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The Woolworths Thread (10 Viewers)

bernie14

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After 2.5 years, I had my last shift ever at Woolies yesterday :sun:

Feel quite sad leaving, but there are definitely some things about the job I won't miss, such as:

-Customers placing a handful of coins on the register instead of in my outstretched palm
-Customers saying no to a receipt, then saying 'oh, actually yeah go on'
-Customers completely ignoring you when you ask if they have a rewards card
-Customers saying 'no thanks' when you ask if they have a rewards card. I'm asking if you have one, not if you want one
-Customers blaming you for an item not scanning at the right price or for being too expensive

The list goes on and on.
 

5098

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what the hell is Kronos?
Kronos is the software that managers use to enter in your shifts/keep track of them. Pretty sure it's linked to payroll too :) it's bread and butter for the office staff
 

nanakid12

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After 2.5 years, I had my last shift ever at Woolies yesterday :sun:

Feel quite sad leaving, but there are definitely some things about the job I won't miss, such as:

-Customers placing a handful of coins on the register instead of in my outstretched palm
-Customers saying no to a receipt, then saying 'oh, actually yeah go on'
-Customers completely ignoring you when you ask if they have a rewards card
-Customers saying 'no thanks' when you ask if they have a rewards card. I'm asking if you have one, not if you want one
-Customers blaming you for an item not scanning at the right price or for being too expensive

The list goes on and on.
That is a never ending list. Good luck for the future though! :)

Also guys, sure you can relate to this scenario and makes me want to die... checkouts are busy af, literally people everywhere and someone comes up to the service desk all dreamy like and asks "Can you tell me about your carpet cleaners?"
Or also asking about what phones we have.

Noooooooooooooooo
 

mrstripedshades

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My application a while back was unsuccessful and now I cant even remember how I answered the things (got to phone interview stage and then apparently my lack of experience).


Anyway, how is the process of recruitment for night fill, is it a solo interview or team interview usually? Also, had a coles night fill interview and I'm pretty sure part of why I didnt get the job was I didnt have my P's as the job obviously goes till 12 pm and they didnt fully buy that I had someone that could pick me up every day lol. Anyway, should I bullshit that I have my P's booked next week or whatever?

I plan to get them soon just want to brush up on a few things and get it done in the next month or so
 

quick_throwaway

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I've been a checkout lad for 5 months now. Second job, juggling it with uni study. It sure does look different compared to when you're the customer. I love my colleagues, essentially a simple recipe to meet new friends and I think its them that make my day at work, and my "Line manager" is among the most sweet, sympathetic people I've ever met, but here's my list of gripes, lets see who else can relate:

-Customers that act like its your fault when the screen show them a different price when you scan a product / 'hey thats supposed to be on sale!' -.....i seriously dont have a clue and dont care tbh, if it is on sale, it would be in the system.

-Customers that do not respond when I smile and say "Hey hows your day :) ". It's rude and you can be sure I won't be saying anything else to you for the rest of the transaction

-When a barcode can't be read ("product in look-up.....") and the customer is like "So i can get that one for free right ;)) ".....idk if you're being serious, but its not funny (because they always say that) and theres no away I'm giving my job away (i.e., fired) over some wonky Halloween wand. *calls supervisor*

-Customers that bring their own bags......I'm happy to pack your own bags, but if you then proceed to tell you EXACTLY how this and that should be packed... I'm not your babysitter, nor the person to decorate your bag as if its a christmas tree. I'm here to scan your items. And finally - if you give me your bags AFTER I've scanned over half your stuff and its in plastic, errmmm, yeah, you can deal with that. And finally - can you just do me a favour and take all of them out for me? i.e., they give you one bag, but inside it is like 100 others....

-If I don't ask you for your rewards card (refer to point no. 2), don't get pissy at me. The rewards card doesn't have to exist, its a privilege (and don't tell me the reward is crap/takes too long to reach, I KNOW IT IS, but its not my fault and I can't do anything about it), and really - its your responsibility to remember. I don't have to ask you. Its not official company policy. If the receipt is out or you've already tapped your PayWave card and you suddenly pull your rewards card out of your butt, too bad - theres nothing I can do about it and i dont care! But if you're nice like the vast majority are, ofc I will make sure I ask you asap. As well as make sure your bags are packed in top-notch condition.

