Exchange Baggers

[incubus852]

Does anyone know how the multitudes of workers who serve as baggers at our exchanges can only be payed with tips? Doesn't that violate minimum wage somehow?

 

[eas7888]

They aren't technically employees of the commissary if I recall correctly. They're volunteers technically.

 

[PropAddict]

Yep, volunteers.

And minimum wage doesn't really apply to service jobs where a significant portion of your income is expected to come from tips anyway. Most waiters are paid an hourly wage below statutory minimum, but they make so much more in tips that it puts them over minimum wage. Technically, your employer is supposed to make up the difference between minimum wage and what you made in tips, if you come up below the line, but I suspect the commissary baggers due pretty well for the work they do, as long as there aren't legions of Filipinas there fighting for checkouts.

 

[incubus852]

Thanks fellas. I've been wondering this for years now.

 

[eas7888]

I'm pretty generous, I usually tip $5 every time I go. I do make them carry the groceries out to the car. . .but still, even if they did two customers per hour, I think you can see the potential to make decent money.

 

[SynixMan]

I use the self checkout to avoid them. They're too forceful about it for me. If you use the regular lane, they give you a shitty look if you don't use them.

 

[The Chief]

I'm pretty generous, I usually tip $5 every time I go. I do make them carry the groceries out to the car. . .but still, even if they did two customers per hour, I think you can see the potential to make decent money.

Well good for you. Back in the day, Barbers Point, HI, I had about 140 sailors working for me, rotating shifts. They had not a lot of money, they had plenty of time. Sooo.... I organized a bagging service for the Commissary. I still get notes/calls from those that worked there. Happy notes. They did make decent money. The Commissary Officer was very happy with the arrangement.

 

[Brett327]

I avoid the Commissary like the plague.

Brett

 

[CommodoreMid]

I use the self checkout to avoid them. They're too forceful about it for me. If you use the regular lane, they give you a shitty look if you don't use them.

Not to mention I can do it better/faster myself at the self-checkout line and move faster than a shuffle out to my car. Nice thing about being single is that since I'm only feeding myself I can usually go under the 30 items max for the self-checkout. The times I do use it, of course I tip well and all that, but I just don't see the need for them to do something I can just as easily do myself.

 

[eas7888]

I avoid the Commissary like the plague.

I find it hard not to shop there. The grocery store chain in my town has sky high prices. I'm usually at Fort Riley (or in the neighborhood) every couple of weeks. With meat being half price and their produce very near that, it has quite a draw for my family. We can stock up and freeze what we won't use right away. Not everything is cheaper at the commissary, we try to shop locally when possible.

Not to mention I can do it better/faster myself at the self-checkout line and move faster than a shuffle out to my car. Nice thing about being single is that since I'm only feeding myself I can usually go under the 30 items max for the self-checkout. The times I do use it, of course I tip well and all that, but I just don't see the need for them to do something I can just as easily do myself.

That's understandable Commodore, when I was single it was a rare event for me to get more than 30 items at a time. Now that I have a family . . . I'm lucky to leave paying under $100. That's why I usually don't have a problem paying some kid to bag and load my groceries. Of course, when I was 15, I got my first job doing just that. Maybe I can just see myself in their place, trying to make some extra cash.

 

[webmaster]

I use the self checkout to avoid them. They're too forceful about it for me. If you use the regular lane, they give you a shitty look if you don't use them.

It is even better when you ask for a particular bagger. One of my co-workers in Hawaii, his teenage daughter worked at the Kbay Commissary after school, and everyone that was friends with them would call her over to be the bagger. MAN, would some of those full time baggers get PISSED. You know, the 40+ year old baggers that seem to live at every commissary, and outnumber the teenage kids that are trying to make some money on their first job.... I think they were cussing me out in some sort of language that maybe A4s would understand

 

[PropAddict]

I just don't see the need for them to do something I can just as easily do myself.

Precisely why I never have them take it out to my car.

I only let them bag it as there's usually a line at the commissary and I figure it's faster if they do it.

 

[FlyBoyd]

That's why I usually don't have a problem paying some kid to bag and load my groceries.

Kid = 153 year old Filipino/Korean/Japanese/Mexican woman

 

[eas7888]

Kid = 153 year old Filipino/Korean/Japanese/Mexican woman

I suppose things are a little different on ol' Fort Riley

 

[A4sForever]

The only Commissary baggers that bag CAPT ALOHA's lumpia, pancit & baluts are Filipino women ... they will accept nothing less and neither will I ...

P.S. ... they absolutely HATE Trophy Wife ®