag our own groceries??? But like the cashier takes the cart & does that cool bag opening move thing,” wrote one user.
A second user claiming to be a former Trader Joe’s employee disagreed. “You are not supposed to bag your own groceries at Trader Joe’s. – former employee,” they wrote.
A third user wrote, “How am I supposed to bag they put it in a bag right in front of themselves right when they scan it… smh.”
A long-standing question
A Reddit user asked this question to the r/TraderJoe’s sub eight years ago. “This is a stupid question, I’m sure, but I feel like you are and I’ve probably looked like an [expletive] just standing there waiting for the cashier to do it at checkout.”
In response, one user wrote, “It’s appreciated but not expected. We don’t have hired baggers, so if nobody shows up to do it and you want to leave quickly, bagging your own is the best course of action.”
The overwhelming consensus on both social media posts is that, no, you are not expected to bag your own groceries.
The Daily Dot reached out to Anabel via TikTok comment and Trader Joe’s via media contact form for comment.
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
