Heavy stuff first, cold things together, fragile stuff last.

There is no such concept as "groceries getting bagged for you" in Germany. I have a backpack with me where I put my groceries.

Regarding your question, yes have a strategy.

The basic order on the belt is heavy to light items, so that the heavy things such cans or glas bottles go to the bottom, light stuff like yoghurt and eggs at the end of the belt so they come on top of the other groceries.

Of course this is not fixed, as light but bulky items may get a prioritized place on the belt. The worst thing that can happen is that you have to repack your backback.

However this is not all. As our cashiers are usually professionals, you will need to stategically slow them down, you want to avoid the shameful and pressuring looks of your successors. I do that by putting items inbetween the other stuff on the belt that have to be counted or weighed, such as pastry and vegetables. This gives you time to pack your stuff or rearrange in case you made mistake a step earlier.

Yep. Heavy and dense first, all refrigerated together, etc. I shop at WinCo mostly so I bag my own. It's very satisfying making it a super efficient process up front.

I used to work at a checkout operator, long ago.

I ALWAYS order the belt, cans and heavy stuff goes first, then usually cold/frozen stuff, veg and fruit, baking products (flour, sugar etc), then finally the light/soft stuff.

Oh absolutely. They are arranged in the trolly before even getting to checkout too but you are querying a crowd on Lemmy that is going to be biased towards programmer / engineer types that tend to function well in their world due to compulsive features often considered pathologic by others.

First heavy and non breakables or non crushables. Then crushables the veggies then fruits.

Heavy items such as milk goes in first, so that they will also be at the bottom of my backpack. Light and fragile things, such as salad goes last.

Of course I do, is there another way? How else would one determine packing order and avoid crushing the more delicate stuff like tomatoes and eggs under the weight of the heavier items.

I put the heaviest and least breakable things first in line so they end up at the bottom of the bag(s). Canned food, stuff in plastic bottles, then all the cold/ frozen stuff altogether, light and delicate things like bread, chips etc last

My only hard rule is refrigerated/frozen items together so I can handle that bag first when I put groceries up.

We have hand scanners you can take with you through the store. I pack everything into collapsible crates as I go, so at the checkout it's just putting the scanner back and paying.

I'm a car-free city dweller, so I always put heavy stuff first so I can pack it in my backpack, lighter stuff next to fill my reusable bags, with fragile stuff last so it's packed on top.

Makes it easy to walk or bus home with everything.

Heavy first, light last. This way the light stuff won't get squished. And we bag stuff ourselves here, we aren't that lazy.

The stuff at the top of the basket goes first so I can reach the stuff at the bottom?

I keep cold things or products that are identical or related together most of the time. So all the bags of chips, or all the cans, all the meats, all the frozen stuff, etc.

And I guess like the other guy, I usually stick fragile stuff on one end or the other.

Soft and fragile things on top, heavy things on the bottom, square things in the middle, circular things on the outside, cold things in one bag, non-cold-things in another bag, and anything that can't be organized in this way in a third bag.

I just scan and bag as I go in the supermarket and pay at the end. Much easier than staying in line and bagging everything at the end.

You reminded me that some third-world countries like the US have people packing your groceries for a few dollars a day

Self bagging only pretty much where i live.
The cashiers at lidl are so fast it's hard to keep up.
I just stuff everything in fast as possible trying to maximise damage; this can also save on chewing time later.

But I only have to carry it as far as my bicycle - and I do sometimes need to fish out and reorganize heavy stuff at that point to keep the pain-ears vaguely balanced.

Though it is quite fun to try with 6-7 litres of liquids on one side and 2 carrots and a lettuce on the other.
If it's not too windy I'd just do that - shopping is boring.

If I was walking farther I'd take a big rucksack and yeah I'd probably pack it more systematically.

I can understand car users not bothering to organise though.
Unless you're driving 100km through the desert and think anything frozen wil melt.

I go to scan-while-you-shop places then strategically bag as I walk around the store. 30 seconds to pay and then leave.

I generally go to self-scan line, so it's the order in which I bought these. When I go to a more classical line, Heavy, then cold, then light so the heavy stuff goes on the bottom of the bag, the cool stuff in the middle (where they are a bit protected) and the light things on top