Dear major UK supermarket ...

[LindorDoubleChoc]

What would you like to say to the chief exec of the supermarkets you use? I'll start ...

If you are going to sell spinach in plastic bags, please at least direct that they are stored in the refrigerated section rather than on the general unrefrigerated vegetable shelves along with the potatoes and onions etc.

Thank you Sainsburys.

So you’re asking supermarkets not to advertise to parts of the country that already have broken off for the summer, ie Scotland and Ireland?

But those nations/countries presumably have quite long summer holidays as well? It's good to be organised, but buying clothes for growing children a month or two before they need them and you know what size they will take is possibly not the wisest move.

Plus, it's really disheartening for the kids themselves, when their much-looked-forward-to long holiday has finally arrived and all the shops are immediately saying 'Back to School'!

I also don't get the capricious way that Lidl and Aldi open and close checkouts. They open number 3 for one customer and then close it immediately, whilst they're already announcing that number 5 will be opening. What's the point of playing musical checkouts - are they just bored?!

@Emotionalsupportviper 😂😂

I'm not in the UK, but my local supermarket sometimes sells offcuts of celery, or else they pack up a few trimmed sticks together. I do feel your pain, but why can't supermarkets there do a similar thing?

One of the local supermarkets here used to close a checkout while there was a queue of people standing there. They would just slam down a closed sign and expect people to move to another checkout. They don't do it now - I imagine there were a few complaints! I have sometimes been asked, as the last person in a line, to put the closed sign behind my groceries, which is fine, but refusing to deal with people already waiting there is very far from fine.

@Theoldgreygoose if a staff member is at the end of the shift and needs to leave but no one comes to take over on the checkout then closing down the till (even though there is a queue) needs to be done.

Stop making us walk around the whole supermarket because it's a 'good marketing ploy' we know what we want don't treat us like we're stupid.

@MissPoldark @Meeting @PonkyPonky
Regarding BB dates on fruit and veg- I read on another thread that the coding now seen on vegetable packs refers to this date eg G6 is 6th July .

For those of you saying put the heavy stuff at the start, when someone pointed out to me there’s nothing to stop you starting at the other end, it was a game changer.
I always use the scan as you shop, start at the far end with booze and dog food and household stuff and work backwards, finishing up in the bakery. No more defrosted ice cream or squashed bread.

M&S can you please restock your frozen sofrito? Waitrose, can you stop putting rice in all your ready made salads. Some of us don’t have fridges at work and I don’t want food poisoning. It’s a good 5 hours between buying my lunch and eating it.

M and S - know when you’ve cracked it and don’t discontinue things that work perfectly fine in favour of something trendy please. Your chicken no mayo sandwich was perfect. And your toffee or whipped yogurts were fabulous. I don’t want fancy sugar laden pots of probiotic fermented unpronounceable berry with organic hand knitted granola. Just decent basics. Your Cornish ice cream is overpriced but delicious and the only dessert DH will eat. If you take the raspberry ripple or rhubarb flavours away he may riot. I thank you.

M&S bring back the vegetable crisp bakes, and the waffle crisps of 1999. If you'd do a plain mild cheese sandwich my Dd would be very grateful. Same goes for all other supermarkets.

@M&S - £2 for a small tub of hummus?
I don’t think so!

Stop having two tier prices.
One price for the shoppers who have Tesco clubcard/nectar card etc and a much more expensive price for people who don't.
If I see this I won't go near your supermarket ever again.
M&S we love most of your food but the vegetable lasagne is disappointing.

Yeah but that can be done with proper planning. You don’t just shut abruptly and chuck all the queueing customers on to the end of another queue; you think ahead, put the closed sign up but then finish serving the customers, which may take several minutes depending on trolley load. It’s called good queue management.

if a staff member is at the end of the shift and needs to leave but no one comes to take over on the checkout then closing down the till (even though there is a queue) needs to be done.

But if Bill is coming to the end of his shift and Linda is about to start hers, why can't Bill just shut down and log off the till he's on, leave the till, then Linda come and re-open the same till and log on herself - even if she isn't ready to come over instantly?

The same till where the queue of customers is waiting, many with their stuff already all out on the conveyer belt. A couple of minutes waiting whilst they change over has got to be preferable to having to put your purchases back in your trolley and then move to a different till, which is still awaiting an assistant anyway. It's not like they're just going to send the waiting customers home empty-handed.

It's also very unfair, as the people at the back of the queue - who haven't yet had chance to unload their shopping on to the belt and who are a bit closer - invariably dash to the newly-opened till and get there before the customer who was in front of them, having already been waiting longest.

@CountingMareep @FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper a member of staff who works on the tills has no control over the rota, staff planning or if their replacement doesn’t turn up for whatever reason. That’s a management job.
If “Bill” is paid to work until 2pm he needs to leave at 2pm. Why? Because he needs to catch a bus at 2.20 (not another bus until an hour later), collect his children from school at 3pm, do 101 other things that are nothing to do with his job because he is contracted and only paid to be there until 2pm.
What happens at 2.01 pm is nothing to do with “Bill”.
If “Linda” hasn’t turned up for work that isn’t Bill’s fault.

Tesco, I’ll never be tempted by the uncovered Yo Sushi tasters you’re waving around for every shopper to lean over and talk across. Please cover it up!

Tesco and Asda, please reopen the changing rooms you closed during Covid, Sainsbury’s has managed to and not that difficult, more cost cutting of staff.

@GellerYeller Crackerjack is being made again. There's been a couple of series. Although the cabbage game has been completely changed so the youngsters won't understand your analogy unless old gimmer mum has ranted at them about the way it used to be.

@Needmorelego

I never meant to suggest for one moment that it was Bill's (or Linda's) fault; I completely agree with you that it's a management responsibility.

But what I'm mainly saying is that, when Bill has to leave at his agreed time (as indeed he should), and they find somebody to staff a till to serve the customers still queuing at Bill's till, why can that replacement person not come and take over at Bill's till, where he left off? Why do they immediately have to go and open a different one and make everybody re-pack their trolleys and then move across?

What difference does it make to Sarah, when she comes to serve the rest of 'Bill's' customers, whether she comes to Bill's number 4 till or randomly opens up the empty till number 2? It's just deliberate poor customer service for no reason, purpose or benefit whatsoever.

@FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper the answer to that I do not know I am afraid 🙁

@FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper It’s so that the till can be checked before someone else gets on it. If Bill’s till is short or over at the end of the day we know it was Bill’s mistake and not Sarah’s .
It is best practice, but the till should have been closed five minutes before his shift finished and customers directed to the till where Sarah was due to start.
In practice I’d have grabbed someone from the floor to jump on a third till to bridge the gap if I’d done the rosters so badly that there was no one else there.

@PerrinAybara wow, I did not know that and well done for trying to educate the youths on the cabbage game! Now we need the return of Runaround and Cheggers Plays Pop! And just the swimming round of We Are The Champions 😂. Apologies, off topic. Speaking of Topics… are they still available?

Sort the WiFi out in Tesco stores so you can actually use your Club card.