Sainsburys Personal Shopper .. Experience of the job anyone?

jaqui59

Hi everyone

My 17 year old son has been employed with Sainsburys for 3 months .. He is contracted to 16 hours per week only, and would like some more hours .. He is aware that there are some vacancies for Personal Shoppers, but he is also aware that Sainsburys are having problems filling the vacancies, and we are wondering why?

Has anyone been employed by Sainsburys as a Personal Shopper, if so, it would be great to get some info on what the job entails.

Thankyou )

InsideInsurance

Given he already works there can he not ask a colleague? The issues could just be local to his branch/ region etc

agrinnall

There's a reference to Sainsbury's personal shoppers here http://www.disabilitynow.org.uk/living/features/basket-cases

It looks like it's their term for the people who collect items ordered online for home delivery. I've definitely seen people in Sainsbury's doing that, I guess if you like supermarket shopping it's an ideal job!

jaqui59

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Given he already works there can he not ask a colleague? The issues could just be local to his branch/ region etc

I've mentioned to him to ask a colleague, but he suffers from terrible shyness with this sort of thing, hence why i've created this thread to try and help him.

I think he is worried he might say yes to the job, and then up hating it. .. Again, we are just wondering why they can't fill these vacancies. Maybe the job isn't as simple as it sounds, which is why it would be great to find someone who already does it.

andrew-the-cat

Personal shoppers are the staff you see pushing the trolleys around which have crates in them. As said above they are simply picking for the online delivery orders. It is one of only 3 departments in the store which is productivity driven (you get timed, if you are too slow then you're out) so if he can't work under a little pressure then it's probably not for him.

t0rt0ise

The time element is probably why they make so many mistakes then. They simply don't have time to find the stuff. I always wondered how things could get missed.

DCFC79

Yes i can answer questions, you are timed on it and its an average amount over the course of a week. The min contract hours are just that the minimum he could do each week but im finding 3 or 4 days a week theres overtime available but sometimes he wont get asked if he can stay on a bit until that very day or there are times when the team leaders will know if certain days are short of shoppers and they ask if anyone can do say a sunday.

Id suggest he speaks to his manager and says hes interested in moving across. He could maybe ask to try it out on a trial basis eg on a day when less busy and go round with a more experienced shopper to see if he likes it.

They most likely have interviewed for the vacancies and either not found right people or they have employed some and tehy just havent worked out for 1 reason or another.

My store isnt too bad, we do have a board with our times on and if you think your a bit slow(you cna tell from the board) you can ask you shadow a more experienced shopper.

Any other questions jaqui just ask and ill try and answer them.

If he shows promise he could end up doing other jobs within STY eg help drivers to load the vans or help sorting the deliveries out into the respective lanes.

DCFC79

t0rt0ise wrote: »

The time element is probably why they make so many mistakes then. They simply don't have time to find the stuff. I always wondered how things could get missed.

You mean in regards to substitues ?

Well its a few reasons, 1 being the location isnt changed 2 the item is a new line which isnt in store yet or 3 the item has been incorrectly replenished by day/night shift on a different shelf.

t0rt0ise

DCFC79 wrote: »

You mean in regards to substitues ?

Well its a few reasons, 1 being the location isnt changed 2 the item is a new line which isnt in store yet or 3 the item has been incorrectly replenished by day/night shift on a different shelf.

Not really substitutes just plain missing items, although I do think bad substitution is down to the fact that you really need to be an experienced grocery shopper to be able to find sensible substitutes. With Tesco Online I tried to select no substitutes but the damn option was broken.

I had fun with Sainsburys once when my order didn't arrive and on calling them they said they'd had no driver and it would come next evening. It didn't. This time they called me all of a fluster saying that the driver had walked out leaving them high and dry. My shop did eventually arrive with a bottle of wine included as an apology. I felt for them more than being cross. I know what it's like when things go wrong at work through no fault of your own.

DCFC79

t0rt0ise wrote: »

Not really substitutes just plain missing items, although I do think bad substitution is down to the fact that you really need to be an experienced grocery shopper to be able to find sensible substitutes. With Tesco Online I tried to select no substitutes but the damn option was broken.

I had fun with Sainsburys once when my order didn't arrive and on calling them they said they'd had no driver and it would come next evening. It didn't. This time they called me all of a fluster saying that the driver had walked out leaving them high and dry. My shop did eventually arrive with a bottle of wine included as an apology. I felt for them more than being cross. I know what it's like when things go wrong at work through no fault of your own.

Ah yes the missing shopping, we get the odd occaison where a crate of shopping just goes missing and ends up being re picked.

Yes having to find a suitable substitute can be quite hard but people just need to use common sense, some classic examples are : a chicken was given as a substitution for a turkey a day or 2 before xmas day, a pregnancy kit was subeed for some nappies

Slinky

DCFC79 wrote: »

Ah yes the missing shopping, we get the odd occaison where a crate of shopping just goes missing and ends up being re picked.

Yes having to find a suitable substitute can be quite hard but people just need to use common sense, some classic examples are : a chicken was given as a substitution for a turkey a day or 2 before xmas day, a pregnancy kit was subeed for some nappies

Going off topic (sorry OP) there was a fantastic thread a while ago about odd substitutions. The best one I recall reading was somebody getting rubber gloves instead of condoms.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3064914