Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Stupid things customers ask on Xmas Eve Eve

538 replies

Mokel · 23/12/2025 06:52

I have done enough years in supermarkets at Christmas.

I remember one question raised by a few customers when putting out bread.
”do you have any bread dated after 28th”
I said if you go to a supermarket on any other 23rd, the latest date on loaves is 28th. As the bakeries always put the date as X days ahead, regardless of the time of year. I remember seeing one of these customers on Jan 23rd and asked them could they find a date longer than 28th. They couldn’t. Retail worker 1 customer 0.

”Is it possible to collect my turkey on Xmas Day?” Erm no.

OP posts:
ChubbyPuffling · 23/12/2025 09:13

Gofaster2023 · 23/12/2025 09:02

I cant remember the name of the book but it's red.....

Our local independent book shop has a bookcase near the front with shelves of new books arranged by colour - with "Don't know the title?Don't know the author? What colour is it?" - written on the blackboard above it.

Your post gave me a giggle...

Buffypaws · 23/12/2025 09:12

RhaenysRocks · 23/12/2025 07:51

To be fair, eggs seems to be the one thing that no supermarket can agree on where they should go so it's never obvious. Some put them near the mil, some near the bread, some in cereal aisle, some near baking.

Show quote history

Yes for the love of God just put them with the other baking ingredients so i can BAKE

iwasfineandlight · 23/12/2025 09:12

Terrytheweasel · 23/12/2025 09:11

Literally none of the questions asked are stupid so far ..

Show quote history

Asking if they have crackers at 3pm on Christmas Eve, when they’ve been on sale since sodding September, is stupidity.

Goalpace · 23/12/2025 09:12

BlackCoffeeAndSugar · 23/12/2025 08:11

I used to work in Tesco and people would steal things out of otherbpeoples trolley

I was in Asda once on Christmas Eve as I’d been dispatched by MIL for a jar of glace cherries…

Anyway, got there and could see there were no trollies or baskets so knew it would be a tad busy. A couple left their trolley unattended whilst they walked a bit further up the aisle to look for something… someone came, empty the contents of the trolley on the shelf and walked off with the trolley…. Shortly followed by the female of the couple going nuts at the man just shouting “how can you had lost the trolley, where did you leave it”

BringBackCatsEyes · 23/12/2025 09:11

TroysMammy · 23/12/2025 08:57

"1997 love" 😂

Show quote history

I always get a few bottles of Babycham at Christmas time as they are a fond memory of my childhood.
I know now to only ask staff members who look older than about 30 😀

Terrytheweasel · 23/12/2025 09:11

BringBackCatsEyes · 23/12/2025 09:09

Is that really a stupid question?

Show quote history

Literally none of the questions asked are stupid so far ..

SchnizelVonKrumm · 23/12/2025 09:10

Emas82 · 23/12/2025 06:53

Where's the eggs? X 100000000

But that's not a stupid question. They're always somewhere different (in my local supermarket they're currently by the pasta Hmm). There isn't a sole logical place for them to be and if there were it wouldn't be next to the sodding pasta. It's one of those items they deliberately move around from time to time so that you have to go down multiple aisles to find them

BringBackCatsEyes · 23/12/2025 09:09

Emas82 · 23/12/2025 06:53

Do you have any crackers left? (This one is usually 3pm on Xmas eve)

Is that really a stupid question?

Terrytheweasel · 23/12/2025 09:08

I’m starting to understand why these people work in supermarkets! 😂

Terrytheweasel · 23/12/2025 09:06

Emas82 · 23/12/2025 06:53

Where's the eggs? X 100000000

Why is that a stupid question? They’re never anywhere logical.

snoopyfanaccountant · 23/12/2025 09:05

SledgingSlide · 23/12/2025 08:41

Eggs are the hardest thing to find! They have no natural home and aren’t even in the dairy section often!

Show quote history

Eggs aren't dairy though. Dairy is milk.

LVhandbagsatdawn · 23/12/2025 09:03

Oh yes, the frozen roast potato flap. I had that many a year. They were always totally nonplussed when I offered to get them a bag of raw potatoes from the vegetable section.

It's not even as though real roast potatoes would take up any more room in the oven, they just take longer. You still have to roast them!

YorkshirePuddingsGreatestFan · 23/12/2025 09:02

I witnessed a furious customer yesterday as they'd sold out of Cadburys selection boxes and she didn't like the Nestle ones that the lady pointed out to her while saying "sorry these are all that we have left".

