To be taken aback by this request in Asda

[Anon133]

Hi everyone.

I’ve just come back from doing the weekly food shop at Asda and have been a bit taken aback by an incident.

Whilst scanning my packet of cereal bars with the Scan and Go handsets, a colleague doing some online told me that she needed them for her online order and I would have to give them back to her. I admit to being a bit taken aback by this request and told her ‘no,’ and speaking to the colleague in a short tone.

I now feel a bit guilty as that probably means someone at home, who may not be able to come into the shop has missed out.

YABU - I should’ve given them over.
YANBU - I was first to them and therefore should’ve kept them in my shop.

On a side note, does anyone else get fed up with the amount of online shoppers at busy times in the supermarket? There was at least 15 trolleys going round today whilst it was busy with regular customers, and not the first time.

YANBU. The person at home may be unable to come into the shop , or they might just be someone like me who gets their shopping delivered for convenience. Missing items is a risk we take.

Even if they are nd, they need to be able to interact with the customers professionally, otherwise they shouldn't be employed in that particular role.

In reality it will be substituted with a bar of soap. Well, going by my own online orders anyway

I made a rare visit to my local (big) Asda the other day. I thought it was hell on earth. Massive queues to scan-it-yourself terminals. Only two or three old-fashioned' check-outs with enormous queues; the dodge of paying at the lottery/tobacco counter if it's only a few items is no go cos massive queue there too; not for the first time, I put down the two or three items I was carrying around, and walked out without buying anything. Rating: officially worse than Tesco! 😃

Lidl and Aldi and M&S seem the only civilised shops now for me.

If it happens again, you could ask if it is for some marked as a vulnerable customer. During lockdown elderly and disabled were put on to vulnerable customer lists as being prioritised

If it were for someone on a vulnerable list, I'd give the product to the staff member but if it were just a normal shopper I'd keep them as got their first. That's just because I know people in that situation and I'd feel guilty if I hadn't checked. Just me though.

so I don’t understand why they send online shoppers out at peak times?

I assume peak time in the store is also peak time for deliveries so it’s a case of doing both simultaneously. Grocery stores can deliver at all times of the day as they offer different delivery slots for in-house deliveries, and also use on demand delivery services like Uber which might need to go out asap as opposed to a 7pm slot or whatever

Supermarket worker here, no you were right to keep them, the picker doesant take priority over you the customer but her customer would just have to have a sub instead. The issue of not enough to go round in the shop isn't down to you that's the stores fault. Yes the trollies do take up room in an aisle and the system seems to send too many at once to certain areas ie the narrow fruit and veg aisles in ours. They are bigger though as picking 6 different customers shopping at once. But that does stop an additional 6 customers being in store so does keep the number of people in store at once down.

Not unreasonable to keep something you’d picked up first. Bit weird that they asked you for it back, but some PPs have explained the pressures they are under so maybe it’s linked to that?

As an aside - I am an online shopper with deliveries every week. No one in my household drives or owns a car so it is very convenient and means I don’t have to try and cart everything back on the bus. Also, I find supermarket shopping annoying so I’m glad I can pay someone else to do it for me. My order arrives as early as possible so probably not being picked during peak hours (my receipt this morning was emailed to me at 6am!)

The system used by supermarkets does sound stupid if it’s taking up loads of space in peak times, but then it’s also your choice to go there at peak times so 🤷‍♀️

You don't think actual teenagers register on mumsnet and make up threads about shopping so you?

I'd be very seriously concerned about anyone who do that, have you come across teens in the 2020s?

Tiktik, nope, Snapchat, nope, video games, nope, YouTube, nope, oh I know what we can do ........, seriously?

I'm a picker for a supermarket and we are constantly pressured to achieve a fast pick rate. We also have to get it done before the drivers need to leave, obviously, and this can be very tight some days. We start at midnight and aim to be done by the time the shop opens. On a Saturday, it's the busiest day for online orders so the picking carries on into the morning. We are usually only a few moments at any section of the shop, so we'll soon be out of your way, but the pressure about pick rates is unrelenting sadly, so we do just have to crack on. If we're picking chilled or frozen items, we have a timer as the food can't be out of the chiller for long, so those picklists are even harder. It's a horrible job for minimum wage. We are not trying to piss you off. 🙁

It's all mighty confusing really.

First the colleague asked for the bars "back". So at some point she'd had them in her possession?

Then the OP was "choosing" the bars "off the shelf" so they were back on the shelf?

Then she's so vair busy she has to shop on a Saturday but not so busy not to notice 15 lots of online shopping being prepared. Online shopping that in the OP irritates her, but in later posts doesn't.

YANBU OP. You got it first , so you get to keep it. Cereal bars are not an essential item anyway, so I'm sure the person who made the online order will cope without them or with a a sub. I am guessing the member of staff didn't want the extra hassle of looking for a sub and doing the necessary adjustments for the receipt etc.

You aren't unreasonable not to hand them over - Asda will put in a substitute item (which is often of greater value) which is what she may not want to do, because if the substitute is dearer, they only charge the price of the item ordered. So if (say) customer ordered Asda own brand, at £1 they may have to substitute Named Brand at £2, but will only be charged £1. The customer can keep/reject this as preferred. I imagine the staff are encouraged to keep these substitutions as few as possible.

However you are BU for expecting staff to only fill the online shopping orders at quiet times. They fill them in order to send them out for particular time slots, and a lot of stuff can't just lie about unrefrigerated etc.

Edited: my explanation got very complicated and when I read it back I couldn't understand it myself. Hopefully I am now talking some degree of sense.

I shop (mainly) online because it suits me to have stuff delivered, and it means less time away from my work and other activities. I pay for an annual pass enabling me to do it with minimal hassle. I don't really care about other people's views on it, and I don't see why it shouldn't be an available service to anyone who wants it.

If the large picker trollies with multiple shops on it had to pay instore, can you imagine the queues at the tills?

@gamerchick

Id have it only for the disabled and maybe elderly.

How does the supermarket decide who qualifies for a 'disabled' shop?

😂

Absolutely not.why on earth would you.

Her scanner will have an option to pick there were none to scan and give her a substitute to pick.

Home shopping doesn't trump yours, don't give it another thought.

YANBU re cereal bars. I’d tell them to do one too. YABU about the side note though - people are allowed to order online, you know, and the order has to be completed some way. The store could be full of shoppers from home, getting in your way but is that better because they are regular shoppers?

Presumably they just send the online pickers out X number of hours before the van needs to leave to deliver the online order. If somebody has a Saturday afternoon shopping slot it’s reasonable that the online shoppers are out on a Saturday morning to collect those items. If they collected the items too soon in advance then people doing online shopping wouldn’t be receiving fresh goods, if I had a Saturday afternoon delivery slot I wouldn’t expect my shopping to have been collected on Friday night for example. I’d want it collected on the Saturday morning so that fresh fruit/ veg etc was available following the overnight restock.

Unbelievable. Literally.

Unless you plucked the cereal bars out of the order pickers trolley, then you were absolutely right. First come, first served. I do feel a bit sorry for the order picker though because it's a horrible job and her heart probably sank when she saw you'd taken the last of that item. As for the online shopper I'm afraid substitutions or out of stock is a way of life these days.

As a new ASDA online customer I'd probably be a bit pissed off because in two orders I've had seven substitutions! But that's their problem, they need to look at their ordering system, not tell instore customers they have to put something back.

How confusing. So in Asda a staff member is my colleague when I'm in Asda even though I don't work for them. Bizarre.