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.

That’s doesn’t really work for food though, which is the bulk of the supermarket. You do it that way because you are disorganised but you think it’s ‘stupid’ that’s someone might be disorganised and do it a different way?
When I have lots to remember I start a list early and keep adding to it as I remember stuff, then deal with it all in one go. Much less likely to have something slip through the net.

There are a few branches of Gail’s and a Costa Coffee open here on Christmas Day. I hope they are staffed by people who don’t really want to celebrate! As an NHS worker I have done my fair share of Christmas Days and bank holidays. I am not sure that I need shops and cafés to be open on Christmas Day but there is clearly a market for this.🤷🏼‍♀️

"Don't you have any Christmas spirit?"
Asked by a desperate banging-on-the-shutters-as-we-are-trying-to-close-them c**tomer at 5pm on christmas eve.

Yes, I do (although God knows working retail nearly beats it out of you) - that's why I want to go home to my family!

Next to the long life milk in ours. And to be fair to them, although they regularly change around all of the other aisles, the eggs have been in that position since the store opened about 20 years back!

Have served my time in retail (supermarket) so feel I can join in. My favourite did not concern a customer asking me for the moon and stars but as I was heading into town to do my own last minute shopping one Christmas Eve I bumped into an acquaintance heading back to the station "Finished already" I said cheerfully " "No", he replied, "Wife sent me to get a turkey but it's absolutely heaving in there, I'm not doing that" Oh to be a fly on the wall when he got home...

I follow this guy on Insta too - and this thread had me thinking of him.

Stupid as well as nasty, given the Aldi graduate scheme starts at £50k (plus a free car) and means someone could be on over £100k before they're 30 even if they don't go for any other promotions at all. It's very possible (and encouraged) to work your way up in any retail job.

Yes, she’s coming out of this very badly. I was expecting this thread to have some really daft or funny questions in, a bit of entertainment - but, no.

The 23rd was always the worst day to work, I hated it. Christmas Eve was much more pleasant as most people decided to shop on the 23rd because “Christmas Eve would be too busy”!

Eggs are not dairy.

Only milk and items made from milk are dairy

Where have I said that?

It is amusing for people to be crawling under the shutters after closing.

Ultimately you don't NEED to have everything regardless of how you shop.

I remember my first year actually going out on Boxing Day to go to the sales and it was horrendous I was a teenager at the time with my mum and there were women full on fighting in the aisle in Boots over some bath set I’d never seen anything like it the poor staff and security tried to separate them and got assaulted in the process in the end the police were called and both women were taken away by the police and a member of staff took this one remaining bath set off the shop floor absolutely ludicrous

As an adult now I avoid the shops until about the 3/4 January

Been in store this morning, seems like customers have forgotten how sentences work. Just barking random items at me “sugar?” “Eggs?” Like they are too busy and important to say excuse me! Tbf the majority were fine, but add in the overexcited kids and people who think it is perfectly ok to wander round the store coughing without covering their mouth and I am glad I am done!!!

@SpiritVaults nasty - plenty of graduates working in supermarkets as they can't get work in their chosen field (my daughter included, who hates being treated as an extension of the self scan tills and not as an intelligent, sentient being.) She has bills to pay sadly, so there she is...

Interesting arguments on here about Crackers.
I worked in retail for several years, the majority of our non-perishable Christmas stock did indeed arrive in September. Crackers had a very unusual sales pattern, very few boxes would be sold until December, with well-over 75% not selling until the final week before Christmas. Many customers also wait until they are reduced in the final few days, because they are pretty expensive, and the mark-up is high. I suspect the pricing algorithms are set to still enable profitability with a 50% reduction in price.
So it really isn’t unusual for customers to buy crackers on Christmas Eve. Anyone working in retail would certainly be aware of this buying pattern.

I see your supermarket eggs and raise you my local Lidl: with the tinned fish in the same aisle as the wine and beer.

I’ve had that one ten minutes before closing at 10.50pm on Christmas Eve lol

I don’t buy crackers until late because they are a pain to store. I have some sale ones in the cupboard and they always end up a bit crushed.

The fresh turkeys were dated 26/27 - reduced on the day or centrally if shed loads

I work in a Supermarket and don’t know that about bread so I really wouldn’t expect a customer to know! I’m so glad you didn’t work in my local supermarket with your unhelpful attitude.

I agree, egg placement is highly variable from shop to shop!

Yeah, I imagine the OP would be the first one to complain if all the students/graduates working in retail (temporarily while studying or looking for another job, or permanently, as I've said above it can be an excellent career) decided they were too good to do so and claimed benefits instead, and the shops were unable to function.

Not to mention all the many people who have spent decades doing other jobs and then took on part time retail work to supplement their retirement.

I was pondering when doing my final shop this morning, how useful it would be if supermarkets had an App you could download with a search facility to tell you where specific products were shelved.

The I work in a small supermarket (think Express) and I get asked several times a shift for eggs. I happily take the customer to them but some of them have only just come through the door and haven’t even looked in our six aisles 😂

Not a customer one but in a similar vein, why is it that every single year multiple people ask on the community Facebook page what bin is going out when? Not only is that info easily available on the council website, unless your bin day is Christmas Day or Boxing Day, IT WILL BE THE SAME AS USUAL.