Lindsey Purvis, a 23-year-old who works at Harveys Supermarkets in Nashville, Ga., beat out three other grocery baggers during two rounds of competition Thursday evening to become Georgia’s best bagger. The competition, held during the Georgia Food Industry Association’s (GFIA) opening night party at the Sandestin Golf & Beach Resort in Destin, Fla., brought out hundreds of spectators.
“I’m very proud of her,” Dennis Gaskins of J.H. Harvey Co. told The Shelby Report following the win. “My wife (Lynn, training manager) trained her.”
Purvis, whose parents—Jimmy and Lynn Purvis—cheered on their daughter during the event, has been bagging groceries for four years. She told The Shelby Report that she practiced for hours every day leading up to the competition, which was emceed by former University of Georgia football star D.J. Shockley.
Competitors are judged on a number of criteria, including speed of bagging and weight distribution among the bags.
Purvis won $2,000 and will go on to compete nationally in Las Vegas. Josh Szewczak, 19, of Publix in Columbia was the runner-up in the Georgia competition. Others who competed included Troy Yearby of Kroger in Athens and Trent Blalock of Quality Foods in Commerce.
The GFIA Best Bagger Contest was sponsored by Bunzl, GFIA Education Foundation, Eat At Home Georgia and Western Union.
In the featured photo at top: Lindsey Purvis, second from left, has earned the title of best grocery bagger in Georgia. Purvis, of Harveys Supermarket in Nashville, Ga., competed alongside three other baggers from Kroger, Publix and Quality Foods. Purvis is pictured with, from left, Lynn Gaskins, J.H. Harvey Co.; her parents Lynn and Jimmy Purvis; and Dennis Gaskins, J.H. Harvey Co. ((Find more photos from the competition and the opening night festivities here.)
