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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Grocery Pickers in Tesco

135 replies

BeachTree · 13/02/2022 22:23

I try to do one shop a week to avoid the crowds and avoid covid. Yesterday in Tesco it was unbearably busy but I noticed just how many online grocery picking staff were in the aisles and on more than one occasion blocking the aisle. As if shopping wasn't unpleasant enough already, we've got these to contend with now (I realise they are just doing their job and obviously there is a huge increase in online shopping since the start of the pandemic, but still....)

OP posts:
Unanananana · 13/02/2022 22:25

What do you expect them to do? If you are that paranoid about covid, why go shopping yourself?

GraciousPiglet · 13/02/2022 22:28

If they were not there, the person they are picking the groceries for would be....

I don't get your point.

If you want to avoid the crowds try shopping at 6/7pm on a Friday or Saturday night or early Saturday morning at around 8.

Shops are busy on Saturdays as is the time most people can go shopping - including yourself I assume?

lightisnotwhite · 13/02/2022 22:36

I think YANBU and this will change eventually.
They will all get warehouses like Ocado to pick for deliveries. It’s daft paying people to stock shelves and paying others to take stuff off. Much easier just fulfilling an order from a well ordered/ systematic warehouse than a busy supermarket with ever changing shelving.

piefacedClique · 13/02/2022 22:41

This drives me up the bloody wall! Especially if there is more than one or when they stop to chat! Why can’t it be done at night!

DysmalRadius · 13/02/2022 22:42

If you're trying to avoid crowds, going on a Saturday is probably the worst time - is there any way you can shop one evening instead of at the weekend?

WRT the online shoppers - they are much more efficient and faster than people coming in to do their shopping themselves, so I would consider them a preferable alternative to those shoppers coming in themselves.

Kitkat151 · 13/02/2022 23:03

So why do you go on a Saturday if you want to avoid crowds?🙄
I would advise going late night Monday to Wednesday .....or get on online shop if you find shopping that unpleasant....honestly just pay the 4 quid for no dramas

birdladyfromhomealone · 13/02/2022 23:05

Buy from ocado where there are robots picking in the warehouse.
No human contact

Gingernaut · 13/02/2022 23:10

Local Tesco stores around here are no longer 24 hour.

The online shoppers have to pick produce according to when the fresh, chilled and frozen goods are going to be delivered.

The goods have to be picked, checked and packed in time for the deliveries.

YABU.

Svara · 13/02/2022 23:12

They are just in place of the person who has made the order, except usually quicker. I find couples or other groups of two or more adults shopping together more annoying (yes I know some elderly people can't be left home alone and so on, but that can't account for all of them).

ButtockUp · 13/02/2022 23:21

Yes ... let them all pack at night then enjoy your room temperature fish or partially defrosted burgers ten hours later.

Maybe, just maybe these people are picking your stuff as close to delivery time as possible so that your food is as fresh as possible when it's delivered.

Jeez!

WindyState · 13/02/2022 23:23

@piefacedClique

This drives me up the bloody wall! Especially if there is more than one or when they stop to chat! Why can’t it be done at night!
....have a little think about it and see if you can work it out for yourself.
Chichimcgee · 13/02/2022 23:25

As pp says if they’re not there then the person they’re shopping for would be

Hugasauras · 13/02/2022 23:26

Well, if you dislike shopping so much then join the online shopping revolution! Then you don't have to go in the shop at all.

Stuff tends to be picked around the same time of day (at least our money/email always comes around the same time), so maybe try a different time of day?

Wingedharpy · 13/02/2022 23:27

DH and I are eternally grateful to the grocery pickers in our local supermarket Asda though, not Tesco).
I'm immunosuppressed and DH is doddery on his legs, and thanks to these pickers, we've not needed to venture in to the supermarket for basic shopping during the pandemic.
They're life savers, for some of us.
Thank you to all grocery pickers out there.Flowers

sarahtalkstoomuch · 13/02/2022 23:28

I did online shopping at a supermarket as a job during the pandemic. We had to choose, scan and pack over 150 items an hour so I think we’re actually quite efficient - certainly quicker than shoppers who stand there staring at bananas like they’ve never bought them before!

