Grocery Baggers

That's a lot of groceries. Image via

Welcome back to our Hot Links column, where Dan Meyer explores the neglected culinary stars of YouTube. Each week, Dan presents a selection of videos highlighting specific food themes, from amateur cooking to local restaurant commercials, elderly drinking buddies, and kitchen disasters, all culled from the infinite supply of odd YouTube wonders. We encourage you to fall into this culinary video K-hole and include your own comments and contributions below.

Everyone in America buys groceries, and every year, Americans throw away almost 100 billion plastic bags after using them to transport stuff from the grocery store, which is equivalent to dumping nearly 12 million barrels of oil into our oceans. But ever since we were all small children being wheeled around in the seats of grocery-store carts, we all knew that the most important person in the shopping process was the bagger—the guy or gal who performs the noble duty of transporting our individual food purchases into plastic or paper or canvas sacks that we can conveniently transport to our cars. While many of us are under the assumption that all baggers are acne-riddled, brace-faced teenagers desperately laboring to get money for college, this is a false stereotype that belies the complex field of bagging. This week on Hot Links, sit back, find a bag, and peer into the window of the contemporary American bagger.

Speedy Bagger

This is a guy who practices bagging at home a lot, because obviously you can't get enough practice at work. He has employed the skills of his media-savvy friend to create a video that showcases his day in the life. Just hope that this never becomes a passion of yours.

Danielle Is a Professional Grocery Bagger

This is a video that exists only because its creator was so amazed that she had to whip out her phone. But as soon as she hit record, our bagger, Danielle, obviously became shy. I would have loved to witness Danielle's true bagging style when she's uninhibited by an onlooker. If it was amazing enough to document, I'm sure it was a sight to behold.

The Baggers—Bag It Right

This video is a genre-bending experiment (we go from pop rock and throwback showtunes to contemporary country and finally rap) about bagging that seems as if it were filmed back in the early 90s. It was a simpler time.

Number-One Bagger!

I love the bad composition in a fluorescent-lit break room. I love the screaming of the overzealous managers. I love the story told by the lockers in the background. The vertical shooting from the cellphone says everything about the person who doesn't know he is creating cinematic gold. He just wants to capture the energy exhibited by the bagger featured here, who is a great example of what happens when a human is reduced to his overseer's wishes. Godspeed, my friend, I am sure that whatever you decide to do with your life, you will be successful.

Eye of the Bagger

Clocking in at an amazing 33,000 views, this is the ultimate bagger selfie video. Bryan B, an aspiring "bagthelete," took it upon himself to create this inspirational video, giving us a unique point of view into the world of bagging. I love this video because it puts us right in the spirit of what makes this class of humans so important. It also transports us right into the heart of the grocery industry. Thanks, Bryan B. Thanks, baggers.