Constable: Who's the best suburban grocery bagger?

Just as vast parking lots eroded the typical suburbanite's ability to parallel park, ubiquitous plastic bags threaten our packing acumen. Many of us buy 16 items and waddle from the grocery store with a dozen plastic bags cutting off the circulation to our fingers.

But the Illinois Food Retailers Association of Lombard still appreciates the beauty of a perfectly packed grocery bag. The winner of that organization's statewide bagging competition today in Tinley Park earns a $500 prize and a trip to the National Grocers Association's 2015 Best Bagger Championship Feb. 9 at The Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas.

"Baggers are very important to grocery stores," says Brian Jordan, president of the Illinois Food Retailers Association, a nonprofit agency that advocates for locally owned grocery stores and suppliers. "They are on the front lines."

The bagger "is the last person the customer is going to see," says Aileen Munster, vice president of education and research for the National Grocers Association, which works with the Illinois association and those in other states competing in its national Best Bagger Championship. Begun in 1987, the national competition now awards the winner $10,000 and a trophy topped with a ceramic grocery bag.

With more and more stores pushing reusable bags, proper bagging should regain its reputation as an essential part of buying groceries. Today's statewide bagging championship features suburban bagger Jorge Mejia of Sunset Foods, which has locations in Libertyville, Long Grove, Lake Forest and Highland Park. Other finalists include downstate baggers Angela Benson of Sullivan's Foods, Tony Borgetti of Berkot's Finer Foods, Thomas Cira of County Fair Foods, Arin McCollum of Strack & Van Til, Christian Vega of FairPlay Foods, and Calvin Wright of County Market-Niemann Foods.

"Every day, I practice," says Mejia, 33, who started working as a bagger for Sunset Foods almost five years ago. He now is the coordinator for all the baggers, but he still chips in.

"We have a lot of baggers, but sometimes it gets busy," says Mejia, who lives in Highland Park. The key to being a top-notch bagger is "how you make the customer feel," he says.

Independent grocers in Illinois boast 34,500 jobs and pay $1.12 billion in wages and $1.06 billion in taxes each year, says Laura Strange, director of communications and marketing for the National Grocers Association. While the typical grocery employee in Illinois makes $10.27 an hour, many baggers who stay with a grocer advance to higher-paying jobs, Strange says. Some who have moved into management jobs still compete in bagging competitions.

"The majority of last year's contestants were 22 and under, but we did have two contestants in their 50s as well as one in their 40s," Strange says of the national finals.

In addition to using his winnings for college, 2014 national winner Andrew Hadlock of Utah also earned a TV spot on "Late Show with David Letterman," where he took on the host in a bagging showdown. "It's an excellent first job," said Letterman, who was a bag boy during high school but couldn't keep up with Hadlock.

While the grocery items used for today's state championship aren't revealed until the competition begins, each competitor will be given 30 to 38 typical products and three reusable bags. A loaf of easily mushable bread and a carton of fragile eggs are sure to make the list.

Other typical items might include a 16-ounce jar of pickles, a roll of paper towels, a box of cereal, two 28-ounce cans of peas, a 16-ounce bag of chips, a small pack of sunflower seeds and a 96-ounce eight-pack of pop.

While judges use stopwatches to time the baggers, bagging is about more than speed.

"The technique and the weight distribution is very important," Munster says. Each state organization receives an official training manual, which predictably is packed with every bit of information a competitive bagger might need.

Baggers earn up to 10 points for speed, with anything 49 seconds or faster earning the full amount, and scores dropping by a point for every extra four seconds. But they also can earn 10 points for a perfectly packed bag, with cans and jars on the bottom, boxes on the sides, glass items in the center and filler items making sure bottles don't touch each other.

The pound difference in weight between the heaviest bag and the lightest bag is subtracted from a perfect score of 5, and another 5 points is awarded for style, appearance and attitude.

There is no swimsuit competition, but a crisp, clean apron goes a long way.

The 2015 national champion also will get a chance to compete in Washington against his or her local congressman. No bagger from Illinois has won a national bagging championship, but our state does have a long and colorful history of political bagmen.