Loganville Baggers Fare Well In First Round of Kroger Best Bagger Competition

The 2012 Best Bagger Championship preliminaries got off to an exciting start in Loganville Tuesday morning when 22 Kroger stores from District O sent their best and fastest baggers to the for the opening round. Needless to say, having hometown advantage appeared to work for the locals with the Loganville stores taking 1^st and 3^rd place in the competition.

Winner was Michael Keys from the Rosebud Road Kroger in Loganville with 3^rd place going to Loganville High School rising senior John Austin from the Highway 81 Kroger store.

Keys, a Loganville resident and graduate of , goes on to compete at the regional level with a chance to move up to the Georgia Food Industry Association competition later this summer. The winner there gets a shot at the big time in Las Vegas, Nev., in February 2012. The winner of the National Grocer’s Association and ConAgra Foods final next year will receive a grand prize of $10,000, second place will receive $5,000 and 3^rd to 5^th place will each receive $1,000.

The 2012 contestants will use three reusable bags during the preliminary and final rounds. Contestants must fulfill contest criteria to attain high scores and are therefore bagging for points rather than against other contestants.

In Tuesday's competition for Kroger's District O stores, contestants followed the same rules, bagging first into plastic bags and then into earth-friendly reusable bags. They were judged on speed as well as weight distribution to earn points that were then tallied to find the winners. The store took on a carnival-type atmosphere as cheerleaders and shoppers joined in to encourage Kroger baggers as they competed, three at a time, for the chance to move up to the next level. The winners at the local level also compete for college scholarship money. Keys will be attending Georgia Perimeter in the fall.