I Pick Online Food Shop Orders AMA

[thismeansnothing]

On a few days off after a run of night shifts and am a bit bored. Plus after the thread about supermarket work I thought I'd set this up. I started this roll 6 month ago and find it interesting mainly because I am a nosey sod! But if you've wondered about supermarket work and the world of substitutions AMA

@papergirl1968 I do 3 nights a week (some people on my team do 2 and some do 4. And the other night staff team to a ten hour shift 😬😬) anyway, sleep. As it took me a while to get into a routine that works and it took a bit of trial and error.

So on the day of my first night shift I get up as normal at about 7:30am, go for a run, walk the dog and generally keep myself busy. Go to bed at 6pm and get up at 10pm, eat and I start work at midnight. Get home then go to bed around 2:30/3 get up at 10pm for night #2. Get home then go to bed at 2:30/3pm get up at 10pm for night #3. Then after my last shift I go to bed about midday but just for a couple hours, then up and about and back to bed at 10:30pm ish and I'm back in sync for daytime living.

That's what appears to work for me. From speaking to other colleagues they tend to go to bed as soon as they get in and do the opposite to me and get up at like 3pm and finish their 'day' with work. But I have to do it like I do as DH works from home and needs to help a bit. So I finish work and then do school run/look after the toddler who goes down for a nap just before me and he takes over at about 2:30 when he has to do the school run and he catches up with some work when the kids are in bed. Chaotic but working so far.

Thanks, Op. It is something I’ve considered but I’m not sure I’m fit enough for it or could cope with the working nights.

Why on earth did you substitute peppermint oil capsules for glycerin suppositories? Ouch!

And while we're at it, white bread for a bog brush?

@Mustbe3ormorecharacters

It relieves me it’s probably not just 1 person picking my shopping! The delivery driver definitely judges me though.

Any comical pairings? Bunch of bananas bottle of lube and some condoms?

You might laugh but I did once queue behind someone in sainsburys buying a cucumber, a bottle of lube and some pink fizz!

How do the pickers manage to choose rotten fruit? If your bag comes soggy because of the rotten fruit leaking into it, does it mean the picker was just very tired (and didn't feel juice on their hands) or they did it on purpose to get a bad feedback? Just curious as we do receive sometimes bad fruit or bagged salad.

Also if we order a vegetable by price per item we would receive the tiniest one in the whole supermarket.

@pickachew not guilty. That's someone blatantly taking the Mick 😂 but as said previous where I am subs are an absolute last resort and are checked up on through a shift

@papergirl1968 other supermarkets do do picking during the day so worth looking at if your interested.

@Pessimistiquerealistique at the end of the day that is down to the picker. But you'd hope they'd notice and apply common sense. With us doing picking at night we are picking from the most recent delivery. And if something is damaged it's wasted and binned. And again anything with a date we've to send the longest dated item. Unfortunately some things can get damaged in transit but ideally you'll bag and pack to avoid that from happening but some accidents will happen.

With weighted items it may depend what's on the shelf at the time. A few weeks ago where I am brambley apples were HUGE but a week later they were all tiiiiiiiny. If someone had.ordered a particular weight that's fine and you can make that up. But if someone had only ordered say 2 that ain't gonna make a pie. So on that occasion our boss told us to weigh 2 but throw some extras in so there would have been the volume of a 'typical' 2 apples. Same has happened recently for sweet potatoes and large spuds.

I have worked in sales and wholesaling for most of my adult life and have helped out with order picking many times (non food) so I really appreciate what you do.

Thank you.

@thismeansnothing

Thank you for doing your job! Many of us are relying on people like you!! I have had my shopping delivered for a long time now, but it has been so important for me this year!

Your sleep schedule sounds very organised, but the whole arrangement with DH & kids sounds very busy!!

You've done a great job of making your employer sound pretty good! Who do you work for?

@witchesbritchespumpkinpants fortunately DH employer is really flexible and he's been allowed to work from home 2 days a week to help me with the kids and his other 3 days in the office. It works, kinda for now. But when I lost my much loved and quite specialist job I had to take what's available. I applied for loads of jobs in April and got no where with alot of them except with this. But i seemed to have got lucky and fallen on my feet with this one. If DH work situation changes it will either be a case of the youngest going to nursery earlier than we planned or see if I can swap to a daytime role until I suss out what it is a really want to do. As for who I work for, it's Waitrose . I've only worked in 1 supermarket before which was Lidl about 16 years ago but after someone came in wielding a knife and j was told to carry on working on the till I didn't rush to go back 😂

Thanks, Op, I might just apply if I see a job.

@thismeansnothing it was the same sized bottles of tonic 500ml. I've had some good subs over the years tbf! Don't often send them back as they tend to be better than the item I ordered. Last week I got 2x packs of cans of orange fizz when I ordered 1x 2 litre bottle

Thanks OP. I know for sure you don't work for the supermarket I order my food from.

Op you sound like you've made the best of an unexpected situation and are making it work for your family, so well done. It sounds like the type of job I'd enjoy too- keeps you fit and strong, good procedures to follow, but switch off at the end of the day.

totally off track but I'm wondering what kind of NHS job you were made redundant from?

@mrdarcysma well I was in the NHS for 8 years doing exercise on referral and weight management work. The contract went out to bids and a private company won it so we all TUPEd to them. After 4 years public health in all their wisdom cut all the funding as apparently a free exercise/weight management service isnt needed 🙄 so I technically left the NHS 4 year ago but thankfully was still on an NHS contract so got a good redundancy package. I was on maternity when this happened. Was supposed to go back the day we were given our marching orders. I'd applied for a few jobs and got interviews but they never happened cos funding was pulled left right and centre so jobs dissapeared. So it's been an interesting year to say the least.