Chris Sullivan will not be offended if you want to bag your own groceries. 

The 22-year-old employee at Barrington Shaw’s Supermarket said there are times when customers insist on bagging their own groceries, even though Sullivan holds the title “Rhode Island Food Dealers Association Best Bagger.”

Sullivan won the state grocery bagging contest last spring and will travel to Las Vegas, Nev. next week to compete in the National Best Bagger Competition at the Caesar’s Forum Convention Center. The national championship of grocery bagging will take place on Monday, Feb. 24 — the winner brings home $10,000 in prize money. 

“I say ‘Hi’ to every customer, ask them how they’re doing,” Sullivan said during an interview last week. “If they have a bigger order I’ll ask if they found everything they were looking for. I like to talk to the customers.”

On occasion, a customer may prefer to handle their own bagging duties, he said. 

“Sometimes I’ll go to bag for someone, because my cashier doesn’t have a customer, and I’ll go to them and ask if they need any help and they’ll say ’No.’ Some people may think they are a better bagger than me, and I’m fine with that.”

Sullivan said he is confident in his own bagging abilities. It showed at the state championship, where the five-year Shaw’s Supermarket veteran outshined a field of fierce competitors. 

“It was good,” Sullivan said about the state showdown. “I was pretty confident in myself because I knew I could do it in the speed that was required to get the full point value. It was just the weight I was worried about, but at the same time I practiced a good amount.”

Sullivan, who is a fourth-year student at Roger Williams University majoring in music and minoring in math, said the format at grocery bagging nationals will offer a few new challenges.

“I think it’s going to be a little bit different than state, because they have everyone going at once. They have different heats,” Sullivan said. “I’ve seen a couple Youtube videos of previous winners. Then it shows clips of them bagging. It doesn’t show them bagging their whole thing because obviously people could see (how they do it). 

“To get 10 out of 10 points for the speed category, you need to bag it in under 53 seconds. I know for the state one there were three bags you had to fill. I’m not sure if it’s two, three or four (bags) for the national one, but I’m almost sure it’s the same time, 53 and under, to get 10 points out of 10. But I’m not worried.”

Sullivan said he does not expect bagging speed to be an issue. He is more focused on ensuring that his filled bags are the same weight.

“It’s basically how fast we can bag and how neat the bags are — you don’t want to crush any of the bread or the chips. And obviously the weight of the bag is also very important. They have to be very similar to your other bags,” he said, adding that competition bagging is a bit different than bagging for customers. 

“A little bit, because I usually put all of the like things together. I’ll put cans with cans and bread with bread. But for the competition there’s bread and chips — you kind of want to separate them because they’re very light. You don’t want to put them in the same bag.”

Karen Medeiros is the store manager at Barrington Shaw’s. She said everyone at the local market is pulling for Sullivan at nationals. 

“I think he’s got it nailed, really. I think he’s going to come home a champ. He’s got it in the bag,” Medeiros said. 

“He’s multi-talented. He’s a customer service representative on the front end, helping customers. He’s a customer service representative at the service desk. I noticed a spark in him, so I have him run the store at night when I’m not here. Multi-talented.”

Medeiros said she and a few other store employees will be traveling to Las Vegas to cheer on Sullivan at nationals. She said customers should expect a grand celebration if Sullivan brings home the title.