A Pet Peeve - Bagging Groceries

I'm going to share something that's probably incredibly quirky about me: I hate when other people bag my groceries.  Most people probably see this as a wonderful convenience - when other people take care of bagging your purchases so you can carefully watch to make sure everything is popping up at the right price as it's scanned ... but I just see it as an annoyance.  It comes up most often when I'm buying groceries - which I end up doing three or four times a week because I go to so many different stores and because I'm virtually incapable of planning meals more than a day ahead of time.  But it also bothers me when I'm buying clothes or other items too. 

With clothes, usually I end up irritated because the person doesn't know how to fold anything and they end up stuffing my purchase into the bag only for it to come out completely wrinkled and in need of laundering when I get home.  I suppose that's not a big deal - I probably should be laundering things before I wear them anyway.  But when it's my food that they're mangling, all bets are off. 

Worse still, I always bring reusable bags with me to the store, and almost inevitably someone will come along and start bagging my stuff in plastic without even asking me if I want my stuff bagged.  And I'm standing there holding canvas bags!!!  I have to blurt out for them to stop and they always look at me baffled like I'm wearing a cat on my head.  Are there really so few people using reusable bags that they don't bother to check first before shoving your stuff into plastic? 

And finally my biggest irritation when other people bag ... they have no spacial relations skills!  The picture above is two bags of groceries I bought the other day, which fit the following food (right).  If that had been left to some random check out clerk I would probably have ended up with five or six plastic bags (and that's if they don't decide it all needs to be double bagged to make it ten or twelve!).  I once saw a cashier ask a person if they needed a bag for the mop they were buying ... and the person said yes!!!  They actually put a plastic bag over the head of the mop and proceded to carry it out of the store by the handle.  It's insanity! 

I remember hearing a while back that Walmart failed in Germany largely because it adopted the US model of bagging customers' groceries, which German consumers did not appreciate.   I guess I'm German at heart on this point, because I go to great lengths to avoid anyone else bagging my stuff.  I always use the self checkout at the grocery store with the hope that no one will come along to bag for me before I'm done.  And I usually offer to bag while the cashier is ringing if self checkout is not an option. 

Maybe I'm alone on this one, but it's really one of the big annoyances in my life.  Maybe I should move to Germany ... 

That's it for this rant.  Anyone else have issues with other people bagging there purchases?