Hi all,
I have worked in one of the two big chains (not saying which but its either Coles or Woolworths) for over 8 years now. I've worked in grocery/long life, dairy/freezer, customer service, meat and in fresh produce, so there's not much about the "behind the scenes" in supermarkets I don't know about :P
I'm currently studying at uni so I work part time atm.
AMA!
The sealed pre-packed meat trays generally have oxygen injected into them to help preserve the meat's red colour. The industry term is MAP (modified atmosphere packaging)
Adding oxygen is a double-edged sword I guess, better colour but goes off quicker. Vacuum pack is better IMO
So, Aldi….
we have seen a lot prices fall at coles, most specificaly with their everyday/"homebrand" goods - usually on par with Aldi.
also there have been price matching by Bunnings for when Aldi have specials on hardware and items similar to Bunnings stock.
I note my local IGA (who have been charging through the nose e.g. way more expensive than woolworths + coles - which are both over 5 Kms away due to their "captive" market - pensioners, non-driving customers) - a year ago Aldi opened up next door. IGA have reduced their shelving space by 25% and the number of customers I saw last night at 6pm (previously the busy time) was quite small.
How much of an impact is Aldi making on the colesworth?
An Aldi opened a suburb away from us last year and we did loose a bit of custom but not much. I don't know how we as a company are doing w.r.t. Aldi.
We did lower prices aggressively in the last few years, partly due to Aldi and because the opposition did the same.
It has had a huge impact. It took a while for colesworth to adapt but they had to in the last couple of years because Aldi was gaining massive momentum.
The issue here that people don't see is that Aldi is cheaper because they can get good prices with suppliers through tendering and not through private negotiation, but also because they have lower margin than Coles and WW, which just want the supplier to reduce its margin. Also, when you see half price promo and so on it's mostly funded by the supplier, not the supermarket
Have you ever caught someone doing a dodgy and putting say bananas through as carrots on the self serve checkout?
I don't usually do self serve but we do try and watch out for that sort of thing. Most people are usually pretty honest.
years ago, while at uni, one housemate used to put his razor cartridges in a paper mushroom bag topped up with mushrooms because $15 per kilo was cheaper than $70 for a pack of four razors (prices adjusted for inflation and hyperbole)
Can I get used 10 - 20 litre white buckets from the bakery/deli that are being thrown out?
I guess so, just ask the manager and hope they don't forget!
Does it bother you seeing all the produce that is thrown out?
Second question, do you get to find out about new products early?
There is a lot of waste, not just in produce. I think what shits me off the most is when assholes grab meat or a cooked chicken, realise they don't want it and dump it on the (non-refridgerated) shelf. We don't have time to check every single shelf every half hour so it's usually not found until hours later then has to be thrown out!
Sometimes they cook too much bread and chickens and if they don't sell it is sad to see those chooks thrown out.
We do do quality checks on fruit and veg, anything bruised is donated to charity which is nice.
Why don't they offer the chickens to the staff instead of throwing them out?
Then they'd cook too many every time.
Could you just imagine how many chickens would go missing if all you had to do was misplace them in the shop. That right there is a free lunch, pimp.
Because no-one would know for sure how long they've been left there.
I agree - same same with Yougurt, etc.
At my coles store and several others I've seen they are shredded and sold at the deli as shredded chicken. The deli staff use to be to lazy to shred the chicken/nice to staff and they just gave them to the staff. But they've since cracked down on that.
I sure miss my chicken sandwiches :(
France has made it illegal for supermarket chains to destroy edible goods, they have to donate the products to charity. They should implement that Worldwide.
What happens if you buy something to eat on your break…do you have to prove you didn’t steal it?
Yes we can buy stuff on our breaks, I do it all the time. If we are taking it back into the store, we take it to the service desk to be checked and labelled.
We are also allowed to take milk and coffee from the shelf for the break room, so long as it's logged and labelled first.
About 20 years ago i worked at Safeway in grocery dept. We would just get the signed check seals and stick them on other products from out the back.
When i worked dairy section i would just open a big m & leave it in tne dairy fridge out the back in store room. No one ever went in there as too cold
There's a food product I want that's not stocked by my local Coles and Woolies. They essentially have the entire product line but they don't have this particular item. Is it possible to make a special order through the store?
