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.

It also depends on the store. We have a Morrisons here and lots of people don't like it or the staff. The one in the next town over, similar sized and demographic, the Morrisons there is fab.
I work in Waitrose, previously a civil servant, and I really like it. Turn up, do your job, go home. There's sometimes the opportunity for extra hours, tho as a pp said they cut hours back to contracted if the budget is a bit tight. There's also weekend and bank holiday work but I'm not rotaed for that, quite lucky. I've no intention of leaving.

It’s hard physical work, but great fun if you enjoy interaction with customers. Aldi is notoriously hard work though, so see if you can get work in one of the others.

@JellybabyGina87

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.

Over 50? Cant be true.

I've done it and generally found it quite enjoyable. A small percentage of customers are absolutely arses though.

My friend works in one. Cross training is a big thing, the more roles you can do the better. So you could be asked to work in the cafe, on tills and maybe the meat counter all in the same shift.
Variations of early starts or late finishes and weekend working can be hard on the social life but the more availability you have the better when applying.
She says the best bit is leaving work and not giving it a second though until the next shift but assume the management don't feel the same.

DD works for a supermarket. She does night replenishment and has become shift supervisor. She loves it.

It's physically demanding, it's not all just sitting on the tills chatting to customers. Managers do nothing but expect you to work your arses off and you get pulled up if your not on top of your picks. Customers speak to you like crap. Managers speak to you like crap. High turnover of staff and mind numbingly boring

You can also get sent home at the drop of a hat if they have overspent

I worked in Tesco for 14 years when the DC were small. I started working evening shifts on the tills which was mind numbingly boring. Ended up working on the customer service desk which paid a bit more bit had to deal with dickish people every day. I also used to do overtime dotcom picking. That was the best job tbh. Started early in the morning, worked on my own and was home before midday. I wouldn't go back.

Some of my highlights working in Tesco were 5am shifts every other day so I never could visit friends/family. Being sexually harassed by colleagues and assaulted by customers. Being cornered in the back aisles by the local mentally ill and told how when they were secretary for Osama bin Laden they got bum raped by him. Backbreaking work lifting 20kg from above head height with no lifting equipment. At the mercy of egotistical middle managers. Throwing away thousands of pounds worth of food every day and told "no one would buy from us if we gave it away for free". Zero hour contracts. My rota was not written anywhere so I never knew when my days off were so couldn't plan anything.
Working there ruined my mental health and I'm still angry about it 8 years later. Give me working in an office with people who treat me like a human and not expecting hours of work from me without any breaks any day.

I worked nights in the cold section of a local supermarket and hated it, had cages piled high every night and it was so physically demanding, you can’t leisurely put things out, I felt like I was constantly rushing. I also felt pressured into overtime quite often due to staff shortages, I wouldn’t do it again.

SookieHouseboat

JellybabyGina87
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.
Over 50? Cant be true

I’ve done 50+ hour weeks. Next week I’m rota’d on for 52 over 7 days. I’ll be able to cut some of my shifts shorter but it’s not unheard of. I’ve done 13 hour shifts before when we’ve been in the shit.

I do what I do because I like my team and I enjoy my job. It’s not all the time.

Just seen this thread and wanted to give my experience though I know it's a little late. I worked for Aldi and left after 2 months and went to Morrison where I've been over 1 year.

Aldi is hell. Apparently they've changed the whole "You must put 1500 things through the till in 1 hour rule" on paper but it was made clear to me it still very much applied at the store I was working at. I worked in care 5 years prior to supermarket work so I'm no shrinking violet when it comes to breaking a sweat at work but Aldi made me feel unwell. The store is understaffed (to save money) and as a result each person is expected to do the work of 3 people. I was told to come in if sick, even if I had covid so long as I didn't announce it and I was called and urged to come in on several of my days off even if I'd made prior plans. A lot of the rules intended to keep workers safe were either ignored or downplayed so as to get things done as quickly a possible. That was the main concern - speed.
If Aldi is your first supermarket experience it could skew your perception and put you off working in others which would be a shame because you might find other places more bearable. Morrisons pay £10 ph now and in my experience it's a much more sustainable work environment (you still work hard but not life-is-awful give me drugs hard) and only 10p less pay per hour than worker-ant zombie-zone Aldi. There was an 18 year old lad at Aldi that looked about 40. I nearly walked out during my lunch on the first day of on the job training because of repeatedly getting snapped at for not remembering specifics and not putting out stock fast enough. I'm so sorry if I'm struggling to recall how to Assemble this metal cage on my second or third try but you gave a demonstration at chipmunk speed and I'm kinda new here and you're rushing me!? One plus side was the staff I encountered were all very friendly and welcoming though all looked unwell. There were several managers with different titles and they were nice enough but one made an appearance twice and another seemed to think Aldi was a golden limb of his and all the staff under him mere objects to keep the limb functioning. Not all reviews of working for Aldi are like mine some seem to thrive there but you couldn't pay me £20 ph to go back, I would rather go back to care.

Not trying to infer that Morrisons is my dream job - its not, I'm working at these places because I lost my career due to the pandemic and am doing what I can until I can get my business back.

My work experience is:

Pub work
Stripping (huge regret, was young and skint but not skint for long long believe me)
Carer (had baby got fat and could no longer strip)
Self employed beautician
Carer
Aldi, Morrison

And out of all of them Aldi and care work were the most draining.

It depends on your manager and who you are working with. I made some good friends but hated the job. Too repetitive, constant pressure to work as quick as possible, not allowed to talk to each other. If you become friends with the managers then you will have an easy life.