I mean they've only been selling them since September 🙄

Gofaster2023 · 23/12/2025 09:02

I cant remember the name of the book but it's red.....

catmothertes1 · 23/12/2025 08:59

Emas82 · 23/12/2025 06:53

Where's the eggs? X 100000000

To be fair,if it's a shop you have never been in,I can see the validity of the question. Eggs do not seem to have a natural place in supermarkets and they are in a different place,depending on which supermarket you go to.

TroysMammy · 23/12/2025 08:57

ChubbyPuffling · 23/12/2025 08:10

Went shopping at M and S food yesterday morning 7am... heard people asking for things they used to get 10/20 years ago... "do you know where I can get that frozen chocolatey dome dessert?" One shopper piped up "1997 love"😆

People have learned that the shops open early xmas week, was not the same quiet experience we had previous years! Though there were many very helpful assistants around to help.

"1997 love" 😂

OleOlay · 23/12/2025 08:55

Emas82 · 23/12/2025 06:53

Where's the eggs? X 100000000

In fairness in my local big supermarket the eggs are opposite the icecream freezers. It’s very weird, like the shop layout designer left the eggs until last and thought “oh crap we’ll just plonk them there then, I can’t be bothered to redo it all.”

Dustyfustyoldcarcass · 23/12/2025 08:54

I used to work in retail. The funniest one said to me was when I was telling someone we didn't have any yule logs.

"Well, you come in here on Christmas Eve and everything has bloody sold out!!!" and walked off huffing.

It was about 2hrs before closing on Christmas Eve. This was 25 years or so ago when shops didn't have stock management systems and ordering the right amount was largely guess work.

CaptainCallisto · 23/12/2025 08:53

Bikergran · 23/12/2025 08:16

My mother owned an antique shop. Beautiful, genuine, high-end stuff. She sold jewellery, and would always make sure she had a few expensive "showstopper" pieces in for Christmas. Often these hadn't sold by Christmas Eve, but she deliberately stayed open until about 8pm (this was before the days of shopping malls, when everything shut at 5, or earlier on Christmas eve). Every single year there would be some desperate disorganised man who would pay ANYTHING so he didn't have to face his wife the next day without a gift for her.

I used to work in Past Times. Between 4 and 6 on Christmas Eve we were swamped every year by middle aged men panic buying jewellery for their wives. We would frequently see the same men flapping on the Saturday afternoon before Mothering Sunday!

NearlyMonday · 23/12/2025 08:53

Could you squeeze me in for highlights and a trim on Christmas Eve?

(I suspect those slots were full by June)!

Gingercar · 23/12/2025 08:52

My husband has a garage. We often get people saying “my child has just come home for Xmas. Could you do a full service and MOT before they go back on the morning of the 27th?” (usually asked on the afternoon of Xmas eve). When we say we’re not open until the 27th they say “oh but they’ve got to go back to work then, we hoped you could do it while they’re off”)

TheCosyViewer · 23/12/2025 08:52

Mokel · 23/12/2025 06:52

I have done enough years in supermarkets at Christmas.

I remember one question raised by a few customers when putting out bread.
”do you have any bread dated after 28th”
I said if you go to a supermarket on any other 23rd, the latest date on loaves is 28th. As the bakeries always put the date as X days ahead, regardless of the time of year. I remember seeing one of these customers on Jan 23rd and asked them could they find a date longer than 28th. They couldn’t. Retail worker 1 customer 0.

”Is it possible to collect my turkey on Xmas Day?” Erm no.

In fairness, I wouldn’t have a clue how far in advance bb dates on breads are calculated. I would actually think it varies, depending on the type of bread.

I’d sat the vast majority wouldn’t have a clue either.

ImWearingPantaloons · 23/12/2025 08:52

’can I collect my food pre-order?’

’when is your slot?’

’tomorrow at 2.00…’

Mate it hasn’t even been delivered to us yet….

GoodQueenWenceslaus · 23/12/2025 08:49

Stephy1886 · 23/12/2025 07:47

Xmas eve we would run out of frozen roast potatoes

Folk really upset and couldn't believe it

People wanting to go into the warehouse to look for themselves because they didn't believe you

We would also sell out of certain crates of beer. The drinks isle was mad all day

Folk saying "it's a present for X"

To be fair, that sounds like poor stock control with the roast potatoes. Why not order in a load extra, it's not as if you can't continue to sell them after Christmas.

Chemenger · 23/12/2025 08:46

Mokel · 23/12/2025 08:36

At my supermarket, they didn’t move in the years I was there. With the baking lines. In majority of supermarkets they are there

Edited
Show quote history

well, if you had to shop in my local supermarket it would puzzle you, because they are on the end of the tinned veg aisle, nowhere near baking stuff.