Hmm generally we can only order things in if it's in our ordering system for the store.. If it's an item we don't currently sell I think you'd need to request HQ add it to our range.
Ask for the store manager at service, on a week day, during business hours. Check their name tag. Be courteous, and if they say no, thank them for their time (they may in the future get an opportunity to stock it, if you were rude they won't).
Know how much you want to order before going in (package size, number of packages, etc.). Most store managers have been in the industry for a good while so should know what you are asking for.
A special order form a regular supplier can sometimes be less work than their normal order, as they don't need to stock shelves. Or it could be impossible if their system is inflexible. But be nice!
Is it true that removing plastic bags is a strategy to improve profits?
I'm in Sydney and by far and away the vast majority of people do not voluntarily bring recyclable bags to the supermarket. Surely if people felt that strongly about plastic bags there would have been a much larger percentage already doing so.
I honestly don't know enough to comment on that. We do go through a lot of bags so it's nice to see us try and reduce our wastage.
I'd say about 30% of my customers use their own bags.
Has there been discussion on using brown paper bags or cardboard boxes instead of plastic bags?
Personally, I find the "going green" to be bs with customer paying for plastic bags. I note that this seems like regulatory capture in forcing all shops to adopt Aldis paid plastic bag policy. Brilliant move by the duopoly to save costs.
No discussion re paper bags.
I have read news reports that in the ACT the heavy duty bags are showing up in tips in similar numbers to what the lightweight ones used to. But the ones we will pay for are less environmentally friendly.
If you want to reduce waste, you stop crushing the boxes and offer them for free for customers to take home with them.
There's no profit in that. So waste it is.
I would seriously be okay with this if they incorporate price savings, like Aldi.
They’ll have to within a few weeks’ time …
True. But it will be against the wishes of the majority of customers. Interesting to see if there'll be any reaction.
Yes.
They are moving the hidden cost of plastic bags to the consumer by selling 'heavy duty' bags at a profit to the consumer.
Currently disposable plastic bags are banned in Tassie, SA and ACT. After 1st July new laws come into effect and they will also be banned in Vic, WA and Qld. Since they will be banned in five of the six states, I think the supermarkets have decided remove them nationwide rather than treat NSW differently.
So this is what currently happens in the ACT. I cannot comment on the other states as I don't have direct experience on it.
Most people try to bring their reusable bags. However sometimes when shopping it might be an impulse buy or you may have taken the bags from the car to your house.
Anyway you are bagless so what do you do? Buy those long life bags. Well in a year you may forget say 26 times in a year (as an example) if you shop weekly. Most people need more than 1 bag. So that's 52 bags. What do you do with 52 bags?
Well use them as rubbish bags of course. Saves buying the heavy duty rubbish bags which are more damaging to the environment. Yes more damaging to the environment than single use bags, but those are the rules we have to play by.
I still have a lot of single use bags because I travel out of Canberra alot, so even though I have 100 long life bags I don't throw them away, however I've been to a few apartment complexes and it's now full of the long life bags. Seems to be increasing and I've noticed way more bags ever since 2015.
Do you have any customers you think are dodgy but can't prove anything?
Yes. We have loads of those. We are prohibited from confronting customers ourselves (even if we saw them nick something) so if we see something we tell security or the boss. There are regulars who come in to steal stuff and they get kicked out on sight.
If a customer told us they thought they saw someone steal something we can only refer it to security. Someone's word isn't enough for a search.
A man's word use to mean something…..
Most retail theif's blend in. Many are normally people who used to be able to afford something but now can't. The dodgiest looking people are often high paid professionals or even the company's top leadership, because they will wear 20 year old clothes as they are too busy making money to bother buying casual clothes (plus they get left alone when shopping).
What time of day is best to find all the reduced to clear meat, bread, yogurt, etc?
Do you still use roaming fake shoppers security staff?
What's the worst attempt at theft you've witnessed?
What are some of the most silliest / trivial complaints you have heard from customers?