-What is the point of the express lane when in reality, anyone can just rock up? On my second day at work, I was on express, when an old man came round with a trolley of 150 items or so. I then proceeded to tell him politely I'm sorry sir this is express, max 15 items only (because thats the rule is it not?). He got angry and said well you're doing nothing, you can serve me! I told him rules are rules and as an employee, I'm here to enforce them (I thought thats doing the right thing?). He rolled his eyes and went off. A day later, a supervisor told me he had gone out of the way to write a complaint about me, and she said NEVER say no to the customer, they are ALWAYS right. ALWAYS. Im sorry, thats kind of pathetic.

-Scan-rate. Why is this a thing? Is it literally to guilt trip people for not scanning at break-neck pace? I'm from the UK, and they dont have scan-rates in their Woolies counterpart over there. One week in, I started at 9, supervisor was like its ok, could be better (then I read this thread and I'm like oh damn its bad), now I'm at 14 and I'm comfortable but still, it shouldn't be something at the back of your mind every time you are serving someone. which leads me to......

-It feels awkward and VERY repetitive, when theres gaps between customers....and you keep signing on and off to save your scan rate! Seriously - get rid of the scan rate, OR, only have it start as soon as you begin scanning an item.

-We should be allowed to have our own "Sorry , lane closed" signs. When you are working a 5 hour shift, unless you go during your tea break, I'm gunna probably need to pop to the loo quickly during my shift - I'm not 5 years old, I shouldn't have to ask my supervisor can i go to the toilet (like I'm still at school), and we should be able to be trusted with using the signs! Same thing applies for the end of the shifts - three times now, I've gone home late by a rather whopping 15 minutes because the supervisor forgot to put the sign there, and the customers just keep rocking up. Only did I manually tell customers I'm sorry I'm closing after this guy, did I get to finish that transaction and just LEAVE but yeah, its happened a few times.


But otherwise, seriously, I'm happy with the job. i get about 10 hours consistently each week as a casual, I love my line manager, the vast majority of the customers are nice and pleasant to talk to, each shift is never the same, and I feel like my wrists and forearms get a bit of a workout. :)
 
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subtekjr

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I love the scan rate, it tells you when operators you know are capable of speed are slacking off, and when people are hard workers. I got moved from checkouts to fruit/veg after 2 months because my scan rate was extremely high.

Speed isn't everything, but one of our key measures in the VoC is Queue Wait Time. Need fast operators if they're going to improve that score, people hate waiting in life even if they get "better" service in return. Woolworths is a supermarket, nobody really expects to have the greatest service, but at least if you're friendly and get people through quickly, they'll be happier in general.

Plenty of people tell me the fast operators at our store are the main reason they come to us instead of Coles.

Also, with the close signs, that's weird, at my store we keep them at our register when we sign on and remove the signs. We do have that freedom.

PS. Are you signing out every time you finish serving a customer or securing your register? From what I can tell, securing locks the register, stops the scan rate, and you don't have to sign back in, just put your password in.

PPS: your supervisor's attitude towards the old bloke with 150 items was wrong, the customer isn't always right. You do have to placate them, but you certainly don't have to cop shit and complaints from someone bringing through a full trolley of stuff through an express register, we literally have express registers for people who don't have a lot of items. Express isn't equipped to handle massive trolleys of food, customers who bring through more than 20-25 items through express are usually just trying to be sneaky and avoid queues. If it's 20 coke bottles, sure, we can quantity function that. But if you want to bring through 40 different items through my express register during peak hour, my supervisor will tell you where to put your trolley.
 
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quick_throwaway

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I love the scan rate, it tells you when operators you know are capable of speed are slacking off, and when people are hard workers. I got moved from checkouts to fruit/veg after 2 months because my scan rate was extremely high.

Speed isn't everything, but one of our key measures in the VoC is Queue Wait Time. Need fast operators if they're going to improve that score, people hate waiting in life even if they get "better" service in return. Woolworths is a supermarket, nobody really expects to have the greatest service, but at least if you're friendly and get people through quickly, they'll be happier in general.

Plenty of people tell me the fast operators at our store are the main reason they come to us instead of Coles.

Also, with the close signs, that's weird, at my store we keep them at our register when we sign on and remove the signs. We do have that freedom.

PS. Are you signing out every time you finish serving a customer or securing your register? From what I can tell, securing locks the register, stops the scan rate, and you don't have to sign back in, just put your password in.

