How to Bag Your Groceries, According to an Expert

So although it may not seem like it at face value, there’s a lot that goes into bagging groceries.

So much, in fact, that there’s even a competition—The National Grocers Association’s Best Bagger Competition—held annually in Las Vegas where bagging experts from 25 different states across the country compete for $10,000 in prize money.

“Expert baggers” are judged on speed of bagging, proper bag-building technique, and weight distribution, as well as style, attitude, and appearance while bagging (there’s even an official handbook). 

We spoke with the 2024 national champion, Madison Ireland of Harmons Neighborhood Grocer, who shared some essential tips on grocery bagging best practices.

By separating each of your groceries into categories (such as cleaning supplies, frozen foods, produce, and meat), you’re more likely to keep foods that need to be treated similarly during bagging together. That way, when you get home and are unloading your groceries, you know where all the frozen food is so that you can unpack that bag first. 

If you have someone bagging your groceries, they’ll already do this for you. But you can help them out by putting like items with each other on the conveyor belt. 

Start by creating a “wall” with the boxed items (think: cereal boxes) around the edges of the bag, Ireland recommends. This will ensure that the items are contained, and it makes the bags easier to carry. “Once the walls are built, you can add [things like] cans and jars inside,” she adds, recommending to start with the heaviest items first.

It may seem like common knowledge, but your instinct is right: The heavier items in your grocery bags should always go at the bottom or the sides. Then, “always top it off with the crushable items” such as berries, mixed greens, and bananas, she said.

The most common culprits? “Never put anything on top of eggs or bread,” Ireland said of more specific items. “People are not paying big bucks weekly on groceries just for them to be ruined before even leaving the store.” 

Ireland recommends a trick she’s learned on the job. “If you have small containers of fruits (such as blueberries or raspberries), put them together in a little bag and tie the bag tight,” Ireland said.

The small containers can pop open easily, spilling their delicate contents among the other items. “In a few seconds you can have over ten dollars of berries smushed on the ground and in the bag,” she said. Tying them up in a small bag (grab a couple extra from the produce section!) ensures that they remain contained, even on the bumpy ride home.

While Ireland recommends letting your bagger know if you have any preferences in regard to your grocery bagging as soon as possible (you want that bottle of water easily accessible or carton of milk left out for easier carrying), she also stresses that it’s important to let them take care of the rest.

“Often people can try to be helpful by adding additional groceries to bags or rearranging groceries as we are putting them in bags,” she says, but this can actually end up making more work for the bagger. “It can throw off the weight of the bag and break the handles or throw off the weight distribution, which makes it much harder to carry,” she adds.