Great 'supermarket staff tell us your reduction policies' hunt

blazemore

asbokid wrote: »

The company's career-average occupational pension is graded as mediocre to poor.

OK maybe you're right, I don't have one.
The union said that the Tesco pension was quite good, I'm just repeating that information

asbokid wrote: »

Perhaps for the under 21, the typical Tesco wage of £6.61 might seem appealing. But for an adult, the pay is scarcely above the minimum wage.

I am under 21, and I'm talking about me.

asbokid wrote: »

That's nice. Is that something you were specifically trained to do? Is it Tesco policy across the store chain?

I don't go out of my way to entice them to buy it. We have something called a "freshness trolley" into which we put bruised fruit, out-of-date produce etc that we find.
When I label up the bananas ready for waste, I tend to put the banana bag on top of the trolley, rather than in one of the green trays beneath. Half an hour later, it's usually gone.

asbokid wrote: »

The hardened money saver wouldn't fall for that mean-spirited sleight of hand.

It will just be types like the overworked single mum who is rushing to do her shop before school close, who falls victim.

I absolutely disagree. There are two types of reduction hunters:

• Those who have a quick look to see if there's anything they fancy. There probably isn't, but you never know, they might unearth a bargain.
• Those who follow my reduction trolley around, grab my potential reduction list off me and scan down it, pointing at things and saying "when you get to that, it's mine, don't let anyone else have it". They'll be in the shop for literally two hours, getting in the way of your actual work, making reductions one of the longest jobs of the shift. I honestly dread going to work sometimes because the same people will be hovering around, finding produce and saying "this looks a bit bruised, can I have 90% off? No? Oh my friend the other day got 90% off, blah blah blah".

It's the second kind who will go rooting around the waste trolley.

asbokid wrote: »

Foolishly for her, she puts her faith in Tesco ethics. Every Little Helps, and all that.

I became concerned about the reduction culture which was starting to grow in our store. I mentioned it to the store manager, who agreed that we should do everything we can to prevent this "reduction culture" as we are a fairly new store. I've mentioned to my manager that we should put a sign up next to the reduction department saying: "CUSTOMER NOTICE: All reductions are made at the shop staff's discretion".
The Tesco Ethics do NOT involve reductions! It's an unfortunate side-effect of not being able to precisely gauge the exact amount of fresh food we'll sell every day.

asbokid wrote: »

The label implies reduced, she thinks, and the bananas are loose and tired, so they must be reduced, bless her.

If she was that dedicated to saving 50p on a bag of split bananas, she'd probably have a rough idea of what they'd cost if they weren't reduced. Like I said, it's not the rushed people opportunistically grabbing a reduced item they were going to buy full-price anyway, it's the dedicated misers. It's not their miserly ways I oppose (I'd be a hypocrite after all!) but it's the way they feel they're entitled to reductions.

asbokid wrote: »

"LONDON (AFP) – Britain's biggest retailer Tesco on Tuesday (April 19) posted a 14-percent rise in annual net profits to £2.65 billion"

That's a profit of £5041 per minute.

Every Little Helps, indeed.

I heard £110 a second.

cardiffforthefacup

If she was that dedicated to saving 50p on a bag of split bananas, she'd probably have a rough idea of what they'd cost if they weren't reduced. Like I said, it's not the rushed people opportunistically grabbing a reduced item they were going to buy full-price anyway, it's the dedicated misers. It's not their miserly ways I oppose (I'd be a hypocrite after all!) but it's the way they feel they're entitled to reductions. end of blazemore quote

Most of the stuff that tends to reduced is usually of very bad quality and I am surprised tesco can get away with selling rotting meat and vegetables. There are a number of grabbers around who shove the frail out of way in order to get what they want, but in the store I go to its the elderly and bad sighted who tend to get conned by the likes of you, you should learn a little humility as one day all this will come back on you and you may be the one who has to decide whether you could afford to buy fresh fruit/veg or only reduced. Shame on you.

blazemore

cardiffforthefacup wrote: »

Most of the stuff that tends to reduced is usually of very bad quality and I am surprised tesco can get away with selling rotting meat and vegetables. There are a number of grabbers around who shove the frail out of way in order to get what they want, but in the store I go to its the elderly and bad sighted who tend to get conned by the likes of you, you should learn a little humility as one day all this will come back on you and you may be the one who has to decide whether you could afford to buy fresh fruit/veg or only reduced. Shame on you.

Most of the stuff that I reduce is not usually of bad quality. Anything with mould on does not get sold.
I am not conning anyone! I did my waste like I was supposed to! It's not my fault they go rooting around IN my waste trolley. They're looking for stuff that fits their low standards so they can try and get me to do 90% off.

