Customers who mess up shelves of food

[notedbiscuits]

They grab strawberries from the bottom layer - all strawberries have the same date and leave them in a mess. This can cause packs to be damaged or bruise the fruit.

See them grab tins which have 2-6 years shelf life from the back again making a mess.

Please be more careful when taking stuff off the shelves. The staff have got better things to do than straighten the displays

This is called stock rotation - it's part of a shelf stacker's job description to pull the shorter dated items to the front and put the longer dated items at the back. Some don't bother but some managers are hot on it.

There's also "facing up" - pulling stock to the front to make a clean line so it looks fuller and tidier.

Naturally people are going to take from the back. If they're kind (or have had to work in supermarkets for a long time) then they'll be careful not to trash the shelf while doing it.

Do the staff have better things to do? Aren't they all hourly paid, so they do their shift and go home? It's not like they're going to be working loads of unpaid overtime if customers create some extra work for them.

I've worked in customer facing industries all my life, and yes, the public can be annoying, buy staff are just doing their job, not sure about better things to do.

If you don’t like performing the perfectly normal retail function of tidying up after custoners @notedbiscuits you are in the wrong job.

I will always rifle through to check dates and I give no fucks.

Can someone who's worked in retail explain what happens to the fresh produce going out of date? I went to Waitrose at 8.30pm, so 30 mins before closing, on my way home last week and had a look at the reductions. There was loads of fruit and veg but most of it was only reduced by 30p or so, there's no way it was getting sold. Do they bin it? They used to reduce things to 5p and 10p in my local store but those days seem to have long gone.

Where my son works, they do Too Good to Go bags, some goes to homeless charities or food banks and staff are allowed to take anything reduced, that's left after a certain time.

OP, are you the person who regularly posts about issues with customers in a supermarket (e.g elderly shoppers shopping at the weekend)? I know from experience that shoppers can be frustrating but you seem far more bothered by it than is probably healthy, and customers can’t be expected to tidy up after themselves every time. If you aren’t the person who posts things like this all the time, apologies!

@melaniepond I also came here to ask OP whether it was the elderly shoppers doing this… On a Saturday morning to boot.

I always delve through the shelves and look at the best dates.

That's just not true - today in fact t I got lettuce dated the 24th, the bags in front were dated from 22nd. I'm not paying full for something that has a 24 hour use by date.
Tins I agree - I just grab what's nearest.
But it is actually the job of store workers to keep shelves tidy. One hopes there isn't an intentional mess, but it is their job (my sister used to work at Wholefoods and BIL at Waitrose).

I take from the back, out of habit, but I’m always discrete and leave everything tidy. I never rummage and leave things in a mess. (I thought I was the only one that took from the back - this thread has been an eye opener!)

Nah, worked in retail for 10 years and tidying up after people is literally just part of the job. Some people are obnoxiously untidy but those are the ones you just call dickhead as soon as they're out of earshot and move on with your day.

And I will always take from the back for fresh stuff. I'm a decent enough human to not rummage about like a chimpanzee looking for the best banana and make an enormous mess in the process, but I still want the stuff with the longest date which is at the back/bottom.

I take exception to that comment. I work in a supermarket and we very much do care. The stock is rotated so that the fresher stuff is behind and therefore the older stuff is not sitting there going off.
I also buy from the back but never make a mess.
The one thing I really hate is lazy fucking customers who get a fresh product and then decide they don't want it so chuck it in a freezer so that it has to be wasted and then the daft fuckers wonder why prices are always increasing.

This made me smile 😊 you have a very discerning guinea pig!

Charity or colleague shop where we get it for free after a certain time if it hasn't been bought.

What better things to staff have to do? Isn’t it part of the job to keep the shelves looking tidy for customers?

It is totally fair game to take things from the back of the shelves to look for the better dates. It would be senseless not to unless you are planning to eat what you buy the same or next day only.

The stuff at the bottom might not have a better day on it, but you don’t know that unless you look.

Buyers prerogative, it's their money !

Although not seen it with tons.

*tins

Not Waitrose but we have a charity that collects all our fruit, bakery and cakes for homeless and other people who need it. The chilled food eg:cooked meat sometimes is donated if it can be picked up at a reasonable time we don't want to poison anyone.

@lazyarse123 what I hate is when the stuff that's out of date are left on the fucking shelves and then get picked by the home delivery team and delivered, or they choose a really fucking short date on fresh items.

No I'm not going to eat all this fresh fruit and veg in the next two days.

While whe're at it maybe we should bring our own sheets to hotels and not use the toilets because the cleaners have got better things to do. We could also take our own food to restaurants because the chefs have got better things to do. And please, if you could all educate your kids at home that would be great because then I can get on with surfing the internet for my next holiday instead.

Tough. Customers have the right to choose the longest lasting products or the juiciest strawberries. I agree they should be careful not to damage produce though.

Luckily we only do Deliveroo and Uber and are told specifically to pick longer dates. But as a pp says some staff don't care or more. likely they are completely demoralised by the job.

it is a shelf stackers job
however i was appalled in asda yesterday,
masses of oddly placed food,
strawberries in with the tins,
as well as just roll pastry

they will have to be thrown out now

Best dates are at the back.

That’s one of the reasons we stopped having deliveries. Far too much was short dated items, including milk. There’s nothing wrong with selecting what you are choosing to buy as long as you don’t damage the stock. You’re paying for it after all.

Poor handling from staff putting stock in the shelves is partly responsible for goods, especially fruit, being damaged.

My bugbear is customers who pick something up, change their mind and can’t be bothered to put the item back where it came from. If it’s chilled and ends up with the biscuits or tins, it’s wasted unnecessarily.