AIBU to find supermarket job interviews oddly demanding and irrelevant?

Years ago my DS applied online for a p/t role at Next when he was in sixth form. Didn’t get past that stage, I saw some of the questions and was 🤷‍♀️
He got a job through word of mouth, also retail but a small concern that didn’t have a shitty process and was there on and off for about 3 years.
I was once asked some bizzare question at a second interview for a charity job. I wasn’t prepared for that and didn’t get the job.

In my current role we do team building events. I dread them. It’s alway the same few obnoxious twats who take over the task, guffawing as though building a bridge out of spaghetti and golden syrup is the most interesting thing they have done.
Tou want me to feel happy? Give me the day off or some hard cash.

Did you answer 'an amoeba, so I don't have to answer stupid questions?'

Except they can’t - lots of people find it way too physically demanding and can’t manage it.

I was completely honest about it from the start and they did employ students so that wasnt unusual.

Years ago I went for a job as a teaching assistant in a primary school. I had experience and qualifications in all areas of child development.
I had to prepare a lesson plan and deliver it. Then had a long interview. At the end of the interview the interviewers told me rather casually that it would be expected that I stay behind every Friday for ‘ an hour or so, unpaid!’ They slipped in that the person leaving had basically told them that she would no longer be working unpaid and doing this.
I mean come on! You get paid less than a dustbin man and you are expected to work unpaid on top of that. This would reduced your wage to less than minimum wage. I apparently came a close runner up but frankly would not have even bothered going for the interviews if they had explained this beforehand.
Talk about misleading.

I do agree though that passing an interview doesn’t mean that you are the best candidate for the job.

Years and years ago I went for an interview at Tesco for a part time shop assistant to fit around uni
It was a group interview that I believe lasted at least 3 hours and for part of it we had to make up a TV advert in groups for a product (think we had fruit juice) and act it out in front of everyone else
I absolutely hate shit like that so I probably came across as quiet and did not get the job 😂

Dd worked pt in a supermarket whilst studying for her degree. She was soon left in charge even though she was on minimum wage and just a regular employee. She was run off her feet. She had to organise breaks, run the huge self check outs, attend parcel collection/ returns and be a runner, which means racing up and down the store getting price checks etc for cashiers.
She also got asked about products as in ‘ Is this pudding nice, will I like it?’
‘You don’t have any x bottles of wine, go and look in your stock room and get me one.’
’Why Don’t you have any Mini egg Easter eggs left, I want 3 for my children, why have you sold them all? Are you happy now?’ Said at 9pm the day before Easter Sunday.
One man came in 3 times as he had bought the wrong toilet rolls. His wife was sat in the car. He asked Dd ‘I keep picking the wrong ones, which ones does my wife mean?’
It’s not an easy job.

You're overthinking it, its not about the answers its the difference between someone being confident and able to think on their feet and someone sat rolling their eyes thinking their above it

The surprise question is totally make something up.

It doesn’t say it has to be about you - but what would surprise someone about you.

So what would surprise someone about you? Dance, sing? What is so unlike you it would be a shock! Have fun with it!

If you win the lottery one - again - have some fun. You love yoga so you’d build a whole summer house in your mansion garden for yoga! Buy yoga pants in all colours of the rainbow.

They don’t actually give a shit about the answers - more that you are sociable, can work in a team, converse well and are manageable.

How long ago did you do this job

Like others have said, it's how you answer as it's preparing you for all the stupid questions you'll get from customers.

Do you show confusion/annoyance or are you quick on your feet and answer as if you already knew the question.

I've got a good fake face and can make stuff up on the go pretty quick, so a customer asking a ridiculous question will be met with a smile and seemingly thought out answer, even if inwardly thinking wtf.

Some of the newbies we had were bloody useless. Putting cat food in the dog food. There is a picture of cats or dogs on the pet food!!!

Didn’t know the order of months in a year. Sometimes things like block cheese, we got a case with a date a month shorter than the longest date, they put these behind all the stock on the shelf

Nah, all those jobs are easy, and I spent 4 years doing them working through university. You might be on your feet but it's real brain-off stuff. Anyone can walk around a carpark pushing trollies about or stacking shelves, they really can.

Group exercises are useful, random questions not so much, but can prompt a question or two, animal might be a dog, loyal, energetic and reliable, that sort of thing. If you want the job, you need to commit to the process. Any whiff of ‘why are you asking me this’ might be a predictor of future (undesirable) behaviour it might not but probably not worth taking the risk.

I'm not saying those things don't exist, but let's not pretend stacking shelves and lugging boxes around for 8 hours is easy. I worked on the hot food counter for years and I was physically wiped at the end of a shift. It was hot, relentless work and I often had sore knees, sore hips and a sore back from doing constant twisting, turning and heavy lifting.

It might be easy if you're sat on a chair at the tills all day but most of retail just isn't like that.

I disagree.

They're easy in that they don't require much brain power but, depending on what you do, they can be physically exhausting, mind-numbing and mentally draining.

Yes its definitely the customer

Definitely

Hope that was sarcastic enough.

When I worked for a supermarket, this was my tasks. Doing a 7-3 shift.
. Put out fresh delivery including helping out on produce if usual colleagues were off. Then put overs (rotating them) in the back
. Put out bread or cakes out
. If short staffed on checkouts, did a tea break cover
. Reduce today’s date stuff
. Long life code checked stuff (cooked meats, yoghurt, cheese etc 3-4 days advance)
. Go through the overs to check dates

Then in between if no staff available did food courier picks when they came up on the headsets

I did about 16k steps each day. One week when the systems went down and got more deliveries - I did. 23k steps a day.

Supermarkets expect staff to do more with less staff, burnout.

In my civil service job I am not so pressured

Simple:
. The rudeness, horrible attitude that customers have. These people need to understand that their behaviour is causing this
. Been given less hours than expected. Had newbies that were told they will have 22 hours a week then get 12. Left to as was given 22 hours at another job
. Being given the crap shifts. 4pm-10pm Saturday anyone?
. Bullying from management. After 17 years of working for a supermarket, I was bullied by the store manager that I had to leave. I was crying all the time
.

It's easy in that it doesn't require much brain power, however I have just spent 6 hours solid on my feet pulling, pushing and carrying heavy shit around as fast as my legs will allow. 6 hours is about as long as I can manage, I honestly don't know how people do it full time. Staffing has been cut to the bone, you have to be fast and use your initiative or the whole team falls behind. My whole body is knackered. Then there's the shift patterns, we are lucky enough to not have night shifts but we are still open 6am to 11pm 7 days a week so the hours can be really shit. It's not all pottering around chatting to customers, there is some graft involved.

Entry level retail jobs are easy. They just are. You stack shelves, you push trollies, you sit at a till and push a few buttons.

People quit because such jobs are boring as fuck and because mostly they are filled by kids and students who move onto different things.

If they don't ask you any questions they don't have any cover when you take them to an Employment Tribunal for unlawfully discriminating against you on the grounds of a protected characteristic.

I suppose it goes further. Once they've asked you a bunch of irrelevant questions, they then have to try to interpret them to see who would make the best shelf stacker. Talking about making a rod for your own back.

I’m going to tell my UC work coach about this thread as it’s exactly the issue I’ve had ! In total I’ve had 31 interviews and not got any of the jobs as I can’t get past these kind of interviews. I’ve applied for literally hundreds of jobs and not even got an interview and they keep saying im being difficult !