And we did work through the night. I had to start at 3am. You go much faster before the customers turned up at 7. So many people move through supermarket aisles with zero awareness anyone is trying to get past them or that they’re in the way

gleegeek · 13/02/2022 23:31

I think soon we'll have warehouses for delivery orders and much smaller supermarkets for in person shopping. I popped into my local huge Sainsbury's on Thursday evening and it was really quiet, I can't imagine it's cost effective having so few customers with so many staff, lighting etc etc.

HunkyPunk · 13/02/2022 23:41

@piefacedClique

This drives me up the bloody wall! Especially if there is more than one or when they stop to chat! Why can’t it be done at night!
That’s rubbish. If you see staff stopping to chat at Tesco, it won’t be the pickers. They absolutely do not stop to chat. They are given a pick rate, (which would be impossible to maintain if they were chatting), monitored electronically throughout their shift and reprimanded by the managers if they don’t keep on target.

One of the reasons that Tesco don’t do dot.com shopping at night is that they don’t want to pay their staff the enhanced rates for working at night. If they did, the prices you pay would go up. Go to Waitrose instead. You won’t have to suffer daytime pickers there.

OutlandishBird · 13/02/2022 23:43

I'm a grocery picker (not for Tesco). Picking starts in the early hours and carries on through to afternoon. Online orders come in throughout the day.
We know we're in the way, we try our best not to be (most of us anyway), but we have a job to do and targets to keep to (220 items an hour!) while wrestling big, heavy trolleys we can barely see over.
If you move to one side and let us pick the item we need, we'll be out of your way as fast as we can. We'll certainly be a lot faster than you will.
We see the ridiculousness of staff stacking the shelves only for us to empty them moments later, what can I say, its the job we're paid to do. We don't make the rules!

Be kind and considerate, it's a physically taxing job, rude customers don't make our day better.

whynotwhatknot · 13/02/2022 23:48

@piefacedClique

This drives me up the bloody wall! Especially if there is more than one or when they stop to chat! Why can’t it be done at night!
how can it all be done at night-it wont be fresh the next day
friendlycat · 13/02/2022 23:48

I’m very grateful for them. It means I don’t have to personally go. I think they do an excellent job and it’s a great system.

I’m sure that they are far quicker and faster at picking the shop than the average shopper. If they weren’t there doing their job there would just be more customers. Though I do agree with others that the way forward is warehouse style operations.

iklboo · 13/02/2022 23:53

Why can’t it be done at night!

You've not thought about that at all have you? Pick at night for a delivery slot at 4pm? No, thanks. I don't fancy chancing my elderly mum getting food poisoning because you don't like the idea of order pickers getting in your way.

Im2022 · 13/02/2022 23:56

...have a little think about it and see if you can work it out for yourself.

👏👏👏🤣🤣 proper teacher comment that. Love it.

HunkyPunk · 13/02/2022 23:59

how can it all be done at night-it wont be fresh the next day

Waitrose do their picking at night. My son did overnights there when he was a student. From what I gathered, the picked fresh/frozen goods got put in refrigerated or freezer storage till the delivery vans got loaded up?

TyrannosaurusRegina · 14/02/2022 00:05

@piefacedClique

This drives me up the bloody wall! Especially if there is more than one or when they stop to chat! Why can’t it be done at night!
Stop to chat? They're timed on every item they pick.
OutlandishBird · 14/02/2022 00:08

@HunkyPunk

how can it all be done at night-it wont be fresh the next day

Waitrose do their picking at night. My son did overnights there when he was a student. From what I gathered, the picked fresh/frozen goods got put in refrigerated or freezer storage till the delivery vans got loaded up?

This is correct. It could theoretically all be picked at night, as chilled and frozen is picked separately and then stored in the fridge/freezer until the vans get loaded up at the appropriate time for the delivery slot. In my store I think part of the reason we can't pick it all at night is a lack of storage for that many orders. There can be anything from 20 to 30 thousand items needing to be picked each day, plus extra orders that come in throughout the day. It takes up a lot of room.

A lot of stores do pick from warehouses, I'd actually prefer that. The customers are in our way just as much as we are in theirs.