I’m an online shopper AMA

[Soubriquet]

I work for a major supermarket and I am responsible for doing your shopping when you place it online.

So go ahead. Ask what you want

Are you encouraged to pick the foods with the shortest use by dates?

Do you have competitions over who can find the most ridiculous replacements for out of stock items?

Do you enjoy it?

I do enjoy it yes

And no, we are actually encouraged to pick the longest we can.

No competition either. We try to substitute as good as we can too. So if an item is gluten free, we won’t substitute for it’s gluten version we would find something else gluten free

Can you "upgrade" people if stock is out? Like go from Basics to Finest, or do you need to provide a different item entirely (and are they auto suggested or do you need to think it yourself?)

Do you ever look at an order and think anything of it? (good or bad)

We can upgrade if we want to. We do get suggestions on the handset but sometimes a bit of common sense is required.

We don’t have any customers full order so can’t comment whether it’s a good shop or not.

We get given a number basically, and the handset will tell us what number crate to put the item in. We have 8 crates so all the items we select could go in any one of the crates

Does it annoy you when people (me) ask you where everything is in the supermarket while you're trying to pick orders? In my experience, the shoppers know far more about where things are than the checkout supervisor who in my Tesco is the only other person free on the shop floor?

Also, is there a hierarchy among departments, and where do online shoppers fit?
Eg. Bakery (top)
Pharmacy (bottom)
This was my experience as a pharmacy worker in sainsburys. All the young checkout staff loved the (slightly rough round the edges) bakery lads....

No it doesn’t annoy me though it can be a bit awkward as we are actually timed on our shopping and obviously a customer asking takes time away, but customers are more important.

And no hierarchy that I’ve seen

Do you enjoy your job or does it get monotonous after a while?

No, I do enjoy it. Never monotonous as it’s a different shop every day.

It’s always interesting when you get a new item

Do you get training on pushing those massive carts about, especially when fully laden?

Do you ever count your steps on days on and off to see the difference?

A friend of mine did the same job and she found the early starts hideous, but quite enjoyed the job itself.

No training on pushing the carts...you just sort of do it.

It’s my first job in 7 years so the early starts killed me originally but I’m used to it now.