I’d love to meet the person that picks my supermarket order ?

We had our first delivery this week never again. Delivery was due between 8-9 hadn't arrived by 9.30 spent 40 minutes in a queue to speak to someone. Delivery eventually turned up at 11 am driver explained it had been delivered to wrong house he had gone back picked it up and brought it to us. DH explained there is a pandemic at the moment and we don't want food that's been in someone else's house so please take it away. 3pm a fresh delivery arrived driver drove away before I could check everything now find over £5.00 of items missing however manager had put in something extra for my trouble 50g blackberries ?

This is going to be a long reply. Please anyone don’t take this personally. I am a former supermarket manager and know exactly how these things work. If items are out of stock the Picker is allowed to pick for you if you have not given a substitute. If you have more than 5 items out of stock they should be emailing you. They are not allowed to continue with the pick. Present times with panic buying this has been very tough. These are frontline workers trying to support you.
Yes mistakes happen by the pickers and by the person placing the order. If you only order one sprout that is all the are allowed to pick. If they give you more then it counts as one misspick. Whenever I have ordered I always check my order a few hours before the cut off time to double check and look for items they have marked as out of stock. If you don’t do this as advised again this is your fault. But I can give a small tip. If you order expensive, for example toilet rolls. They should not substitute for cheaper. So they come up as an out of stock. If you order a cheaper brand they can substitute for dearer but at not extra cost to you. I hope this helps. If anyone one more I formation please ask.
These people are currently doing a brilliant job under a lot of pressure and I think we should show a little more gratitude.

I'm veggie, all my family are also veggie or vegan so none of us has ever ordered any meat product from a supermarket. I ordered a vegan individual pie for my dinner and they substituted it for a meat one.` now I always tick the no substitutions box if the item is a veggie one. At least a meat eating friend benefited from it

I got quinoa instead of olive oil!

I order from Iceland and they do brilliantly all my food stuff is correct and have done well during this time.

I have seen behind the scenes and pickers only have a certain amount of time to pick each order and on there shift they are given a set amount of orders to pick and have to pick them all in this time to hit target levels. Pitfalls at the moment are- social distancing, customers keep stopping them asking them questions, and so many items still not in stock, last but not least the increased amount of online deliveries since lockdown. Honestly behind the scenes they are run ragged. Obviously I understand your frustration but just wanted to throw some light on there struggles. They are the key workers that have been forgotten.

My friend was a ‘picker’ at Tesco for a while. Her handheld device told her which aisle and which shelf to go to to collect the items. If substitutions had to be made, the device told her what to choose instead. It told her which box to place the item in on her trolley - it contained numerous boxes for several customers at a time. Every item was scanned before putting it into the boxes to ensure no error was made by the picker. Considering the relentless pressure that the pickers are under, they don’t have the luxury to select considered alternatives. They grab what they have to and move on.
Her shifts began at 6am, now it’s 4am and Tesco want them to start at 3am. She had to resign in the end, she stuck it out for a year. It’s a very physical job, constantly pressured to maintain speed and accuracy. She walked miles per shift and was totally exhausted.

I had my first ever supermarket delivery yesterday and quite frankly it was a disaster. Half the food was missing, no bread, milk, meat or fresh vegetables just a waste of time. DH had to break lockdown to get some bread and milk.
I wish I lived in a much nicer area, it is clear from what I was given that this is a very chavy town.

Thanks for a good laugh, cheered me up no end. Still laughing at the one sprout.

On my last order I wanted some slim pantie pads but was sent thick chunky incontinence pants. Hopefully I won't need them for a while yet!

Some very funny swaps here, I wonder how their minds work? If I’m unsure whether to risk a substitute I write a little comment in the notes (Tesco)
Last week I ordered some senna tablets and got Buscopan which is for IBS.
The one time I should have written a note and didn’t ?

I ordered dried yeast and received a packet of arrowroot----not much use for raising the bread dough.

I've told this before, but will never forget the Christmas when my delivery contained ONE sprout

That’s tragic Alishka.
It puts my receiving one small bottle of Sierra Nevada beer, instead of one pack of six into the shade.

I’m not sure whether the substitution is done by a real person, or by the computer and then the picker just gets the modified list.
Sometimes when I search for something the results are quite bizarre, eg a search for fresh ginger initially brought up chocolate ginger biscuits.

I've met the lady who does my packing, several times.
This was before the world went mad of course when it was possible to put in a supermarket order, which currently is impossible here if you don't drive. 'Priority' means nothing.

She's called Tania, a diminutive woman of about 50 with a ready smile. If I ordered something out of stock, she'd ring me and ask if I wanted a substitute or a refund.
Once. when something was left out of my order, she drove to my house at the end of her shift, to deliver it. An angel.

Ah, those were the days when you could actually get food......

My neighbours add my order to theirs. I asked for a pack of frozen peas, expecting the small/medium size I'd normally have, but Tesco gave me an enormous bag of peas, at no extra charge. I like pea soup with mint, but even I have my limits.

A few years ago I ordered cat litter tray liners and I received a pack of ladies panty liners. Not a lot of use to Tara my cat.

I have received a few grapes- I cannot remember what amount I had ordered but it would have been at least one pound.

The short use-by dates, the next day, for eg bread drive me crazy.

Alishka Me P would have been overjoyed! He will only ever eat 1 sprout!

However, the person doing the picking must have been........

I've told this before, but will never forget the Christmas when my delivery contained ONE sprout

At the start of lockdown I had a single Cadbury creme egg substituted for a box of 12 , good result !

I did well with Waitrose substitutions. Free raspberries because they were reduced, Magnums instead of the cheapie choc ices I had ordered, more expensive wine. Sadly can’t get a delivery slot now .

I spotted your post about that at Easter, Maw while we were busy blending Blue Nun with home-made plum rosé which was actually quite drinkable.

As my youngest DGD would say, I was 'Well Jel'

On the other hand, there was the time at Easter when I had ordered a bottle of cheap Prosecco and they substituted a £26.99 bottle of Waitrose pink champagne

I got a mini bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, instead of a proper one, even the delivery chap said "Well, that's not much use, is it?"

But it's not just online deliveries, due to my COPD, Mr P has taken over the actual, physical shopping. I have had to adopt the "No substitutions policy" on the shopping list.

Recently I asked him to buy leeks, there weren't any, so he bought a cauliflower instead. I was hoping to make a chicken and leek bake!I

Today's list included (in capital letters) No sausages!

Merlot - that’s beyond the pale!

It is now, Mamissimo but it was much beloved of the Isle of Wight young farmers circa 1969.

#drankgallonsofthestuff

Obviously someone who knows nothing about wine Merlot.
I'm inclined to judge the age of the 'picker' by the sell by dates! Particularly on soft fruit and bread for instance. Obviously (or am I being ageist?) by a more mature person.
I did get baby bottle sterilizer instead of Milton spray despite being ear-marked as 0ver 70 and vulnerable!!!!