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AIBU?

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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:
Nsky · 14/02/2022 01:02

No doubt you could have gone at 7 am, quiet then.
Yes you are being unreasonable

NumberTheory · 14/02/2022 01:24

@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!
While it could be, working nights lowers life expectancy and increases incidence of chronic disease and damages relationships. So a high cost pickers would be paying in order for OP and others to have fewer people to contend with during the day.
GirlInACountrySong · 14/02/2022 01:29

Retail can't win can it?

They have tried to accommodate everyone through this pandemic.... yes more people shop online now

Why should staff be forced into night shifts so a poor little mumsnetter isn't inconvenienced by having to wait for the aisle to be free?

MangyInseam · 14/02/2022 01:31

Yes, I find the pickers a bit of a pain. They take up a lot of room in front of the shelves, and often stand there a long time.

GirlInACountrySong · 14/02/2022 01:33

@MangyInseam

Yes, I find the pickers a bit of a pain. They take up a lot of room in front of the shelves, and often stand there a long time.
Oh well, not the end of the world is it.... move to a different aisle
NeverDropYourMooncup · 14/02/2022 01:57

You decided to go for a trip to the supermarket on the first Saturday of half term.

What did you expect?

halloweenie13 · 14/02/2022 01:59

yanbu they often block the way and stand there chatting, especially if the shelf stackers are out with the roll cages as well. Also, my parents due to accessibility do click and collect due to struggling around large stores and on several occasions Tesco pickers have messed up their shopping, not just a little bit but a whole section of food. Which has made the process more difficult and then Tesco staff are just unbelievably rude about it.

ThinWomansBrain · 14/02/2022 02:11

presumably pickers are more efficient than shoppers?

  • working from a list - no browsing/dithering
  • know the layout of the store better
  • don't have children/partners in tow
  • don't block the aisles having phone conversations about which brand of baked beans to buy
melj1213 · 14/02/2022 02:36

I work in a supermarket. We are open to the public 6am-10pm Monday-Saturday and 11-5 Sunday.

The major stock deliveries arrive at any time between 5-8pm, where the pallets of products are unloaded and put into our warehouse. We also get fresh/frozen deliveries in the early hours. At 8pm the night staff arrive and spend the first hour of their shift getting their aisles prepared. At 9pm the first pallets will be dragged out to the shop floor and the night staff will break it down, taking stock to the relevent aisle. When the store closes to the public that's when they can properly start work, getting as much stock out onto the shelves as possible.

At 4am the Home Shoppers arrive. They will get a home shopping trolley, a handset and start the first of their picks for the morning deliveries/collections. By this time most of the night stocking has been done and so the shelves are full and the aisles are clear. Between 4-6am there may be points where night staff are putting things on shelves and pickers are taking them off within minutes so it does feel like an endless task, but then that's the stockers job, to replace the things that are being bought. They also try to get all the ambient products out before 4am so that the home shoppers can be picking those items while the night staff restock the fresh/frozen products (which came in overnight) so they aren't on top of each other.

As much as we would love to have the pickers finished by 6am when we open to the public it just isn't physically possible - they can't pick the tens of thousands of products needed every day for deliveries in the 2 hours between 4am and 6am but they can't come in earlier as before 4am the shelves haven't been filled so you wouldn't get half your shopping and the other half would be substitutions.

It's all down to logistics and home shoppers are 100 times faster than customers as they are timed, have pick targets, have deadlines (if a van has to be out at 6am then the pickers can't still be on the shop floor at 5.58) and have a handset that not only tells them the exact item and quantity but also tells them exactly where it is located (aisle/bay/shelf) and each individual pick list is generated in a specific order to maximise efficiency so pickers work from one end of the store to the other, don't need to double back and pickers will all be given different starting point so that they aren't all in the same place at once (eg Jane will go Aisle 1,2,3 ... 30; Jack will go 3,4,5 ... 30,1,2; John will go 5,6,7 ... 3,4 etc)

TurkeyRoastvBubbleandSqueek · 14/02/2022 03:11

@Svara

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).
Dear Svara,

I am now at an age that is usually considered to be old. I am also disabled to the point that I have to use a wheelchair whilst out, and can only sit up reasonably comfortably for a couple of hours a day, so most days, weeks, months, I spend 22 hours in bed. I do go slightly stir crazy doing this, so although my OAP carer husband does most of the supermarket shopping - and yes sadly this does take him longer than it did when he was younger - I occassionally need to experience the heady delights of going to the supermarket with him.

I admit that with me in my wheelchair, and my husband and I frequently talking about the shopping we are getting, we will get in other peoples' way, although I hasten to add, it is never intentional. I wonder that if on the occasions people like us are annoying you, if you could take just a few seconds to think about the fact that one day you will probably be in a situation similar to us? We always try to go at reasonably non busy times at the supermarket, but in doing so we can often miss out on our favourite fresh brands, or foods that are on a special offer.

