Boots stock on the floor - grrr!

RightRevBod

I had an issue with blocke fire escapes in Woolwoths. They had locked one of the signed fire exits, and put a display stand in front of it.

Having been trained as a Fire Marshall / Site Satefy Officer by my ex empoyer, I got one of the staff to call the manager and explained my concerns to him. A week later and things had not changed, so I escallated the issue by phoning the local environmental health department.

A few days later, the issue had been resolved and shortly afterwards I got a call back from trading standards to say that they had served notice on the store, and had subsequently inspected it and all now seemed to be correct. They asked me if I was satisfied with the esponse and if I wished to take any furher action.

The store has a duty of care to its staff and customers. So by blocking designated fire escapes they were breaching that duty of care. I could theoretically have taken legal action for damages for them breaching that duty.

I did not do so as it would hve been a waste of the overworked courts time, but if Boots are causing you so much agrovation, you could threaten them.

As a first step, I would recomenf that you contact the local environmental health department. They will be able to have a word with the store manager. If they see an onging problem, they will be able to sere a health and safety notice on the store to desist. If they fail to comply with that, then they are in big trouble - fines and lots of bad publicity.

It might also be worth send a letter to Boots head office, listing your safety concerns regarding the store.

Is it part of a shopping centre? If so another route would be though the Centre management.

Also, as the blockages made the isles too narrow for a wheelchair to pass, they were probably breaking regulations regarding discimination of access fro disabled persons.

Sorry for the rant, but some of the things shown to us during the training have made me rather obsessive about safety.

ts_aly2000

Ahhh, I have the solution....

Just start moving the cages and stock about to get to what you want. The staff ABSOLUTELY hate it!!

But they are quite clearly breaking all manner of health and safety laws. If they don't want the public wandering about then perhaps they should shut the shop.

Here's a very nasty story from when I worked for a large supermarket. In the front foyer of the small town centre store where I worked, the pipes burst in the ceiling directly above where the customers entered and exited the store. People were getting wet and there was water all over the floor. Want to know what these pipes were for!? Directly above on the next floor were the staff toilets!!!!!!!!!!

And did they close the store!? Did they *bad word*!! It was absolutely putrid and just another nail in the coffin of a once proud supermarket which truly valued it's customers. I used to really believe in the company and always acted in it's best interests while idiots beat me on the rat-race as they drank with the right people.. That's how these places are ran now! It used to be based on skill, diligence and genuine knowledge when I started there at the age of 16. I see once proud managers worn out and tired, I feel so much for them in fighting a useless battle against those who would rather get out of anything and everything.

Everything is about profits and what can be proven and what can't. It's disgusting. It's not management, it's deniable accountability. Anyone these days with any glimmer of management-blood in them can't tell a member of staff to get-the-bloody-hell-on-with-it, the staff have to receive counselling didn't you know! Load of complete and utter rubbish if you ask me! I bet Alan Sugar doesn't sit people down and talk to them in a softly softly voice. Far too many management in these places need a damn good kick up the backside, they're spineless wimps who wouldn't put their own job on the line in the name of what is right and what is not.

If I were you I'd take your camera in there and post the pictures on here for us all to see??

little rant there

rogue_element

Minky2Slice wrote:

a bit off the topic, but when i bought some sandwiches which were reduced in price from Boots last weekend, the SA scanned it and it read:
"Chilled Waste - 70p" as item description on the till!!!

surely put me off my food!! why do they call it "waste"???

Well thats a bit of a silly description to put on the till. But essentially any reduced food is "waste", as it has been written off by the store. I work at M&S and we have reductions, which are already recorded as "waste" i.e. we throw them away at the end of the day. Anything recovered through reductions comes under a special code on the till. However, we can sell them during the day as reduced. The description "REDUCED" comes up on the till, not the original item description, as that is how the money is recovered, so I guess that is the explanation. It is waste, but nothing wrong with it at all.

grex9101

rogue_element wrote:

Well thats a bit of a silly description to put on the till. But essentially any reduced food is "waste", as it has been written off by the store. I work at M&S and we have reductions, which are already recorded as "waste" i.e. we throw them away at the end of the day. Anything recovered through reductions comes under a special code on the till. However, we can sell them during the day as reduced. The description "REDUCED" comes up on the till, not the original item description, as that is how the money is recovered, so I guess that is the explanation. It is waste, but nothing wrong with it at all.

Didn't think M&S "did" reductions, the ones near me certainly don't appear to. Have been told in the past that only M&S employees can buy the reductions after the shop is closed for the day.....

rogue_element

@grex9101 Yeah,it's at the manager's discression: depends on staffing, how much there is, how busy shop is etc. They *should* do 2 daily checks for date expired food, so if we remove a lot of stuff most likely most of it will get reduced on the first check. You can always ask the CA if you see him/her with the terminal (handheld device) removing stock. They can just shove a reduced sticker on it for you! This is a simply food store though, we go home 1/2 hour after we shut, some of the bigger stores do these checks after they shut, so no reductions!