What's it like to work in a supermarket?

[Whosaidthattt]

I am considering quitting my stressful job to do something that involves no work outside my contracted hours, unless it's properly paid overtime.
I quite like the idea of a supermarket- stacking shelves, tills and chatting to customers.
Can I ask, if you work full time in a supermarket, what is the pay like and do you enjoy it? My local Aldi are offering £10ph, which isn't bad! It is certainly more per hour than I currently earn, when I factor in all the extra hours I do for no extra pay.

I don't, but I have many friends that do and my DS has done. All of them enjoy it but they all work at my local tesco. It could really come down to who you work with and what your manager is like. Our local Tesco has had mostly the same staff for 20 years, which suggests that particular one is a great place to work!

One good thing about it is you can always pick up extra shifts if you want them, which is handy when you're saving for something.

Oh and it's extra pay on a Sunday at tesco (used to be 1.5 but now I think 1.25 usual rate)

I worked at tescos during lockdown really nice place to work. I would advise try not to get a till only job personally i find it very dull.

Hard thankless work and they will squeeze every last drop out of you

Aldi have a skeleton staff which is why the pay is more you expected to be stacking shelves then jumping on tills its non stop. I used to work at tesco and that was pleasant enough.

l used to work in an office but then l just wanted a part time job after my son was born. l work as a dot.com picker, the things l love are l go in early and finish early, out by 12, lovely in the summer. The team l work with are very diverse, all there for different reasons, studying, early retirement, work around family and caring, inbetween jobs, makes it more interesting than just sat with same collegues day in day out, l get on really well with the people l work with.
The disadvantages are it is managed quite poorly, its really difficult sorting out holiday, pay queries, change of hours etc. But saying that they have always been flexible and accomodated my hours .
Some customers are unpleasant, but majority are polite and friendly.
The best thing is once l have clocked out l don' t give it a second thought, unlike my previous job and that is priceless.

Really good as long as you're not on a till the whole time as that wrecked my back and bored me senseless. I liked working Deli, bakery and warehouse the best.

DS really enjoyed shelf stacking and sorting stuff out the back, this was Waitrose, he didn't like the till so much as he thought it was boring, when they gave the call for all till trained to the till, he was known to hang back and let others go first

If you think you'll be able to stand around nattering to customers at ALDI you'll be in for a big surprise, LIDL too

I've worked at ALDI so can comment

I work part time in a local version of a supermarket and enjoy it. I hated office work and wanted something less stressful and flexible.

I get on really well with staff and there's a great group feeling. You get to know regulars and it's very friendly, but I'm not sure if that translates to larger stores. I do get a sense of pride in my work and when a customer gives you good feedback it's wonderful.

The pay isn't great, but for me it's better than working full time in an office environment where people were mean and managers nasty.

I know someone who works in Aldi. They won't contract anyone over 16 hours but they expect you to do over 50 in overtime. That's what they said anyway.

It’s ok. Pays ok (above minimum wage but not much) 10% discount after 3 months. While there is often overtime there isn’t full time contracts where I work- it’s not cost effective for them I suppose. My colleagues and I mostly have around 15 hours a week contracts and lots (but not all) of us do extra hours. The more flexible you can be the more hours you’ll get- contract and overtime in my experience. And being a hard worker obviously.

Sounds like you would be more suited to Waitrose than Aldi, it's a slower pace and you are meant to actively help customers rather than just point in the general direction, it's more customer service based.

The smaller supermarkets are good as well. It's more varied so you won't be stuck on the checkout all the time, you'll be expected to do all shop tasks. Deliveries, stock checks, serving customers, reductions etc. it's also great for developing friendships with regular customers which I like.

A colleague of mine now worked at Tesco when they needed extra staff during the height of the pandemic and absolutely loved it.

I worked at Tesco when I was at college 20 years ago and I loved it tbh.

I worked in a small local supermarket as a summer job once. Enjoyed it very much. I liked talking to customers, enjoyed being busy, you got first dibs on discounted food, nice to be at the centre of a community.

And you'd have interesting things like the men rushing in at 8am having forgotten their partner's birthday. I wrapped quite a few boxes of chocs that summer

I work as a team leader in home delivery. Absolutely love it. However you won’t get a full time contract in any supermarket now. Most people are on 12 hours some are on 4 I’m on 28 which is about as good as it gets.

When I was a picker I was contracted for 10 hours a week. Generally did 25-30 hours often more. However every so often they drop everyone to contract hours to save money. You need to consider if you can afford to live on 12 hours a week.

Plus we work weekends and bank holidays. My department is highly sought after because we don’t work Christmas Eve Boxing Day or New Years Day even when everyone else does.

Personally I like it but it’s not for everyone

My sister is a picker - she has a disabled daughter so even though she has a masters degree the shifts fit in well and as you say you leave your job at work. She gets around 12-13/hour I think.
Several of my friends kids are working supermarkets during their gap year to fund travelling. They like the variety - stacking one day, cashier another, customer service another day. If you are trained in the different responsibilities (meat counter etc) all the better! They are big supermarkets and seems they are given as many shifts as they want.

I work at a large Tesco in the evenings - I started on checkouts & am now in clothing. I find it varied in our department as we often get asked to help out in other areas & I can go home at the end of the day leaving work behind. I am on a 15 hour contract but make it up regularly with overtime at my request (on checkouts we weren't given much choice - possibly depends on the managers). There's a good mixture of ages etc. We don't get paid as much as Aldi/Lidl (unless you work nights) but we are expected to help/talk to customers and also the discounts after 3 months aren't too bad (plus if you're there after 9pm there's the chance for 'free food').

I’m so glad it’s nice to work at a supermarket. I always thought it would be awful

@PeggyGa

I’m so glad it’s nice to work at a supermarket. I always thought it would be awful

Suppose it depends. I really like my team and really pretty much everyone in store. It’s hard work tho can be really physical.

People either come and go in a short period or stay for years.

We've had a few different managers and you do get some people who quit after a few weeks. But there's also several staff who have been there for years. It's a great team and we mostly just get on with the work and have lots of tea breaks.

As it's a small store we deal with deliveries, the cages can be very heavy and hard to move which is physically demanding.

It's not everyone's ideal job but for me it's perfect as it's flexible and very relaxed (most of the time).

I worked in a Tesco express a few years ago. I stuck it for 11 months. We had to lift heavy packs and boxes, which wasn't great for my back. Most customers were lovely. I worked on the till most of the time, as shelf filling was too much for my back. The bad thing about that was that you had to continually sort out the self service tills! You needed eye's in the back of your head! What with serving and sorting out the self service tills, doing lottery tickets and scratch cards and cigarettes and booze. Plus the manager was a useless idiot! He had no people skills at all. I got very stressed by it all. But other people may feel differently

I used to work at ASDA.

Pros

• set hours with plenty of opportunity for overtime.
• jobs were easy to learn and you could split your time between departments if you wanted.
• staff discount as well as subsidised canteen.
• not mentally taxing in any real way.

Cons

• the lack of mental stimulation could be a bit draining.
• no sick pay beyond SSP.
• no annual leave at certain times of year (eg. Christmas).
• physically tough - I often had a sore back and sore legs/feet.
• dealing with rude customers with little/no management support.