Sainsbury's: PLEASE OPEN YOUR CHECKOUTS

tripled

Under 18's are allowed on the tills, however transactions with alcohol would have to be authorised as you said. However, those staff may not have been till trained (so can't use the tills) or may have been on a break. Even assuming they were till trained staff and were available, they cannot just rock up to any old till and start checking out without approval from a manager. So the staff standing about is a red herring distracting from the fact the either the checkouts or the store as a whole were badly managed, even if the staff should have been on tills the checkout manager should have spotted them and sorted them out.

QuackQuack_2

tripled wrote: »

Under 18's are allowed on the tills, however transactions with alcohol would have to be authorised as you said.

This is common practice everywhere else, too. You'd expect there to be a supervisor somewhere around the tills by default.

tripled wrote: »

However, those staff may not have been till trained (so can't use the tills) or may have been on a break.

All of them? At the same time? And milling around the tills for entertainment?

tripled wrote: »

Even assuming they were till trained staff and were available, they cannot just rock up to any old till and start checking out without approval from a manager. So the staff standing about is a red herring distracting from the fact the either the checkouts or the store as a whole were badly managed, even if the staff should have been on tills the checkout manager should have spotted them and sorted them out.

You know something, I don't need to assume anything other than it was really poor service and a really poor customer experience. Judging from other posters, it would also appear that it's not just my local Sainsbury's that has this problem.

I must stress, I don't blame the young store staff here - I utterly blame the management and the Sainsbury's culture towards queue management which appears - on the face of it - to be pretty appalling.

eminemfan001

When I worked on checkouts we had to wait for the team leader to allocate you a checkout and you werent allowed to just pick one. The reason for this was so that the team leaders could make sure that people already on checkouts were being let off for breaks/ going home first before opening new ones. Also when opening a new checkout the team leader had to come over and open the device for removing security tags because we couldnt leave them open in case of shop lifters.

If the team leader was busy helping a customer you had to wait until they were free before you got your checkout. Maybe something similar was happening in the photo?

janiebaby29

here we go ! we have 30 tills id say about 25 was open all day on Saturday , with the remaining 5 for queue buster employees so yes sainsburys are doing their best !
oh and may i ask the public to observe that a closing board on the end of a checkout means exactly that the checkout person is going home / lunch or tea please !!!!
after doing 8 hours hard work shifting gigantic turkeys i do want to go home on time !
Merry Christmas !!!

QuackQuack_2

janiebaby29 wrote: »

here we go ! we have 30 tills id say about 25 was open all day on Saturday

If only it were like that most of the year, and not just on the predicted busiest day of the year before Christmas :-)

I don't doubt that till staff have a tough life and work really hard. With the repetitive nature of the movements, lifting and all that lazer light bouncing in the eyes, I'd not fancy it and I don't think it can be good for a person long term.

Even more reason to have more checkout operators and spread the load so the same few hard workers arn't left at the sharp end whilst other members of staff aimlessly mill around the shop trying to avoid work and customers.

janiebaby29

QuackQuack wrote: »

If only it were like that most of the year, and not just on the predicted busiest day of the year before Christmas :-)

I don't doubt that till staff have a tough life and work really hard. With the repetitive nature of the movements, lifting and all that lazer light bouncing in the eyes, I'd not fancy it and I don't think it can be good for a person long term.

Even more reason to have more checkout operators and spread the load so the same few hard workers arn't left at the sharp end whilst other members of staff aimlessly mill around the shop trying to avoid work and customers.

cant be like that most of the year as A . we dont have the budget and B . we dont have that many customers at a normal time of year !
i dont do my job for love , i do it cos its fairly good money and it fits in with my life

its not a vocation which some members of the public seem to think it is, judging by their demands !!!!

QuackQuack_2

janiebaby29 wrote: »

its not a vocation which some members of the public seem to think it is, judging by their demands !!!!

I don't doubt that. Any job working with the public is a challenge to put it politely. Shop staff, bus drivers, bin men etc, they all get way too much abuse from the public because they just have to sit and take it. I wish there was some redress to that as they don't deserve it.

I've always believed with Sainsbury's the non staffing of tills was a company wide policy or management failure and I'd certainly never wish to offend hard working shop staff.

blue_monkey_2

What is wrong with people these days that they cannot wait for anything?? 4 people in the queue? 15 minute wait at the most. Surely you factor this into your shopping time anyway? I remember - before home shopping - going to the shop and queues running from one end of the shop to the other. It was part of life, waiting to pay. Now everyone wants everything now, now, now and why should they have to wait. I do not like waiting to pay, I agree, so I get my shopping delivered to my door.

Yes it's annoying but I do not think they should have every single till open incase they are busy.

It is dark outside when the OP took that picture, what's more it looks like there are very few people in the store, maybe you want to be allocated your own personal shopper. Would you be prepared to pay an extra 10p an item so they can pay more staff - that would give you something else to moan about.

Maybe it is usually quiet at that time of night, maybe it was unusually busy THAT night for some reason. I do not think they should be have tills open in case it.

And as for the girls around the checkout - maybe they were being trained, maybe they were on a break, maybe they were waiting for keys to the till, maybe they had no code to log onto a till, maybe one was the supervisor and maybe one was the runner who has to go and check prices. You cannot just 'get on' a till as that would be an invitation for any staff member to dip their hand in and there is no money control. Everyone has a code is logged on and logged off so if money goes missing they can pinpoint who has been using it that day and if money goes missing it is those people that are then closely watched.

I reckon you have wasted more time on here moaning than you did standing in that queue anyway. Why are you happy to do one and not another? Why do you think you should not have to wait for anything? You could have someone to shop for you by shopping online, it only costs £5, they'll even deliver it and bring it into your house for you.

MoaningMyrtle

Is it the Farnborough store?

blue_monkey_2

Skinted14 wrote: »

If you ever find a hard working supermarket employee, please let me know! :rotfl:

When I worked in a supermarket I worked hard, thanks. That has applied to all jobs I have had - however menial they might have been. SOME people value their jobs and need it to ensure that they can live and put food on the table and pay the rent, those people work hard to ensure they do not lose their jobs.