Supermarkets in Shetland - prices, ethics and experiences

[Seaflech]

I was in one of the Tesco's in Inverness not long ago, on a fairly quiet Sunday afternoon. The lady on the checkout was very chatty as she scanned my items, and then asked me if I minded her talking to me. I said no, not at all, then she proceeded to tell me that they were only allowed to say 'good morning/afternoon, would you like a hand with your shopping, and do you have a clubcard' to the customers. Poor old girl, she was obviously fighting the system by engaging in conversation, she then said that whenever they log onto the checkout their scan rate is monitored by items-per-minute, and at the end of the week all the data is sent to some place south, and any operator who isn't meeting a certain scan speed is given a pep talk by the manager. She finished the conversation by saying 'Have you ever read the book 1984?'

 

Hope she's still working after telling me all that, but a pretty horrendous and de-humanising work ethic!

[sassermaet]

^^^That's really odd, because wherever I've worked I've always been told to try and engage the customers as much as possible to keep them delighted and be sure that they'll come back to shop with us. I will, however, confess that this is extremely difficult to do as the job grinds you down.

 

I've also been to a smaller Tesco in the Merchant City, and once had a staff member chatting to me there, saying how happy he was that it was nearly the end of his shift and how it couldn't come soon enough. I nodded in agreement as I have more experience with customer service than is probably healthy for a 20-year-old.

 

We had a similar system on snacks at the cinema I worked in - you had to upsell as much as possible, and the more refunds / voids you had on your till, and the lower your average transaction amount was, the worse you were doing, and if it happened too often you had to have a word with the manager.

[BigMouth]

The scan rate has been going on for years. My ex-other half worked for them about 20 years ago. They couldn't get checkout staff at the time so she was getting paid £10 an hour on a Sunday. Her scanning rate was about 700. The top one in the store was at 770.

 

It just pees me off when they are chucking the stuff at you faster than you can pack it and I am one of those who knew that they were going to the supermarket before I left home so took bags, and knew that the checkout op would want paying at the end so have my card ready for them. The organised type then

 

I don't want the checkout bod to talk to me. I am in grumpy old man mode in the supermarket and just want to get in and out as soon as possible. I wouldn't be rude to them, but I wouldn't encourage any chat. The sooner that they start delivering in Lerwick the better.

[Para Handy]

Warburtons beat locial bread any day

[JustMe]

I have worked on the checkouts at a supermarket and the company did keep all sorts of meaningless records such as scanning speed and how many items, once scanned, were then deleted. Seemed to be some sort of management thought that if you deleted items you were either inefficient or trying to fiddle the company. No thought that customers might change their mind when they discovered that the product they had bought was not included in a special offer (right enough as a customer oriented worker I would tell them if I noticed) or that the customer might have not brought enough money with them. Or of course if I was writing about the Co-op that the machine would not accept Solo or Electron cards.

 

That said it also seemed to be policy to be friendly to customers and chatting as long as the customer was happy to chat was part of my duties. Was also part of my duties to help customers to pack their bags if they wanted to.

[JustMe]

Recently had a friend of mine complaining that every time they went shopping at the Co-op there were charity bag packers trying to raise money for charity and that, while they had no objection to a few fund raising events, this was getting a bit much and they no longer wanted to shop at the Co-op.

[misty25]

i'm quite pleased with tesco so far. i have a daughter who is allergic to milk, and food colourings, and was glad to find products that she can eat,i.e dairy free chocolate,and soya milk. tesco has a better variety of goods overall.

[Ghostrider]

Surely Shetland baked bread is better than anything sent up by boat, be it Warburtons or Hovis. Is Malcolmsons and Blacks still in business?

 

It was, around 25 years ago. Blacks closed down in the early 80's, Malcolmson's when Malcolmson's was only on the street and using the old ovens made some very good stuff, since Malcolmson's moved to Bain's old warehouse with new all singing all dancing big ovens and got restructured management, the products have been fair to middling at best, some of it though isn't even the same product even though its sold under the same product name.

 

Sandwick Baking Co made delicious bread in the 60's and 70's, but went downhill rapidly in the 80's, its "okay" under the new/current owners, but could be improved upon. Central at Sandwick was "average" at best back n the 60's and 70's, but improved during the 80's to be, IMHO, the best bread in Shetland. Unfortunately they chose to close down too.

 

Voe, is "okay", what little of it you can get, availability round here is once every two weeks by pre-order, so I can't give them a fair assessment. Walls, I'm afraid I've yet to meet anything they make I can manage to eat, nothing wrong with it per se, just the flavours and products that seem to be their "hallmark" I find very un-appetising.

[shetlandcars]

Walls, I'm afraid I've yet to meet anything they make I can manage to eat, nothing wrong with it per se, just the flavours and products that seem to be their "hallmark" I find very un-appetising.

 

They used to do an Orange and chocolate cake which was the only thing I liked, then they stopped making it!

[shetlandcars]

Recently had a friend of mine complaining that every time they went shopping at the Co-op there were charity bag packers trying to raise money for charity and that, while they had no objection to a few fund raising events, this was getting a bit much and they no longer wanted to shop at the Co-op.

 

Yep that was getting ridiculous a little while back, I don’t know what its like now. It was a great way to raise money because you almost forced your 'victims' into giving money. One felt a little hemmed in when asked would you like your bags packed? if you say no, there’s the feeling that all will look at you and label you a tight bast**d.

 

Wouldn't be half as bad if any of them could actually pack a bag!

[sassermaet]

^^^I always find it quite odd when folk say that - surely it's the responsibility of the supermarket to make sure the people packing the bags have guidelines with which to do so? When bag packing with a group years ago at Safeway we got guidelines.

[BigMouth]

Recently had a friend of mine complaining that every time they went shopping at the Co-op there were charity bag packers trying to raise money for charity and that, while they had no objection to a few fund raising events, this was getting a bit much and they no longer wanted to shop at the Co-op.

 

I don't mind helping the starving or homeless, but sending the local (insert sport here) team to Aberdeen does not interest me in the slightest.

[MuckleJoannie]

I'm always delighted to let someone else pack my bag for me

[tlady]

Me too .. I just wish they would take them home and put them away too.

[Rasmie]

I find bag packers really annoying. A lot of them have no idea and they overfill your bags or squash your bread. I can afford it but i WAS HORRIFIED TO FIND THEM AT TESCO THIS WEEK. I felt it would be churlish to turn them down, but as I finished I realised I did not have a penny on me!

The wonder of plastic.

 

There must be quite few families on a budget who could well do without this surcharge on their weekly shopping. People generally won't say no due to embarrassment. I had a couple of really shirty mares once. raising money for horses who stood and made comments as I packed my own bag.

 

I have a budget for charity and It goes from my account to save the tax as well, so that should be enough.

 

another reason to go to the local shop!