The Joys of Bagging Groceries by Audry Todd
RDI Certified Consultant,
Audrey Todd
I have been a certified RDI consultant since 2007. In 2009 my husband and I started a vocational rehabilitation facility dedicated to persons with autism. I have been working from RDI principles with my eight year-old nonverbal son Liam since 2006 (when he was two). Over the years my son and I have participated in a wide variety of co-regulation frameworks together. I thought that I had exhausted all the possibilities of extending and expanding on the standard dishes, laundry, and shopping frameworks—until last week when I stumbled upon a goldmine of opportunity for the guiding relationship with my son at a local chain of the low-price grocery store ALDI.
Even though there is an ALDI very close to my house, I had never explored the store until very recently. It took me awhile to prepare myself for using only debit cards or cash (no checks or credit cards), and you also have to pay a quarter to use a grocery cart there (but the quarter is returned to you when you put it back). In addition, grocery bags are not included in the experience, and there are no baggers to help—obviously all ways that ALDI can cut overhead prices and thus keep food prices very low. However, unlike Sam’s Club or Costco where your purchases are bulk and therefore typically too big for most grocery store bags, after my first few trips to ALDI I began to feel encumbered by putting multiple miscellaneous single items in the trunk of my car. (And I have never been one to plan ahead and bring my own bags.)
Last week at ALDI, when I was feeling particularly tired of the weekend grocery-store routine, I overhead a customer in front of me tell the cashier that she wanted to purchase a few grocery bags from them. I decided to chime in that I would like to do the same, and looked over at a large section of the store that I had never noticed before—the location of a very long and continuous built-in plastic table where other shoppers were bagging their own groceries. It was almost like another “stop” on the grocery-store “circuit.” Spontaneously I decided that I would create a collaborative framework with my son where we would bag our own groceries (something that we had never done before). While we pushed the cart to the table area, consistent with my vocational rehabilitation interest I thought of the occupational position of bagger and how frequently individuals with special needs are placed in this position. While most would construe this sort of job to be a humble goal to strive for, I have learned with my son to stay open to the possibilities.
When my son realized what we were going to do, it was as if a light bulb went off in his head—as if he was thinking, “Do you mean I get to extend it further with my mom and do this together too? I got it! I can do this!” I don’t know if I had ever seen as much curiosity and motivation in my son before—an aloof young boy with classic autism and profound dyspraxia. He had the recognition that he could be competent at doing a task he had never done before. It was as if all the tenets I had worked on with him over the years had integrated and synthesized.
He was referencing me spontaneously and fluidly to a pervasive degree. He was giving me experience-sharing glances as if to communicate “Isn’t this neat?” He was initiating getting the next item on his own, trying again if his initial placement didn’t work out in the bag, altering the care and strength that he needed to exert based on the particular item, and modifying his placement based on my non-verbal feedback. He “got it” that the large jug of cider didn’t need to be bagged. Then, when we got to the car, because we hadn’t bought enough bags for all of our purchases, we still had some loose items that we needed to get into the car. He sat in his seat while I added more variation to our framework by handing him the single loose items one-by-one (and in other configurations) and motioned to him that he could just put them on the floor in front of him. My nonverbal son gave me several experience-sharing looks of joy as if to communicate, “This is a riot! Who puts a naked un-bagged green pepper on the floor of their car? Only my mom does something like this!”
Then, as we drove out of the parking lot, my son (who is now able to approximate singlewords but only in imitation—never independently initiated) looked at me, pointed with his index finger in the direction of our house, and said joyfully and spontaneously, “Home!” As we drove home that evening, I felt like the most triumphant mother who had ever lived on earth. While I have experienced great emotional pain about my son’s disability, wished that our relationship could be more complete, and yearned for the whole endeavor to be easier—I also realized from this experience that very few mothers could experience unbridled joy from the mundane task of bagging groceries with their son.
Ideas for Elaboration
Fine-Tune Your
Skills: Bagging Groceries 101
To Properly Pack a Grocery Bag, Place Heaviest Items at the Bottom
When packing grocery bags, prepare to have several bags open and ready for
packing at once. As items come off the conveyor belt, choose the heaviest items
to pack first (e.g., jars, jugs of milk and laundry detergent) and place these
items in the bottom of the grocery bags.
To Properly Pack a Grocery Bag, Distribute Heavy Items Among Several Bags
To avoid having some bags that are too heavy to easily carry, distribute the
heavy items among several different grocery bags.
To Properly Pack a Grocery Bag, Stand Boxes Up
When packing a grocery bag, stand boxes up inside the bag. Standing the boxes
gives the grocery bags form and makes them easier to handle. It maximizes the
use of grocery bag space, enabling you to use less grocery bags total than if
items are tossed into the grocery bag carelessly. Standing the boxes when
packing grocery bags also protects the contents of the boxes.
To Properly Pack a Grocery Bag, Pack Frozen Items Together
Frozen items need special care when packing a grocery bag. These items should
be packed together. There are two reasons for packing frozen items together.
The first reason for packing frozen items together is that it helps them
maintain their temperature. The second reason is that on arriving home, all of
the frozen items, which generally are unpacked first, are easy to locate. Just
carry the bag(s) with frozen items to the freezer and unload. This makes the
job easier, protects the food, and eliminates the need to open the freezer
multiple times.
To Properly Pack a Grocery Bag, Pack Refrigerator Items Together
Similar to the freezer items, the refrigerator items also need to maintain
their temperature. Refrigerator items need to be put away quickly for their
sake, and for the sake of the other items in the refrigerator. Packing all
refrigerator items together addresses these needs.
To Properly Pack a Grocery Bag, Pack Fruits and Vegetables Together
While fruit and vegetables logically could be packed with other refrigerator
items, it makes sense to pack them together. These items go in special drawers
in the refrigerator and it is easier to open a drawer and put them all in at
once than to have to open it several different times or search through multiple
bags looking for the fruits and vegetables.
To Properly Pack a Grocery Bag, Pack Cleaning Items Together
When packing a grocery bag, segregate cleaning items from edible items. In case
of leakage, this will protect food items from contamination.
To Properly Pack a Grocery Bag, Pack Fragile Items at the Top
Fragile items (e.g., eggs, breads, and berries) belong at the top of the
grocery bag. Placing fragile items at the top of the grocery bag protects them
from being squished by heavier items.
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Dr. Audrey Todd obtained her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Stony Brook University. She received her Master of Fine Arts in Acting from Rutgers University and her Bachelor's degree from Duke University. In addition to maintaining a private practice in Columbus, Ohio, Dr. Todd is the creator and CEO of Food for Good Thought, Inc., a supported employment facility dedicated to individuals with autism. She has an eight year-old son with autism and is an RDI Program Certified Consultant.