I do feel sorry for them if they really can only afford reduced fruit and veg, but for the most part I don't think that's the case. They don't care what it is, as long as it's reduced. They just pick everything up.

Even if they are living below the poverty line, that's no excuse for being downright rude and pushy. They think just because they're the customer and I'm the staff, they can treat me however they please!

asbokid

If you are harassed or angered by enthusiastic customers, or irritated by people gathering around you, then maybe you're in the wrong job, blazemore.

Why not transfer to the Tesco graveyard shift, and then you won't have to deal with the great unwashed at all?

Besides, where's your salesman's instinct? Find the Del boy in you!

"This tat needs shifting Rodders. Giz a hand flogging it down the market. Lovely jubbly!"

The minds of many of the younger generation have been captured, enslaving them to their corporate masters.

asbokid

blazemore wrote: »

Put all the bruised bananas in a bag, and stick the 0% reduction label on it. These people just see the reduction label and go crazy; it's like catnip for them. So they grab the bag and don't even look at it. We sell all the bananas we were going to waste, at full price. They think they're getting some kind of fantastic bargain.

That's nice. Is that something you were specifically trained to do? Is it Tesco policy across the store chain?

blazemore

asbokid wrote: »

If you are harassed or angered by enthusiastic customers, or irritated by people gathering around you, then maybe you're in the wrong job, blazemore.

Why not transfer to the Tesco graveyard shift, and then you won't have to deal with the great unwashed at all?

Besides, where's your salesman's instinct? Find the Del boy in you!

"This tat needs shifting Rodders. Giz a hand flogging it down the market. Lovely jubbly!"

The minds of many of the younger generation have been captured, enslaving them to their corporate masters.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my job! I even enjoy reductions sometimes, especially flowers. I always do flowers down to 90% quite early, as I hate to throw them in the compactor. It makes everyone so happy when they can pick up an enormous bunch of tulips for 70p.

blazemore

asbokid wrote: »

That's nice. Is that something you were specifically trained to do? Is it Tesco policy across the store chain?

And no, that's just me. I've only done it twice, to be honest, and both times it was the same customer "hat lady" who's in every day (or at least every day I'm there), and is possibly the worst one.

One time she followed me into the staff only area.

Thinking about it now, it sounds so obvious to just not get worked up about it, but it's different when you're there.
I know everyone thinks supermarket jobs are just some kind of big doss, but when I'm the only one on the department for the last 5 hours on a Wednesday, there is a LOT of work to get done, and customers like this really don't help.

charlie-chan

Blaze.. I totally agree with your post. As a fellow Tesco employee, it is frustrating to see the same people come in day after day for reductions. I work on the Counters department and I often get a customer asking me when the chickens are going to be reduced, sometimes as I put the freshly bagged chickens on the grab and go cabinet :S.

It was mad at work yesterday, the reduction cabinet was always surrounded by people buying cheap meat etc. I think the Reduction colleague had to reduce it by 70% then 80% after a certain time because there was so much of it.

I think we have gone a bit off topic now, we were meant to be talking about reduction policies, not about the way Tesco does it reductions.

Yogibear

Merry Christmas:cool:

studentbargainhunter

Please let me know:
Which supermarket do you work for/did you work for?
M&S (not saying which exactly but one in London)
What times of day do you reduce prices?
First reductions some time after 2pm and second reductions usually an hour before the shop closes. We don't always get round to doing second reductions and sometimes not even first reductions - it is all at the manager's discretion and if there are more important jobs to be doing then we do those instead.
How big are the discounts? (If the computer does it automatically, do a rough estimate)
First reduction is usually 50p-£1 off (we have a little sheet that tells us but if there are loads of things there we can do it cheaper)
What time is the final, final reduction (to 10p-ish)?
I think it is one hour before we close.
Who has the authority to reduce prices?
The person who is working on that specific section. Cannot reduce any other section.
If a customer asked you to reduce something because it’s on its sell-by date are you allowed to?
No, this is a sackable offence for the employers if their manager finds out. Also if customers bother the people doing the reductions enough then the manager might decide to stop all further reductions for that section.
Does it vary if it’s a 24-hour store?
Don't know any 24 hour stores, sorry.
And any other useful tips …
M&S is not really a store where you can get bargains unless you come in at the exact time the second reductions are happening. Then, all items under £1.50/£2 (I think) go down to 10p and most others go down to 50p. But ultimately it is up to the manager and I think each store has a different policy on reductions. Also, if you hover around the person who is doing the reducing it will annoy them, but you will probably get your bargain. If you do this with a manager they can refuse to reduce the item or even refuse your custom from the store.