Markdowns are usually done twice a day. Around midday we markdown items which we have to sell that day, and also items which we have to sell by the end of tomorrow. Then depending what's left, we do a clearance reduction at say 5-7pmish where you'll find your 70-80% bargains :) meat items always disappear quickly after the first round.
I've seen 'fake shoppers' before but not for a while. Some of them dress up as shoplifters which is kinda funny.
Worst attempt at theft? Probably the guy who stuffed his bag full of stuff using my rollcage as a stand. Dumb af. I was like 20m away when he did it too. As I said earlier we've had people run out with fully loaded trolleys before too.
Silliest complaints? I get them all the time. Last week some guy yelled at me because I was bagging his cans 'too forcefully'. You get people who ask for things they saw 5-20 years ago and expect us to still stock it.
When do you actually close?
My local shop closes at midnight.
Have you ever seen someone instore you suspect was an ozbargainer and what were they buying/doing?
Can't say I have, you see people use flybuys codes for extra points and buy bulk special items but whether these people use ozbargain idk.
I've had people use e-giftcards so maybe they're ozbargainers?
Flybuys are for normie bargainers. Real OzBargainers trawl the aisles for incorrectly ticketed items so that they can claim scan policy and get it for free
Ticketing is a big job, and sometimes those people make mistakes. Come in on a wednesday morning, scour the shelves and I'm sure you'll find an old ticket lurking somewhere you can cash in on :P
I guess you work in Coles the. :P
Still can be Woolies there week specials start on Wednesday as well ;)
Why supermarket bought veggies and fruit won't last? Compared to market bought ones. Carrots go bad in a few days. The ones I got from Asian shop last more than a week
I'm not sure but we do quality checks to ensure bad produce doesn't go on show.
Smaller retailers will often change varieties subject to supply instead of using a variety of storage technologies.
I always have mixed experiences. Strawberries I buy from a fruit shop/market often start to go bad within a few days and you have to remove the bad ones before it spreads.
Berry's have one of the shortest shelf lives.
I have experienced the opposite to be true. Also, Coles vs Woolies, Coles wins hands down with their amazing QC.
Is it true that some of the store brand bread was baked months ago and imported from overseas?
As far as I am aware that is correct. Not all stores have the space for a proper bakery.
Some breads can be frozen and defrosted without impacting quality if designed to do so. I have seen retail white loafs with what looks like freezer burn, but I have no experience with bread in retail.
Grainy loafs, brioche buns, cakes, pastries and muffins are all delivered frozen to any restaurant/cafe that priorities profitability (massively reduces waste as you defrost what you need instead of over order every day). Some still make in house or order fresh. Most don't. White bread and rolls (excluding diner rolls) are still normally shipped unfrozen.
Is there someone monitoring the cameras? I seem to see the same people stealing items like every week and doesn't look like they get caught. On one occasion I even notified a staff but not sure what happened
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But we do check the cameras if there has been a big theft or any other major incident.
Unfortunately cost of enforcement is often more expensive than the shrinkage.
If a staff member detained a suspect then they will not be working until police arrive. The store manager should also have this as their only focus. This could take an hour and a half. A statement may need to be taken by both employees at the police station. Then both may be required to attend court.
Most employees cost at least $35/hr each (more with loads), so a loss of 10 hours each could cost more than $700. $30 worth of stock is not worth the cost of enforcement.
Don't get me wrong, consistent theft will be monitored and acted upon, and most 'do not confront' policies only apply if you lost sight of the customer between the incident and crossing the threshold. But 'Oi, you gonna pay for that' generally works far better than a crash tackle.
With the increase of fruit and vegetables pre packaged, I'm finding quite a lot of these go on markdowns regularly as they now have a 'best before or use by' date. Does the grower/ farmer still get paid for their product when it's discounted, or do they only get the discounted price?
I ask because the other day I got a stack of packaged tomatoes for $0.25c down from $2.50, and afterwards I wondered what the poor farmer got paid for his stock? Any knowledge in this area?
As far as I am aware the "loss" from discounted items is absorbed by us but I'm not 100% sure.
