If you shop at Kroger at Haynes Bridge and Old Alabama roads in Alpharetta, you probably get your groceries bagged more quickly and more efficiently than the rest of us. That’s because Collier Hostler works there. The Centennial High School senior operates the register fine but he’s downright awesome at bagging groceries and has the bona fides to prove it. In June, Hostler took third place in Kroger’s 2013 statewide bag-off competition. (The first two spots went to baggers from Athens and Rome.) Hostler shared some tricks of the trade on how to avoid breaking eggs, crushing loaves and crying over spilled milk. But his technique, speed and politeness might just be worth a trip to Alpharetta.
Q: Is bagging groceries an art or a science?
A: I would say an art. It takes a lot of finesse to know what goes in the right place at the right time.
Q: What is the key to proper bagging?
A: It starts with technique. Then there’s weight distribution. Then speed.
Q: What does technique entail?
A: Not putting glass next to glass, which can cause it to break. Say you have cereal boxes. You make those your outside walls, then put cans in the middle, then build up from there. You separate non-cold items from cold items. You put crushables in with noncrushables.
Q: Crushables?
A: Your eggs, your bread, your noodles, things like that. They always go on top.
Q: And meat?
A: Always separate out the meat to avoid cross-contamination.
Q: What about weight?
A: You want the bags to be fairly close to each other in weight. For the competition, they needed to be within a half ounce of each other.
Q: And speed?
A: It is better to be slow and have great technique. If you’re backed up, you have to make sure you have great technique but make sure your speed is decent, too.
Q: What other factors were you judged on in the bag-off competition?
A: Overall style, appearance and attitude.
Q: What was your strong suit?
A: Speed.
Q: But you had to excel at all of them?
A: Yes m’am.
Q: Were you nervous in the competition?
A: Not really. I had trained pretty hard and I was pretty confident going in.
Q: Were you disappointed you didn’t win?
A: I was still pretty excited that I placed. The top finishers were within seconds, maybe even milliseconds, of each other. I still received a $250 scholarship and $50 in cash and prizes.
Q: What are you going to do with the money?
A: Put it toward college.
Q: Did you ever mess up when you were first stating out?
A: I knew everything because of Kroger’s job training. Perfecting where items go came with experience.
Q: So now it is automatic?
A: Yes m’am.
Q: So do you like your job?
A: I enjoy it better than most of the jobs in the store.
Q: Do you prefer bagging plastic or paper?
A: It is all the same.
Q: What about folks who insist on everything, even their laundry detergent, being bagged?
A: Some things don’t fit. You just have to explain that to the customer.
Q: Your store has a policy of asking customers if they need help out to the car. Do you resent that?
A: The customer is always right.
Q: Okay, but do you want them to say yes or no?
A: Depends on how busy we are. Sometimes it is just nice to get outside, especially if you’ve been in the store for eight or nine hours.
The Sunday Conversation is edited for length and clarity. Writer Ann Hardie can be reached by email at ann.hardie@ymail.com.
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