PPS: your supervisor's attitude towards the old bloke with 150 items was wrong, the customer isn't always right. You do have to placate them, but you certainly don't have to cop shit and complaints from someone bringing through a full trolley of stuff through an express register, we literally have express registers for people who don't have a lot of items. Express isn't equipped to handle massive trolleys of food, customers who bring through more than 20-25 items through express are usually just trying to be sneaky and avoid queues. If it's 20 coke bottles, sure, we can quantity function that. But if you want to bring through 40 different items through my express register during peak hour, my supervisor will tell you where to put your trolley.
Ah yes my Line Manager told us about the VoC a few weeks ago. Can you remind me how can we actually access it online and read some customers comments? I'm seriously interested in reading up what some people have to say!

I sign off every time I finish serving a customer AND there isn't another one immediately headed my way. I asked my Line Manager can I just click secure as I read that on here but she shook her head and just said, trick is, hit enter as fast as you can and sign off when no one is around. On saturday afternoons though, you never sign off (or hit secure) - the line never stops, if it does, theres something wrong, but yeah thats literally the worst time to work at least in my store ahahaha

I KNOW, that supervisor is the worst and she's like the "deputy" Line Manager. There 5 or 6 days a week, 8AM-7PM so you can't really avoid her either. :/ She only ever talks to me for criticising, actual Line Manager is the complete opposite. I know indeed the customer isn't always right, wtf, I mean, that is literally talking about a policy where they're saying essentially, its ok to be bossed around by customer, no matter what. When she pulled me aside the next day to report that complaint about me, I tried arguing politely, , I think we can agree regardless the express lane isn't designed for heavy load shopping, I mean look I would have ran out of space, a queue would have piled up quickly, but she disagreed, got oversensitive and said dont argue with me, and shape up, if you get more complaints (it was my first one wow), I'll have to send you up to the head office. So do not EVER refuse a customer again it is SO rude. I mean right there I wanted to bring up, oh what about the other time when you forgot to put the closed sign on my register and I went home 15 minutes late, oh, then I had to say no to a customer so i could actually leave but I didn't want to trigger any further anger. Jesus. Now that I think about it, I think she actually enjoys the power she holds over everyone else and thats kinda wrong :/ Anyways I haven't seen her in over two shifts now so I'm all good :)
EDIT - on the other hand, just checked next weeks roster and she's the supervisor for all four of my shifts ah well GG I'll just keep my head down at my register and work work work

I also brought up this incident with the actual Line Manager and she told me "oh dont worry, I get your reasoning of wanting to enforce store policy, you had good intentions for the store, I'm backing you with this. Should you have served him, I'm sure a long line would have formed behind him, customers would get angry because it isn't really 'express' and then they would complain about THAT.... Please don't worry. :)" She's so calm and soft spoken, love her.
 
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nanakid12

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Wonder what that supervisor would think of the "Customer always being right policy" if the customer was screaming and saying that they deserved a $150 trolley of groceries for free...

Well, they did say they were always right... right?

There is this customer at my store that always expects to be served instantaneously. Even if there is a customer being served with 2 items on the belt at a main register, they will charge past and out to the smoke counter to get me to serve them (they always have small orders). Like, far out mate, I'm busy doing inventory checks and whatnot... can you just wait over there for 30 seconds at the absolute most?
They put their basket on a closed express register the other day when I was busy doing a spot-check on a main, rudely yelling out to me to come and serve them. I told them I certainly wouldn't be doing so, and they could bring their stuff up to the two free open main lanes that were working! Which they huffed and puffed about, but did so.

Told my CSM about it, who said it was completely fine.

@throwaway... which state are you in? Just out of curiosity
 
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quick_throwaway

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Mmmm I agree, the "customer is always right" policy is a load of bull, and I'm disgusted my 2nd-main supervisor enforces is whenever she is around! ugh.

Ahh alright! interesting story. I do always wonder whats the level of BS Supervisors experience compared to the generic "team member."

I'm in NSW :) wbu?

Anyways since I'm here, and eating Woolies Roast Chicken for dinner, lets talk about Woolies Roast Chicken! Who else is a massive fan of it? I guess its probably not that healthy xD but I can afford the calories. Nah but seriously whenever multiple customers buy those, and I'm scanning it, you get a whiff of the chicken and it just makes you hungry! Btw, interestingly, I've noticed, there are more customers who buy the Macro Roast Chicken for $13 instead of $7.90 for the generic one. Can anyone tell me if so what do you like more about that one compared to the usual one?

Intrigued, I shelled out premium for it the other day and seriously wasn't impressed. It had neither seasoning nor stuffing, both of which is what makes the generic chicken so tasty imo but ah well :spin:

Besides her, honestly, mostly, I'm happy with the job.
 

