Is it normal that my coffee grinder leaves a huge mess all over the counter? So I have an old blade grinder, which seems to work well enough for me, except in one respect: The coffee grinds fall out of the bottom of the grinder. Now this is a cheapo grinder that I got as a gift, and I've never had another grinder. So I don't want to go buy another if they all do this. But on the other hand, if this just a function of a piece of cr*p grinder, I'd like to have a new one.

To clarify: I'm not talking about a static explosion of grind upon opening the cover after grinding. I'm talking about some of the grinds simply ending up on the counter while I'm grinding.

UPDATE
So, I have opened the bottom in the past, and when I did, the most enormous amount of old yucky coffee grinds spilled out. So I cleaned it out, and put it back together, and when I did, the problem continued to happen. So I, like any good ol' cheapskate would do, sealed the bottom with duct tape. This solved the problem until I realized that the design of the thing is to let moisture out the bottom of the machine, and that's the same path that the grind were coming out. So all my coffee grinds were ending up moist and sticky.

So in short, I should've bought a new one long ago, and to you future cheapskates reading this, do not even ACCEPT a "white-westinghouse" grinder as a freebie.
I've owned several grinders -- both blade and burr, but I've never had one that did this.  So no I would not say it is normal

Is the lid closed tight when you start it?  Blade style ones are pretty cheap, so you might just want to get a new one.