To tell you about online shopping

[Soubriquet]

This is only the store I work in that I can say this about. I’m sure others will have their own procedure but this is the basic.

The store will get a delivery everyday. This is supposed to come in as early as possible to allow the shelf stackers to get the items out.

At the store I work in, it’s supposed to get there for midnight. It is often late and usually arrives anywhere between 3 and 4 am.

This puts the shelf stackers behind.

I am a picker and I start work at 4am. I can only pick what is on the shelf. I don’t have time to go rooting out back to try and find things that would be on trolleys.

This means, if your item is not on the shelf and you have asked for a substitute, you will get a sub.

The warehouse out the back is not massive. We cannot keep a spare of every item. They are also not stacked in a nice order, which means if you see something that you do need, it could be at the bottom of a cage that you can’t reach easily.

I HAVE to finish work at 8 unless the manager signs off on overtime.

This means that subs are important as it allows that customer to be finished shopped for and be ready to send out.

We also have to have them ready in time to be sent out so delivery isn’t late.

I know it’s frustrating that you aren’t getting what you need.

But we can’t magic the items out of nowhere.

Please be patient with your deliveries and drivers.

Very helpful post. Thank you for sharing this soubriquet. And thank you for being at work at 4am to help us all eat!

That’s ok

I actually do enjoy my job. It also allows me to get home and have the dc for home schooling now without having to put them into school

Thank you for making it clear to all them numptys out there that think you can just click your fingers and the items they want will appear ,
Thank for your and all the delivery drivers out there that are working their ass's off

That’s really nice of you to post and it gives an idea of what’s going on behind the scenes. Thank you so much for your hard work and for being able to look after your children too. You are an inspiration. I hope you and your family stay safe and well. And I hope you manage to get some sleep during the day.

ive ordered some non essentials, coils for my vape mod. ill get them when i get them, i think that's the best attitude, my anxiety would be through the roof if i ended up with none at all.

I used to have a quick kip when I got home when the dc were at school

Obviously this won’t happen now. Just means I’ll have to go to bed a bit earlier

I have mobility issues so have regularly used grocery delivery for a few years now.

The last couple of weeks I have ticked to substitute everything except for literally a couple of items that I'd rather not get at all if it wasn't in like my particular coffee. I did that partly because I wanted to make it as easy as possible for you but also because surely at the the moment we should just be happy if something ANYTHING turns up! I trust that you are all working very hard and realise that you are potentially putting yourselves at risk to keep us fed and stocked and I for one am really grateful!

Can I ask if the note that you can add is worth using or is it just adding more stress? For example putting a substitute on the milk but adding the note semi skimmed if possible please.

Similar to where I work but we work until 11 and it can be a nightmare when customers ask you to look for something out the back. Don't want to be nasty but we don't have the time to look for things.
We're also timmed on our picking and it means if everything is on the shelf it's fine but if not we have to sub it.
Hopefully it will get better but we are doing our best.

No not really

Milk is directly next to each other so if a note says semi skimmed, then that’s what we’ll do.

Though usually I sub it that way anyway.

If someone asks for 4 pint semi skimmed milk, I won’t sub for 4 pint skimmed.

I would give 2 2pints or 4 one pints of semi skimmed milk

to anyone involved in food retail at the moment, wherever you are in the chain. Thank you from all of us

Sorry Iv realised you didn't actually say you were a grocery picker

Anyway I'm still grateful to all you guys keeping us stocked!

Yes, thank you, OP. I had a very good substitute from Ocado last week. I ordered 4 small tins of beans. On confirmation of my order they told me they did not have 4 small tins of beans and so they had substituted - 4 packs of 3 tins of beans !! So I got 12 tins of beans without even having to feel guilty. I wonder what delights I will be getting this week.

flowers to anyone involved in food retail at the moment, wherever you are in the chain. Thank you from all of us
^ Totally agree with this - thank you each and every one of the people working so hard for the rest of us.

Thank you @Soubriquet

We are self isolating and have been living off our cupboards and freezers due to no delivery slots and friends and family also having to self isolate. We have a (non-contact) C&C scheduled for tomorrow and ANY food the picker manages to get will be most gratefully received.

I also feel the staff refilling the shelves are not getting the protection. People seem to keep a good distance from one another but are quite happy to reach over the staff working. They need the same space as everyone else.

My shop is coming today, I have 29 substitutes and 13 not available. I was over the moon! I thought it was going to be worse!

Thanks for starting the thread OP. Its great to get an insight from the other side. You could have put it in the AMA section too. Can I ask:

-So, if I made an order for a 4pm delivery, there is no more chance of things being in it than say if I did a 9am delivery? Is EVERYONES orders done prior to 8am?

• Who decides on the sub item? Your discretion, or does the machine suggest things? I've always wanted to be able to add a sub of my choice when ordering.

There is a light hearted thread on here about funny subs. One being tampons replaced with sausage rolls!!! Surely that would require the person to go to a completely different section though from sanitary products?

Just wanted to say thanks op for doing what your doing appreciated :)

Many thanks to you and your colleagues for keeping us all fed.

Thank you Soub,

My order isn't coming til next week and I went on to amend it but it warned me I'd lose anything listed as out of stock so I have left it.

I'm disabled. Very stressful time.

My online shopping has been amazing actually.
Very little not there (mind you, it was clear on the site when I ordered what was not in stick, eg loo roll)
Subs all perfectly fine, most just own brand for another.

I have been so grateful for my shop, and for all you shop workers at the moment.
thank you

We can decide what we want to sub.

The handset will give suggestions but we can override it if it gets silly suggestions which it has before.

Management can see what you’ve subbed too so you can’t go subbing a £10 for a £100 item for example.

And yes at my work, even if your delivery isn’t until 4, we will finish shopping for 8 unless management wishes us to stay a little later.

Thank you for doing what you do, and for telling us about it. I think most of us never think about how systems like this work so it's really interesting to find out.

I did do an AMA a few weeks ago, but I don’t think people were interested until now.

So any questions, I’m happy to answer within reason

Are you wearing gloves?