Does anyone work as a shelf stacker in a supermarket?

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I have been offered a job as this but have been told it involves heavy lifting
Thing is, is like to get into the supermarket as its well paid but am nervat what heavy lifting actually involves

Has anyone got any advice?

I used to. It can really depend on what aisles you are assigned to, if they still do that. I used to stack shelves years ago as a student and we had a specific aisle that we stacked. My lovely colleague got crisps and had huge boxes, but they weighed very little. I ended up with cereals. Those weetabix come in huge boxes of 50 odd boxes and weighed far too much to easily unpack. I did give myself a bit of RSI in my elbow from the same shelf-stacking move as I wasn't careful about using both hands to do it.

Most supermarkets are hot on health and safety though, and will advise you what you can lift and how to do it safely. You can usually part-unload heavier boxes on a cage and then lift the box when it's lighter.

I'd advise giving it a go and just being mindful of what you can lift comfortably.

Thanks

I'm really worried I won't be able to do the job, I want to get into the supermarket and I think it's the only way I'll get in, to do this job till I can try to get something else.

Yes I work on the fresh foods dept in a large supermarket. Not all of the things you lift are heavy. The heaviest on our section are juice and meat. Other heavy things are beer and pet food. Have you been told what department you will be on?

Grocery I think, don't know anything more specific.

Am also a bit nervous about the pressure, they told me they expect x amounts stacked away in x time, not really sure yet if I'll be able to do that, sorry don't remember the exact specifics

I'm a conscientious person and I'll do my best but am small and mid 50s and not really sure how ill get on with the workload

I did. I was on dairy and was assigned yogurt and milk. And it was fucking heavy. I would get a certain amount of cages on delivery per night, we would break the fresh delivery into isles as a team. Then take our cages to our isles to unpack (I normally had about 6 per night). We were allowed to listen to music or audiobooks though so time went quick

Grocery is a great dept as you have so many sections that need filling. I regularly refuse to work juice as it's too heavy and they don't mind. Where I work you are expected to keep a certain pace but it's easily achievable if you just get on with the task. The job is boring but the people are great and we have such a laugh! Also being on the shop floor as opposed to tills means more flexibility in your movements I.e going to have a wee and a cup of water if you feel the strain. I'd say go for it, I'm in my 15th year of shelf stacking so it can't be that bad!!

I've stacked shelves for years. I'm reasonably fit but I'm small, quite short and very slight built and I've never found anything too heavy for me to lift.

They won't expect you to be amazingly fast from the start because a lot of it is learning where everything is. Also, I know it varies between supermarkets but where I work, the number of cases expected per hour isn't pressured at all. People miss it because they're either messing around and talking or working really illogically not because they can't move fast enough.

Thanks, it's sainsburys if that makes any difference, have never done it before.

Is it evening shifts?

I used to do it, I was usually on foil etc through to washing powder most things were not heavy individually but the repeated action meant you could really ache at the end of a shift

It's evening and some nights too, the shifts are 6 hours long

I'm sorry to sound rude but of course it will be heavy and/or repetitive lifting. If it's anything like my local supermarket you will have two or three aisles to get done by yourself. It is not an easy job.

Thanks for being honest, they've actually just offered me the cafe instead so I'm going to go for that.

And it's more hours in the cafe so it's worked out OK

Do you get to pick and choose which aisles you want? Someone said they refused to do certain ones, so you get a choice then?

That's good news

A new member of staff walking in and demanding certain aisles wouldn't go down well but management aren't generally out to piss people off. As long as there's not one aisle that everybody's refusing to do and you haven't got a list of twelve aisles you won't do, it doesn't really matter. I don't mind juice being heavy but I hate pet food because it smells.

I used to work in Sainsbury's cafe!