Colleague did something shifty, I inadvertently helped - what do I do?

[ToastyBreads]

name changed for advice please.
I work for a large supermarket. We are not allowed to buy reduced items until the store is shut.
My colleague asked me to reduce something fairly expensive as low as it would go at the end of the day which I did without really thinking about it (I reduce a lot of items so not unusual for people to bring me things to do that if they see it’s priced too highly etc). They then took it and bought it. So effectively I reduced the item just for them which seems pretty dodgy. I can’t stop thinking about it and don’t know what to do. This colleague is lovely, worked there years and is known and well liked by everyone. Regardless, I don’t want to get in trouble for any part of what could be seen as fraud I guess?
what do I do?

As long as it was the correct reduction at the correct time it should be OK. If anything comes of it just plead ignorance and say you didn't know colleague was going to buy it

My friend is a yellow label monster and adores a bargain. She's a wheelchair user and sees all sort of labelled stuff stuck right at the back of shelves that people on 2 feet miss.

I sometimes wonder, when she tells me about something particularly juicy, if the item has been stashed there for a member of staff to come back to.

Don’t say anything but don’t do it again. Your colleague isn’t lovely at all, she manipulated you.

This 100%

It's supposed to go through 3 reductions at different times to final reduction which are recorded. This is how they caught people in my store when they did an audit . They were putting things to one side and waiting for final reduction time and reducing items themselves with price guns as they worked on that dept . They were long standing staff too who should have known better . In this case the colleague is involving the OP .

Did you follow a process correctly? Is it purely your discretion? I wonder if she has done this before?

I'd do it for them gladly, the supermarket can definitely afford it.

She really doesn’t sound all that lovely.

I used to work in a supermarket. I also used to reduce items going out of date.

We were not allowed to reduce anything just because another member of staff or even a manager asked us to. It was made very clear during training that sort of thing was theft and would be considered gross misconduct.

Staff were allowed to put items which had already been reduced in the back warehouse and then purchase them at the end of their shift but reducing an item which should not have been reduced was a big no-no.

Assuming this has happened and nobody has noticed, I would think very carefully before informing a manager. If you do, you may well lose your job as when I worked for Sainsburys there was a very definite no tolerance polcy around things like this. It may be best to forget about it and never do it again.

I work for a supermarket within the HR sector and know from experience that if found out, the minimum you’d probably receive is a final warning if not dismissal
what you do not want is the store knowing about this woman and be keeping an eye on her in the background as if it came to an investigation id be pretty sure that this woman would say ‘oh, this colleague reduced items for me’

as you say you do reductions a lot, it’s reasonable to expect that you’d question why an item needed to be marked down so much so I’d encourage you to start asking the questions to your colleagues when they bring you an item that needs to be heavily reduced

don’t do the reductions again for this woman as a lot of the time management are aware of this going on and are awaiting enough evidence to be present to bring an investigation

@Beautybox3
Cracking advice.

Nothing.

Don't do it again

The OP has now been put in the spot as the colleague will try this again and potentially take the OP down with her .

Say you've been reminded of correct procedure ( and look it up if you've forgotten or ask) and ask anyone in future more questions to make sure it's being followed or insist on checking with a manager.

I'd not say anything about this incident - if asked you weren't thinking and assumed it had been okayed - otherwise be on your guard with all you colleagues and discounting going forward and make sure your are following procedure to protect yourself.

Depends what time of day colleague asked if it was in the morning or half way through the day it’s probably not ok considering they’re not allowed to buy reduced items while at work but if it was 10 mins before closing I don’t see the harm

Not something I could get worked up about but just don't do it again if it didn't sit right with you.

@ToastyBreads Having been a manager at a supermarket I would say learn from it and move on. Over my years staff did some truly awful things (stole money, goods, loyalty card points), you made a mistake, that's all.

I used to work in a household name store - food + clothes/household, I had a colleague who was dismissed - she had put aside sale items ( expensive clothing ) to buy herself later. It was not put out for customers to buy.

Where I work now we are not allowed to put aside anything to buy later - whether it be full price or reduced. We are also not to shop during our break unless it is food/drink for that break.

Shopping is to be done before work, and kept in our locker with the receipt - signed by the person on tills, or after work and we do not then leave through the staff exit to the car park - we go out the front door like a customer.

"Where I work now we are not allowed to put aside anything to buy later - whether it be full price or reduced. We are also not to shop during our break unless it is food/drink for that break."

Honestly, some of these rules. There is no respect for their own employees in some of these places. Sad to hear.

Of course the employees should be able to put something aside if they want to buy it later. 🤯

It's truly embarrassing the way people are treated.

Just say you did as you have done for other people - you did not realize who was going to buy it.

My colleague asked me to reduce something fairly expensive as low as it would go at the end of the day which I did without really thinking about it (I reduce a lot of items so not unusual for people to bring me things to do that if they see it’s priced too highly etc). They then took it and bought it.
If it was at the end of the day, it was the right thing to do to reduce it has low as it would go then surely.

Should it have been reduced earlier?

You could not have known she was going to buy it could you?

Sorry OP but this is defo a sackable offence. I would stay quiet but never do it again. Where I work (large supermarket chain) they are v strict about this.

I too work in a supermarket & anything purchased in our breaks must have a sticker on it proving its purchase - as much for our protection too (being wrongly accused for eg. of eating mints not paid for)
We also cannot put goods aside during our shifts - we're meant to be working not doing our own choosing & shopping - but doing that also removes the goods from a shelf that a customer may purchase - say items in short supply, loo rolls during Covid lockdowns 🤣
Some staff were then "forgetting" to take their bread, milk whatever home that day & the goods were needing to be disposed of. So potentially wastes of more sales. Boss not happy either 🥴
So I say shop as a customer when work is finished & avoid these things happening

Pretty much everyone that does something shifty needs help from people that don't know what they're doing. It was going out of date, you reduce stuff. You did your job. What you did was nothing out of the ordinary. He bought something (I assume before shop closed). That's probably the only 'rule' broken. I'm sure lots of people if they worked somewhere like that would see a good reduction they've done would think they'd buy it at end of day if hadn't gone as its a good deal. I'm sure some would even hide it at the back or something to increase the likelihood. What he's done is shifty but shouldn't blow back on you, you're more likely to implicate yourself by drawing attention to it.

The lack of trust is for a good reason. Unfortunately retail staff are responsible for around a third of all shoplifting/theft from shops.

usually when ive been buying reduced, sometimes if it can be reduced further at the till then sold that has happened, other times its already cheap due to being reduced on that day, sometimes the item should be reduced that day but due to busy etc, they leave it till late in evening then put the bottom reduced price on it, eg asda around 8pm then all items on bakery trolley straight to eg 10p etc

@ToastyBreads