Well done supermarkets

[TW2013]

After a slightly shakey start I think that the supermarkets are doing really well. I tend to do click and collect with Asda and Tesco. Mainly there are no substitutions or only sensible ones. There are slots available usually either the same or the next day and the staff are friendly and helpful. Perhaps they should sort out the testing booking service.

Your title should read well done Asda and Tesco as they are the only 2 supermarkets you are using.

Well I am using them because they are near to me but hopefully other people have positive experiences of other supermarkets. I have emailed them but I think it is good to acknowledge publicly the amount of work probably all supermarkets have done to develop their services.

Our supermarkets are doing fine. I get a few subs in my weekly shop but I always did before lockdown anyway. Not sure it deserves a "well done" though as it is pretty much their only function so providing stuff is really the minimum we should expect.

Sainsbury's has been pretty fine throughout. We've mostly used them The only thing they don't seem to have is tinned sweetcorn, but I think that's a national issue.

Actually some departments in supermarkets have not done fine. Hours have been cut and some have been made redundant. Not everything is what it seems in a supermarket. Behind the scenes staff are stressed and having to deal with abuse from customers more than ever. Management are not supporting staff and still expect a 100% from them. Even had to deal with a massive stock take this week.

@Witchend

Sainsbury's has been pretty fine throughout. We've mostly used them The only thing they don't seem to have is tinned sweetcorn, but I think that's a national issue.

I read that somewhere yesterday, so was surprised to see the shelves full of it in Morrisons yesterday..... bought one, just in case 🤪

I made a decision, fairly recently, never to shop at Asda again as I was so annoyed at how many customers weren't wearing masks at my nearest branch. (Mask-wearers appeared to be in the minority and I can't believe over 50% of the population are exempt).

Last night my DH decided to go there for a particular salad he likes for lunch and came out saying how impressed he was. Apparently they now have a member of staff just inside the entrance reminding people to wear masks and handing out masks to customers.

As long as they continue to make efforts to remind customers to wear masks, I am prepared to continue to shop there. I don't know whether people have complained or whether it is because we now have more restrictions in the area I live, but I'm very pleased with Asda's response, whatever the reason.

@Vivana
Actually a business doing well isn't the same as it continuing to do things as it did before the pandemic. It has made perfect sense for supermarkets to tilt resources away from underutilised specialist services in favour of keeping essentials well stocked and rapidly increasing capacity for click and collect and home delivery services. Unfortunately this will mean that the roles undertaken by some has had to change and that the redundancies of some specialist staff for whom moving to a different type of role was inappropriate were brought forward, but overall it shows flexibility and the ability to adapt to changing needs.

Yes I obviously don't see things behind the scenes and it is possibly just the staff that I see who always seem positive and happy but it does make me feel confident in the system. Dh in higher risk group so we are just thankful that we can get the click and collect, the system being efficient and staff being cheerful is a positive bonus. Admittedly they might not be as happy in the middle of winter but for now it feels as if this is something positive and that as StatisticalSense notes it is great that they have been able to adapt so quickly. When we look back at threads in March when there were queues all around the car park, no loo roll or flour and you were lucky to get a slot once every three weeks, someone in the supermarkets has put a lot of effort into adapting and enabling this.

The tin sweetcorn thing is weird though, we had to switch to frozen.

Well my company still think it should be the way it was pre covid and they keep saying be more productive. That cannot happen as staff are stretched to the limit already and many people are off sick etc

They have stopped social distancing in the supermarkets now and have been having problems with groups of schoolkids coming in at lunchtime, crowding out the aisles and generally acting like teenagers.

I generally think they have done well but they do need to start limiting numbers again and maybe only let the kids in a couple at a time.