Stupid things customers ask on Xmas Eve Eve

[Mokel]

I have done enough years in supermarkets at Christmas.

I remember one question raised by a few customers when putting out bread.
”do you have any bread dated after 28th”
I said if you go to a supermarket on any other 23rd, the latest date on loaves is 28th. As the bakeries always put the date as X days ahead, regardless of the time of year. I remember seeing one of these customers on Jan 23rd and asked them could they find a date longer than 28th. They couldn’t. Retail worker 1 customer 0.

”Is it possible to collect my turkey on Xmas Day?” Erm no.

Eeeeeer, well I asked in M&S today, while collecting my food order, if they, by any chance, had any crackers and the server kindly pointed me to the far corner of the store to a pallet of boxes of crackers and told me to be quick as that was the last of their stock.

A perfectly normal interaction between a consumer and retail worker.

Ours always last a good month sometimes up to 6 weeks

And imagine being so pathetically petty and insecure that knowing more about the sell by date of bread than another person is what makes you feel superior

So you don't trust any supermarket signs and rather than look you ask the staff? How do you do your shopping? Do you ask where every item is? Staff do have other things to do other than tell customers that things are where they say they are.
Why are you so annoyed about eggs being on the end of an aisle? Does it matter that much?

My point is they put things out in October/ November on shelves and in fridges like cream desserts and ready made prawn cocktails that expire within a few days and advertise they’re for Christmas yet what’s the point in such a dumb decision? Things that last longer like frozen foods yes, but don’t advertise stuff for Xmas in October that is clearly going to have expired by the end of the month!

We buy early and leave the tree in a bucket of water outside until it's time to bring it in to the house - prolongs its life greatly.

MIL has just been on the phone asking what wine to buy for Christmas Day. She has known for weeks that she is buying the wine and will now have to negotiate a very busy supermarket and mental traffic because she refuses to plan ahead.

Maybe they were looking on the pre-made Christmas meal section and could only find the ones in a microwave pack with bacon bits in.

My local Asda recently rearranged and didn't change any of their signs. Its a total guess as to where pasta and rice is every week. Last week they moved all their chickens to make way for turkey and after two trips up and down the aisle trying to see in their stupid fridge doors with the massive glare, I would just ask after that for anything further. If shit is poorly signed, then it's going to fall on the staff.

I tried to get a Christmas pudding on the 23rd about 15 years ago and Sainsbury's was sold out. I'm sure the shop assistant thought I was stupid for not getting it sooner, but we'd been planning on going to my parents's house for Christmas (5 hours drive away) and it had to be cancelled last minute due to illness and I still wanted to give my immediate family the best Christmas lunch I could. I had to buy a frozen turkey as that's all that was left and it barely defrosted by the time I had to cook it! It's not always people being disorganised who are shopping for food late.

They sometimes switch aisles but don't amend the massive overhead sign. Tesco is notorious for this. However newspapers are generally in the same place.

I shop at Lidl and like the turn over of different food for different weeks. Keeps it interesting.

Works for me. Works for them.

Mind you if there's something I really like I have a tendency to act like the apocalypse is approaching.

@Flyingintotheunknown I think that's the point, they want you to buy something you don't need and don't care if it goes in the bin. They are already filling the empty spots with Valentines stuff. Retailers are in the business of manipulating people into buying more than they need. The layout, music and everything else is about manipulation, and it's our job to constantly fight it. It's exhausting.

No I don't trust the supermarket signs.

I have already posted on this thread several times about the travesty that is beans not being in the beans aisle as signed and how this should be illegal.

In Canada, eggs and dairy are found together. In the U.K, it’s all a bit random. My local M & S has them located next to peanuts and crackers. My local small Tesco in the bread aisle. No rhyme or reason.

Well most people aren’t going to buy excessive amounts of desserts and celebrations and god knows what just to please the supermarkets. It’s already hard to get your body back after one week in December let alone 2-3 months of eating crap before Xmas too. I don’t know a single person who buys Xmas stuff to eat 2 months before Xmas.

Did she want a live one ? 🤣

Re aisles and signs, someone told me about a place where the overhead aisle name on the 'baking' aisle said 'bacon'.

no, so I’d have asked for the information the poster said she volunteered. I don’t think there’s a suggestion she waited to be asked though, is there - she added genre and a word from the title.

My daughter worked in a shoe shop when she was a student, and she once had a man crawl underneath the shutters as they were closing at 5pm on Christmas Eve wanting a pair of slippers for his wife, size 5. He didn't get them from that particular shop...

Looked for croutons in Tesco for ages recently - would you suppose they'd be near the soup? But they keep them three aisles away, beside the ketchup and preserves. There's things in Tesco that even the staff can't find - I've seen managers have to look locations up on their phones.

Calm down mate - it was just a question 🙄 And not unreasonable considering that bars and restaurants open on Christmas Day, so it’s not just the emergency services working.

And if there’s just a tiny bit of green on the edge then it gets picked off and bread goes in the toaster!

I am 60 years old. I have never bought or "needed" Christmas crackers (the sort you have with cheese though, that's different....).

How do you know? Granted, it could be either. I’d have started with this one though.