What do you think of people scanning kiwi fruits as carrot
what is the criteria for marking down items (fresh cream, chocolate milk, chicken etc) for quick sales? How many days before an item is due to reach its use by date. If i can time it i would like to buy stuff cheap.
Most of those items have a use by date so are cleared the day before. If an item has a use by date of the 15th June, it will be marked by 20-30% on the 13th, then to 50-60% during the day on the 14th and then to 70-80% by COB 14th. After that its thrown out. The markdown percentage can be changed by the operator but usually we'll print off whatever the system spits out.
If its best before it can be sold on the day it "expires" so add +1 to the dates above.
What time of day is it best to find 50% off roast chicken?
I've noticed Coles have stopped stocking the Fantastic rice crackers and are only available at Woolies now. Do you know why?
I do
but your name says you don't
Nope but I thought we still sold those..?
Not since April I think. Here's a couple complaints people have posted to Coles on FB. By their answer it seems like they weren't selling well, wanted to know the real answer though.
https://www.facebook.com/coles/posts/1836090669788273
https://www.facebook.com/coles/posts/1826096847454322
Damn, that's unfortunate.
Why do you guys sometimes shut the self-serve checkouts (usually in the early morning) and funnel us all through a single manned checkout with a huge queue, like the cattle at ALDI?
It's really (profanity) annoying, especially when there's an old lady counting silver coins at the front. I've been known to just dump my basket on the ground and walk off when this happens.
Have a closer look, there could be security there changing the cash in the self serve machines.
Nope, I've checked for things like that. The machines are all active, nobody is there, and access to the area is blocked off.
Stores have a certain percentage of sales that they allow to go through self checkouts. If that percentage gets too high then it starts messing with the budget for service staff, so there's fewer hours available for allocation and some parts of the day will suffer. To bring down the percentage they'll close ACO for the first and last hours of the day when it's not too busy and boost the number of customers going through mainlanes (people shopping at those times are often 12 items or less).
Of course it's up to whoever's in charge to make sure situations like that don't happen and just open ACO. In your case it would have been okay to ask for it to be opened, and if refused put a complaint into tellcoles.com or whatever the woolies equivalent is.
Thanks for explaining it!
In your case it would have been okay to ask for it to be opened, and if refused put a complaint into tellcoles.com or whatever the woolies equivalent is.
Probably would have been a better idea than just storming off and giving them the finger lol
What happened to Starburst lollies? I cannot find them anywhere.
No idea but I want them back too. I think Coles don't sell them either now too.
Think this means you work at woolies then 😉
Coles still stock starburst not woolies
Not at our store.
check mate
Go reject shop, always half rrp price if you want starbursts.
Do the different colour tags on sliced bread bags mean anything?
I thought different expiry dates have different colors. That way once you see a color, then all bread with that color means same expiry date
Yep, thats exactly right. Its a quick visual way to check bread expiry dates. If the tags are different colours, the expiry dates are different.
i have a 24x7 coles nearby. How does the prices change over midnight on Wednesday? If i shop there at about midnight, what prices will my items be scanned at and can I claim wrongly scanned?
I asked once and they said prices revert back to full price as specials don't start til 7am.
Not sure on that one. Our store doesn't trade overnight.
Any price decreases such as markdowns are loaded immediately.
Any price increases are loaded at the requested time (in this case midnight), and prices are effective in 1 hour.
Prevents issues between ticket price and items already in shoppers baskets.
This also applies for products manually marked down.
Omg I just went through the entire thread trying to figure if OP works at Woolies or Coles. I've come to the conclusion he works at both of the big two.
Below sounds like OP works at Coles
Question
I've noticed Coles have stopped stocking the Fantastic rice crackers and are only available at Woolies now. Do you know why?
OP answer
Nope but I thought we still sold those..?
Below sounds like OP works at woolies
No idea but I want them back too. I think Coles don't sell them either now too.
But then I think about my conclusion and what OP said at the start…
I have worked in one of the two big chains…
But then they OP includes
for over 8 years now.
Could this mean he worked at one of the big two for over 8 years and maybe less at the other?
Just tell us already OP… you are killing me.
I think you are right. A bit of column A and a bit of column B.
Nah they use red globes in the fluoro lights to make the meat look redder