AMA-online shopper in a British supermarket.

[Horr12]

Love these and I ask my fair share of questions...

I work in a supermarket picking online grocery orders, ask me anything and I will do my best to answer without getting the sack 😇😂

Do you have to choose the item at the front even if its about to go out of date?

If I put a note on to say the item is going to the foodbank are you allowed to put it in the collection for me?

If someone asks dor 1kg of ham do you try and get as close as possible or just grab the nearest one?

Do you have to rush round to get a certain amount of orders done, are there targets to meet?

Do you have any involvement with replacements? I recently got six strawberry yoghurts in place of a punnet of strawberries....

If you happen to be a Tesco shopper (they sub items and I don't have to pay the difference):
Do you get into trouble if you are too generous with the subs? Sometimes I get given not only a more expensive sub, but twice the amount eg two packets, like an extra-big sorry! It's great but I wonder if Tesco pulls staff up over it, or they don't care.

Do you ever give customers hard avocados when they have specifically asked for ripe ones?

Ok so

1: we pick the longest date we can (I always go to the back, some people don't)

2: we don't see the orders or notes, we just get given a handset with items and pick them and put in correct totes

1. We have to pick the exact weight or as close as we can.

4: in my supermarket we are 200 items per hour or we get dragged in. This means we don't stop when doing orders and we don't sit down l, it's a full 4 hour shift of running round the store.

1. If we pick item not available we are given 4 alternative substitutes. If they aren't available wr end up having to give one of them and most of the time it will be something silly if it's the last option. We can't go searching for better alternatives as we would get into trouble for taking to long!

We can only pick subs suggested by the handset, usually I pick the best subs but sometimes that's not possible due to time and availability

What's the most ridiculous substitute you've given someone?

Does it piss you off when you've got a good routine and knowledge of the store and they change it around?

Re avocados. The handset will tell us the exact location of the item and we don't get any other info regarding the item or what was stated on the order. In my supermarket we have ripe avocado options so if that is selected by the customer we would be sent to that item to pick.

What's your favourite substitute you've given?

I did this job years ago. By the end of my time there I couldn't be bothered querying substitutes so when someone ordered itsu seaweed thins and the suggested replacement was 2x mint aero I just went along with it 😅

Recently we had no frozen onions and no other substitutions available so I had to give the customer frozen Mediterranean veg 🫣😂

They change the aisles and layout so often I just give up memorising. The handset tells us the exact aisle,shelf and location so it doesn't really matter

My fave substitute was at Christmas time. The customer had picked the supermarkets own brand cheapest option so say "Tesco value" turkey. The smallest option. Not available so I substituted a organic large deluxe turkey 🥳

There's probably more, I've been known to go over and above with substitutes 🫣 and extra carrot here, fancier brand there.

Yeah if we say no to all subs and send no item we get in trouble. So we have to send silly subs sometimes and trust me I cringe aswell!!

Just wait a few days or go and get your own!

Thanks for your diligence you are truly a hero for many people unable to get to the shop themselves. You give them independence

Thank you that's so kind. We are actually under a lot of pressure and exhausted. I get up at 2am for my shift and when I finish I take over from my husband for him to go to work and I stay with the kids so there's no time to sleep. Luckily I work in a great place I just think sometimes people don't know how much hard work goes in to getting the food shop delivered!

How many steps do you do on average per shift? When do you sleep?!

Average steps are 21000 per day, Christmas time I was up at 25. I'm getting about 4 hours sleep per night. On working days I try and go to sleep by 8/9 but sometimes it doesn't happen! Weekends are great as my husband is off so when I get home from work in the morning I go to bed for a couple of hours.

That sounds like a really tough job. Can I ask whether you get really annoyed if another customer asks you where something is?

No not at all. It's part of our job too. We always help other customers whilst picking shopping. The majority of customers don't actually know what we are doing when we are going round so they see a supermarket worker and ask for help.

Anyone who works there should be prepared to help customers whilst doing their job and if they don't then maybe they should get other jobs 🫣

Sometimes I get items delivered in my shop that are right on the use by date or very short dated but I still have to pay full price. Why aren't they reduced to clear prices the same as they are instore ?

We aren't allowed to pick items with the same day date or reduced to clear items so it's either a mistake by the picker or not paying attention. I would get in touch with the store and tell them as this shouldn't be happening.

If there's only items for the same day date we have to say thst item isn't available. If we find one with a date for the next day you can pick it but have to select short date item which will alert the customer before hand to decide whether to keep or return to driver