Shopping early - but when does fresh stuff get put out?

elljay

If the predicted heat wave ever arrives (or was that it yesterday?) I want to go supermarket shopping as early in the day as possible, probably at 7 am which is when Sainsbury's and Morrisons open here.  However I remember years ago doing this at Morrisons but fresh things like their nice bread etc hadn't been put out.  Is this the same in your experiences?  If so I wonder what time does  the bread go onto the shelves?  Anyone know?

Thanks for the help.  Liz

briskbeats

I work for a supermarket. Fresh bread is available from store opening as bakers start at 3am. Commercial bread (Warburtons, Hovis etc) come 6-8am so may not be there yet.

Produce comes during the early hours though if had items sold out such as yesterday with salad items, strawberries etc it can take a couple of deliveries to make it back to full shelves. Though things like traffic, roadworks, accidents can delay the delivery. As a couple of years ago there was a massive crash outside the business park where my work’s deliveries come from and it delayed everything by 8-10 hours.

Got shouted at because of this. Then when the deliveries came, those on checkouts who can do the lifting etc helped out

elljay

So customers shouted at you because of a crash?  Unbelievable! 

Thanks for the info about the bread and other fresh stuff, that's really helpful.  

briskbeats

elljay said:

So customers shouted at you because of a crash?  Unbelievable! 

Thanks for the info about the bread and other fresh stuff, that's really helpful.  

This is why everyone should work in retail or customer service once in their lives

sarah1972

elljay said:

If the predicted heat wave ever arrives (or was that it yesterday?) I want to go supermarket shopping as early in the day as possible, probably at 7 am which is when Sainsbury's and Morrisons open here.  However I remember years ago doing this at Morrisons but fresh things like their nice bread etc hadn't been put out.  Is this the same in your experiences?  If so I wonder what time does  the bread go onto the shelves?  Anyone know?

Thanks for the help.  Liz

The predicted heatwave is well and truly here in Surrey, my outside weather station says 25 degrees air temperature. 

Many moons ago I used to stock shelves at Sainsbury’s on the night shift, ambient was stocked first and then veg, fruit, meat, fish bread etc was done between 4am and 7am each day. 

Rosa_Damascena

briskbeats said:

elljay said:

So customers shouted at you because of a crash?  Unbelievable! 

Thanks for the info about the bread and other fresh stuff, that's really helpful.  

This is why everyone should work in retail or customer service once in their lives

Until they get good at it. Practice is required to embed the message.

Conversely when I see a grump member of retail staff (rarely these days) I feel like asking them why they are in retail if they are so troubled to be there. Most people are pleasant though.

briskbeats

Rosa_Damascena said:

briskbeats said:

elljay said:

So customers shouted at you because of a crash?  Unbelievable! 

Thanks for the info about the bread and other fresh stuff, that's really helpful.  

This is why everyone should work in retail or customer service once in their lives

Until they get good at it. Practice is required to embed the message.

Conversely when I see a grump member of retail staff (rarely these days) I feel like asking them why they are in retail if they are so troubled to be there. Most people are pleasant though.

Sometimes we have bad days either either at work or at home.

Sometimes there’s no other work available now

yksi

How long is a piece of string?

I'm a duty manager at a supermarket and also work closely with several nearby branches. My supermarket receives fresh and ambient deliveries between 6 & 8am, meaning the fresh items will be shelved between 6 & 10am (as it depends on the staffing level that day and what time it arrives). In-house bread is baked fresh daily and shelved asap, usually by just after 6.

But this tells you very little and nobody in this thread will have a useful answer for you. Our nearest sister store receives their fresh delivery at 4-6pm daily and their milk at 10pm. On the same lorry as our milk is the shop 3 stores over - all the others on the way have different delivery schedules and times. In my own store today we had so much produce already in the warehouse that much of it has sat in the warehouse for two days, including berries and branded bread. I got my staff to put it out for sale at about 1pm. Tomorrow's delivery is about a third of the usual size - why - because a major national hauling company has a cashflow crisis and no money to pay its own staff, and is scrambling to hire temps on lower wages to drive the lorries. As a consequence we're not receiving all stock.

The in-house bread is going to be the only reliable time for you. All supermarkets that bake on-site know that people like fresh bread. It'll be out either by shop opening time or within an hour.

General_Grant

Rosa_Damascena said:

briskbeats said:

elljay said:

So customers shouted at you because of a crash?  Unbelievable! 

Thanks for the info about the bread and other fresh stuff, that's really helpful.  

This is why everyone should work in retail or customer service once in their lives

Until they get good at it. Practice is required to embed the message.

Conversely when I see a grump member of retail staff (rarely these days) I feel like asking them why they are in retail if they are so troubled to be there. Most people are pleasant though.

I'm glad you don't actually ask.  
I remember the days (still the same now?) when people would speak to strangers telling them to "cheer up, it may never happen".

gozaimasu

General_Grant said:

I'm glad you don't actually ask.  
I remember the days (still the same now?) when people would speak to strangers telling them to "cheer up, it may never happen".

But that is the perfect opportunity to shock or shame them for asking - by telling them something very serious, e.g. about death or cancer. That'll make them think twice about ever saying something like that ever again.

elljay

Just to follow up on this.  I went to Morrisons at about 7.15 and the fresh bread wasn't out.  Very disappointed.  There was some from the day before which I thought about getting but ended up with something from Warburtons.  Fine but I do like Morrison's bread.  So not a great experiment.  Next time I'm in I'll ask when it goes out.  They had however stocked up the fresh salads, veg etc.

Missing a trick I would think as the place was full of shoppers.