Grocery baggers go for the gold

Gary Bruns nervously sipped a cocktail prior to a grocery bagging contest Wednesday, wondering whether his friend needed a "calming Crown Royal on the rocks."

"He looks tense," Bruns said of Andy Dobmeyer, Ohio's best bagger. "He's so much better bagging when he's mellow. He's got these great hands because he's a drummer in a heavy metal band, but they're not going to do him any good if they're shaking.

"He could break the eggs."

It turned out Dobmeyer, a 220-pound, 6 foot, 6 inch, fiercely competitive bagger who goes by the nickname "Dobbs," was too busy showing admirers his "Live Your Dream" tattoo on his forearm to knock back a Crown.

"I'm a little nervous, but I'll be all right," Dobbs told Bruns, who closed his eyes and finished half his cocktail in one gulp.

More than 60 people came from Coldwater, Ohio, a village of 4,000 people halfway between Toledo and Cincinnati, to Bally's to watch Dobbs stuff paper sacks with everything from bread to Lifesavers at the National Grocers Association's USA Best Bagger Championship. Most of the Coldwater residents wore "Go Dobbs" yellow T-shirts that Bruns, who runs a men's clothing store, had made.

They were joined for two hours Wednesday afternoon by several hundred others who came to support baggers from 24 states and Canada as they competed in the 22nd annual competition created to reduce turnover in the entry-level jobs.

At times, the audience was not as pumped up by the 30-second spurts of action as emcee Phil Lempert, the food trend editor on NBC's "Today" show, would have liked.

"Isn't this exciting?" he asked the audience.

There was silence, but then Lempert heard something from the audience that made him respond.

"What do you mean 'Oh, come on?' " he said.

Thirty-year-old Gord Groves of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, was excited about representing his country. He seemed sure that what once happened to him at a Quality Foods store there would not befall him in Las Vegas.

"One time I was picking up a dozen eggs to put in a bag and they all fell out (on the conveyor)," he said. "It was such a mess, but I didn't swear, and everyone pitched in to help me clean up. We immediately got the customer another dozen eggs. We have a good team."

Groves was a bit taken aback when NGA officials talked to contestants in private before the competition.

"Some American contestants were doing sit-ups during the session," he said. "Others were doing crunches and stretching. It kind of made me wonder what we were getting ready for."

Whenever NGA officials were setting out new groceries to be bagged and silence fell over the Pacific Ballroom, Lempert tried to rev up the baggers and their loved ones in the audience.

"Where do you always put the eggs?" he yelled.

"On top," they replied.

"All right," Lempert said.

Lempert reminded everyone on hand that they would get to see a free screening Wednesday night of the new National Lampoon movie "Bag Boy."

It's doubtful anyone in the movie could bag groceries better than 18-year-old Erika Jensen of Utah. Not only did she win the U.S. championship, she also beat Groves in the international competition.

"Bagging groceries is fun," said the teen, who won two trophies and $2,000.

Dobbs was so despondent after the competition that his friend Bruns worried about him. As his friend sat in a chair and looked at the floor, Bruns was sure Dobbs felt worse than when his beloved Ohio State lost the NCAA football championship game to Louisiana State University.

"I don't think he can believe he lost two seconds off his time for forgetting at first to put Lifesavers in his bag," Bruns said. "I think that Crown would have helped."

Contact reporter Paul Harasim at pharasim@reviewjournal.com or (702) 387-2908.