So, my apologies Svara, but even though I could be "left home alone", I occasionally and very selfishly, decide not to be, and that probably doubles the time my already slow husband takes.

Yours apologetically,

TurkeyRoast

VeganIsTheFuture · 14/02/2022 03:24

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

Exactly. And they might not shop alone, they might have their kids with them or elderly parent or...... YABU.

1forAll74 · 14/02/2022 04:24

Can't you be calm,and shop in an orderly manner, and stop complaining about the pickers in the aisles,just doing their jobs.. Its usually the loitering customers in the aisles, who can't decide which items to buy, who are quite annoying,.and get in the way.

onedayoranother · 14/02/2022 04:34

As an online shopper pickers don't bother me. I get more frustrated by whole families out shopping - both parents plus kids. Like it's a day out. Of course single parents (I'm one myself) may need to bring their kids in, but surely not both parents.

halloweenie13 · 14/02/2022 05:33

This reply has been deleted

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HarlanPepper · 14/02/2022 05:42

So interesting, thanks @melj1213 . I love 'behind the scenes' info!

RedMozzieYellowMozzie · 14/02/2022 05:57

I used to stack shelves in a supermarket. Online pickers and customers are all equally annoying. They all block the aisle with their trolleys, the online pickers just abandoning them in the most awkward places while they trawl up and down the aisle looking for stuff. They would sometimes put them right in front of my roll cage so I couldn’t get to it, with zero consideration for the fact that other people were also working in the store and they were making the job harder. They definitely found time to stop and chat too. Some of them would come and help out on the shelf stacking when the picking was all done and they were the most considerate when picking - probably because they know what an awful job shelf stacking already is!

Svara · 14/02/2022 06:07

@TurkeyRoastvBubbleandSqueek
By 'and so on' I meant other such situations where there is a good reason for couples to shop together, sorry if that wasn't clear Hmm.

Soubriquet · 14/02/2022 07:08

I was a picker for Sainsbury’s (had to give it up for health reasons) and we shopped from 2/4am until shopping was finished which was usually 8/9am.

We did not have time to stand around talking. As a PP said, we are timed on everything. If we don’t hit targets, we get a disciplinary.

Yes, we pick off the shelves but we have chillers and freezers in the back where the food is put in until it’s time to be delivered. We also only have a 30 min window to pick them so they don’t get chance to defrost.

I would have loved picking in the warehouse if we could. Customers are just as bad when it comes to having to work the shop floor. They block the aisle, stop you from working and then sneer at you for standing there waiting for them to move

swampytiggaa · 14/02/2022 07:23

Ah jeez I’m a picker and our dream is to have a warehouse to pick from with no customers! Currently the best day to work is Sunday because we can mostly get the pick done before the shop opens.

Ducksareruiningmypatio · 14/02/2022 07:31

To be fair the ones in asda are rude, cut you up, reach right around you (even during social distance times) etc.
Every time I've had a "how was your scan and shop survey" I've said how rude and intrusive they are.
Sorry, but I don't give a shit about some anonymous person's home delivery when I'm getting breathed on by the pickers.

Skyeheather · 14/02/2022 07:34

I used to go to Tesco at 8am on a Saturday morning, they are fully stocked as it's been done overnight and hardly a customer in sight. You need to shop at a different time.

Lipsandlashes · 14/02/2022 07:39

It’s not really comparable to say if the employed picker want there, the person who’s shopping is being picked would be instead. The carts they use for picking the shopping are absolutely bloody massive at my Tesco. They could easily block up a whole aisle. Where as a shopping trolly is small and easily manoeuvrable

RedskyThisNight · 14/02/2022 07:49

My son is a grocery picker. He much prefers doing the job when the store is empty and there aren't any/too many customers about.

He finds that customers have a tendency to

  • stand in the middle of aisles having a chat with their friends
  • block the ends of aisles with their trolleys
  • let their small children run about without supervision. He is terrified that he will accidently hit a small child with his rather heavy trolley one day

And, of course, because he's working, he has to be unfailably polite to customers who are less than considerate or downright rude to him.

Basically if everyone thought about other shoppers, the supermarket would be a nicer place :)

GeneLovesJezebel · 14/02/2022 07:54

I’ve never seen pickers chatting, they’re getting round as fast as they can !
Thank you to all pickers 🙏🏻

CandyLeBonBon · 14/02/2022 07:57

"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!"

We don't stop and chat. We are timed. If we take too long, the manager knows exactly where we are in the store and can come and chase us up for orders. Which is why, when customers stop us and ask for directions for products, we end up getting told off for being too slow and missing targets! We are doing a job. Presumably just like you have to do?

Also we are shopping for more than one customer at a time!

What an obnoxious post.