AIBU to find supermarket job interviews oddly demanding and irrelevant?

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I am a so called professional who has just had enough of one restructuring after another. I have handed my notice in.

I want a part-time job in a supermarket not as a manger but as a shop floor/warehouse worker.

Last month I had to do a psychometric test I kid you not, and was emailed to say I was through to the interview stage and I had to book an interview. All of the interview slots however had been taken in spite of the email only having been sent fifteen minutes before!

Having complained I was offered an interview but for a store a little further than I wanted.

There were three of us, we were given a little tour, then a group exercise, a small Functional skills test, then individual interview.

The questions:
Hobbies etc
One thing others would be surprised about me.
What would I do if I won the lottery.

Seriously, what bearing would these answers have on how I could do this job?

What would you say to the question about something someone would be surprised by me. I had absolutely no idea.

What answers would you have given?

What are they looking for? What answers do they want?

I know someone who had to do a bullshit group interview for a supermarket cleaning job where he would be working alone.
Cleaning jobs are often mentioned on here a low pressure job for people who struggle with interacting with others... yet they wont get past the interview stage.

Even if your actual job is done solo, you're still working as part of a team - you still need to be able to interact with customers and other members of staff - you still need to come across as approachable and friendly and be able to help people who ask for it.

Cleaning in an office after hours, or alone in someone's home is very different to working as part of a team in a supermarket.

This exercise isn't about what answers you give, it's all about how you interact with people. They don't give a monkeys about your hobbies, they will be looking for if you can relate to people, if you can chat and be friendly, if you can listen and communicate clearly.

It was a small supermarket that was closed during his shift.
I would not be asking a cleaner in a supermarket where something was if I needed help.

Wow that's awful

You may not think about asking a cleaner for help but other people certainly do - it happens all the time. They're also grabbed and asked to clear up various spills or leftover bits of cardboard etc.

In terms of working when the store was shut - he's still working as part of a team and needs to be able to communicate etc. with other people.

Best one for me was when I worked in an M&S food hall. I was in my 20s at the time. Elderly gent comes up to me with a red cabbage. “How long can I keep this for?”
I replied, “I’ve usually used them within a few days of buying them. Perhaps a few weeks if you haven’t chopped it up and kept it in the fridge.”
“ So it will have gone mouldy in a few days?”
”No, it should last longer than that. Are you planning on keeping it whole and in the fridge?”
”Why can’t it have a best before date on it?”

Thankfully he stormed off in a huff after I suggested perhaps buy it on the day or a day before he was planning to use it. The more I think about it, I think I might have actually been talking to a cabbage wanting to buy an elderly gentleman.

I just think it is bullshit. Like a few PP have said... those companies will have been sold the idea of group interviews etc by some consultant and paid a lot for it too.
I was a cleaner in an NHS hospital. No tests, no group interviews or weird games etc. Spent 30 min in a tiny office with the manager and a supervisor. I was not asked what animal I would be if I had to choose.
Granted, that was many years ago and times might have changed. Most jobs have a huge amount of people applying for them now.

I think the sort of questions asked are silly. Thinking back to when I went for my M&S interview, one of the questions was what was my favourite product they sold and why. That’s a question that can give an interviewer an idea about how you communicate with others and come across. Makes more sense than, “what would you do if you won the lottery?”

I remember being asked in a supposedly serious office job interview which dead famous person would I most like to meet once. That was nuts. I didn’t have to think long and had a very good answer, which seemed to strike a chord with one interviewer. The other person didn’t know who Jimi Hendrix was 🙄!

I'm not saying I agree with it, just explaining the apparent logic behind it.

Supermarket work isn't seen in the same way as hospital work, even if the roles are described as the same.

I have been asked stuff like that as just someone who was doing their shopping! 😅I have never worked in retail.
I remember recommending the best oil for roast potatoes once.
Another time I helped a man find the butter in Lidl after they had had a shift about of the chilled goods.

I used to work for Asda in the mid 90s when I was 16.They were already as bad then. It was my weekend job while still in school. I was making sandwiches and restocking bread on the shelves for a few hours a week. I was regularly expected to go to team building meetings in my spare time where we had to do things like draw ourselves in relation to how we felt about our jobs in Asda on a whiteboard. It just felt so humiliating somehow. At least I didn't have to go through the group interview process they brought in later.

That's what interviewers will be looking for. You can end up with a whole group interview of people who don't score well. Sometimes compromise is needed if you need to fill the vacancies.

Supermarket jobs have been competitive for years.

This is why I try and do all of my food shopping late at night. I think I have one of those faces. Mind you there was one afternoon I went into a Morrisons during my lunch break and 3 customers asked for help, assuming I worked there. My work clothes looked nothing like a Morrisons uniform.

Waitrose?

A ping pong ball?

😂

I was thinking the same! I did a contract there in the contact centre years ago and these type of interviews were the norm even back then.

Failed the initial Waitrose online stage. Still bitter.

Has anyone done an interview for the Co-op recently? If so, what was it like? Were there those awful questions or group work things? Asking for a friend.

Sounds like a Woolies interview I had 20 odd years ago.

"Imagine you had £20 to spend right now... what would you buy - go!" Then we had to trounce around the shop with a 60 second timer, the manager counting down with a whistle round his neck like. It was like Mark Clattenberg doing a rip off version of supermarket fucking sweep. The current staff laughing, cheering and clapping whilst we ran like dickheads (away from the pick n mix where we were all stood by at the time). Humiliating.

There was about 30 interviewees "taking part". One fella literally went "nope. Not for me, open the door please, bye!"

Whatever I chose, I was deemed to be too crap to work there anyway. Ha!

I work in one of the smaller convenience stores and our interviews aren't that deep. Theres some online questions when you apply which are really easy, followed by a bog standard interview with the manager (no weird questions, just ordinary ones) Must be a big store thing 🤔

Omg this made me laugh 😆

Dd1 applied for a supermarket job while looking for a graduate role .
She said that the interview and assessments for the supermarket role were more rigorous than for the graduate role