FrontEndHero

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Checkouts got too boring for me so I jumped into Nightfill/Groceries and now I'm doing checkouts and those which is good. Having a variety honestly made me a lot happier on checkouts and also made me heaps more useful in general. Scan rate really doesn't mean much by the way so don't worry. And if you just hit 'Secure' on your register but don't actually lock it, it'll stop the scan rate without having to enter your password in again and waste time so there's a nice tip to save your scan rate in between customers :)
 

subtekjr

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Customer is always right should always just mean they should be placated wherever possible, not bent over for.

Throwaway, the only way I know how to check VoC is through iPads, they have a Downloads section where you can see the VoC results through Medallia. No idea how to access otherwise.

Sounds like that boss is an ass anyway man, I wouldn't listen to her. 2IC of Front End is nothing in the grand scheme, but because they get power over people, they feel like the shit. I'm lucky, I have an argumentative but friendly Front End boss, and a fiery but bloody nice 2IC up there. Haven't worked for them in almost two years, but they were always awesome bosses to work for.

I think the Macro chicken is free range, but don't quote me on that. People would buy Macro chicken all the time cos it's free range, not kept in coops. Woolies hot chicken is caged last I checked. I'm partial to the Macro chicken breast fillets, and cooking them up in bread crumbs and butter. So good.

I dunno what you guys get told in your stores, but we secure fully if we don't have a customer to serve. It's easy to hit four buttons and sign back in, and if you sign out fully, you have to put your number in again too. Just seems redundant, but maybe your bosses have a reason. Maybe its cos my store has 16 registers + 6 express (SCO coming next week as part of our refit!), and there are other registers to jump on if someone leaves theirs secured without signing out?

Either way, the second I have no customers, I'm secured and cleaning my register or doing baskets or something.
 

5098

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Anyways since I'm here, and eating Woolies Roast Chicken for dinner, lets talk about Woolies Roast Chicken! Who else is a massive fan of it? I guess its probably not that healthy xD but I can afford the calories. Nah but seriously whenever multiple customers buy those, and I'm scanning it, you get a whiff of the chicken and it just makes you hungry! Btw, interestingly, I've noticed, there are more customers who buy the Macro Roast Chicken for $13 instead of $7.90 for the generic one. Can anyone tell me if so what do you like more about that one compared to the usual one?

Intrigued, I shelled out premium for it the other day and seriously wasn't impressed. It had neither seasoning nor stuffing, both of which is what makes the generic chicken so tasty imo but ah well :spin:
I'm also a Deli person (as well as being a supervisor on front end). At our store, we have loads of trouble selling the Macro roast chickens, as people often say it's "dry and overcooked". I know for a fact that the stuffing inside a regular chicken keeps the chicken moist and tasty. The seasoning also helps with flavour!
 

subtekjr

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Do you want to leave now or leave in time for the new job?

Either way, just write a quick letter saying your name, boss's name, period of notice you're giving, the date your employment will terminate, and just thank them for the opportunity.

Then hand it in to your direct manager 2 weeks in advance, or asap if you want to get out in 2 weeks.
 

astroman

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Do you want to leave now or leave in time for the new job?

Either way, just write a quick letter saying your name, boss's name, period of notice you're giving, the date your employment will terminate, and just thank them for the opportunity.

Then hand it in to your direct manager 2 weeks in advance, or asap if you want to get out in 2 weeks.
I wan't to stay up to the end of the year than quit so I can start my new job. Also, is the direct manager the store manager?
 

subtekjr

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So just type the letter saying you wish to give notice of your leaving on the date you want to leave, hand it in 2 weeks prior to the date on the letter.

Direct manager is your boss. If you're on registers, Front End Manager, if in a department, the manager of that department. Basically whoever you report to.
 

nanakid12

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According to the agreement, this is the amount of notice you have to give based on how long you've been working for Woolies:

Less than 1 year - 1 week
1 year or more but less than 3 year - 2 weeks
3 years or more but less than 5 years - 3 weeks
5 years and over - 4 weeks

A few people at my store are still employed as casuals, do a 3 hour shift once every three months, basically just still on the books just in case. You keep your discount card. Not every store manager likes doing this though, we had one who threatened to terminate employment of a few who were doing it.

Also speaking of the agreement, WHEN ARE WE GETTING A NEW ONE?! Bloody hell, it's a piss-poor effort that it's soon going to be 2 years since we were due for a new one. Definitely signing up to this new union, screw the SDA.

Also @quickthrowaway, sorry! I'm in VIC, used to be in QLD though.
 
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