Meet The South Dakota Champ Of Grocery Bagging Skills

Have you ever been grocery shopping, and when it comes time to have someone bag your groceries, it's a hit or miss situation? Sometimes you get a bagger who's great, and sometimes you get someone who throws your frozen pizza in the cart on top of your other groceries, not even in a bag. Yup, that happened to me very recently.

Well, one South Dakota grocery bagger had all the right stuff at the South Dakota State Fair Best Bagger Competition.

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A grocery clerk from Onida has been crowned the state’s top bagger. Kristen Hermes of Don’s Food Center won first place at the South Dakota Best Bagger Competition, held Saturday, August 30, at the South Dakota State Fair.

The annual event, hosted by the South Dakota Retailers Association and sponsored by Associated Wholesale Grocers, NW French & Associates, and Prairie Farms, featured 20 contestants from across the state.

Participants were tasked with bagging identical grocery orders and were judged on speed, technique, bag weight distribution, and overall presentation.

“South Dakota is home to countless outstanding grocers,” said Retailers Association Executive Director Nathan Sanderson. “Hosting the Best Bagger Competition at the State Fair is the perfect opportunity to showcase our state’s grocery industry in an exciting way.”

Hermes took home the top prize of $500 and will now represent South Dakota at the National Grocers Association’s Best Bagger Championship in Las Vegas, where the grand prize is $10,000.

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Second place went to Michael Chasing Hawk Jr. of Buche Foods in Gregory, who received $200. The event highlighted the skill and pride grocery clerks bring to their work in communities across South Dakota.

I'll bet these baggers would have put my pizza in a bag and, in fact, kept my cold and frozen foods separate from my dryer sheets!