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Tesco grocery deliveries - the picker notes

(39 Posts)
ElderlyPerson Tue 20-Jul-21 19:43:01

A really good facility of the Tesco online grocery delivery system is the ability, optional, to include, separately, for each type of item ordered, a picker note of up to 55 letters and spaces.

These are very useful to customers.

If one has opted to allow substitutions, one can specify an alternative.

If the item is assorted, one can request what is sent. For example, A5 notebooks are in various cover colours, one can request, say, "pink or light blue please".

One can make a request such as "seven bananas please, three yellow, four green if poss." when ordering bananas.

One can ask "please send in the display box if poss please, helps unloading" if one is ordering the quantity that is in a display box.

I wonder if the pickers enjoy the picker notes, on the basis that what could be a rather monotonous inert picking job has variety, a human aspect and job satisfaction of trying to pick so as to help customers get their preferences.

Do readers who have online grocery deliveries from Tesco use the picker notes, and if so, how?

Does anyone here work doing order picking for Tesco online deliveries or know someone who does who could be asked please?

Do other grocery delivery companies have picker notes?

MissChateline Wed 21-Jul-21 11:48:54

No idea whether this link works,

www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jul/19/ocado-shares-cancels-orders-robot-fire-cancellations?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Doodledog Wed 21-Jul-21 11:52:54

I still think that in the great scheme of life having the wrong coloured food storage box must come incredibly low down my list of priorities.
I suppose it depends whether they are intended to be used to differentiate the contents?

Just because you don't prioritise this doesn't mean that it shouldn't be possible for customers to opt for what they want. It's a bit like saying that it's not important whether you get peas or beans. Maybe not, in the great scheme of life, but a lot depends on preference, surely?

ElderlyPerson Wed 21-Jul-21 12:45:09

Ah, 'reams', a word that I had not seen for a long time.

As I remember it, a ream is 500 sheets, or sometimes 480 sheets, and just how many notes each no more than 55 characters long could be printed upon reams of paper (note the plural!) is left as an exercise for the reader, as the saying goes!

ElderlyPerson Wed 21-Jul-21 12:55:54

MissChateline

No idea whether this link works,

www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jul/19/ocado-shares-cancels-orders-robot-fire-cancellations?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Yes it does work. Thank you for posting the link.

ElderlyPerson Wed 21-Jul-21 12:58:22

ElderlyPerson

Ah, 'reams', a word that I had not seen for a long time.

As I remember it, a ream is 500 sheets, or sometimes 480 sheets, and just how many notes each no more than 55 characters long could be printed upon reams of paper (note the plural!) is left as an exercise for the reader, as the saying goes!

Though I suppose with hundreds of customers, the reading time for a particular picker does add up to quite a large total.

nadateturbe Wed 21-Jul-21 16:19:11

My GD does this while at uni. The picker doesn't choose the substitute. Think it's computer generated.

V3ra Wed 21-Jul-21 16:57:10

One of our Tesco delivery drivers used to be very high up in the company.
One day he decided he'd had enough of all the corporate responsibility and wanted to downsize his workload.
He became a driver and loves meeting and chatting with a wide variety of customers ?

MawBe Wed 21-Jul-21 17:19:52

ElderlyPerson

Ah, 'reams', a word that I had not seen for a long time.

As I remember it, a ream is 500 sheets, or sometimes 480 sheets, and just how many notes each no more than 55 characters long could be printed upon reams of paper (note the plural!) is left as an exercise for the reader, as the saying goes!

What is the point of noting the plural of “ream” ?
I think the point about copious notes - whether 55 characters or fewer - long is clear enough. Imagine a “note” for each item- ye gods!
Who’d want to be a Tesco picker - I imagine they have to operate within a fairly restricted time scale, so coping with the grocery version of “War and Peace” must be the last straw.

Germanshepherdsmum Wed 21-Jul-21 18:41:57

I don’t think anyone is suggesting a note for each item. The system is useful and I can’t see the problem with making a note against one or two items, as I often do. Describing this as ‘reams’ is ridiculous.

MissChateline Wed 21-Jul-21 19:22:09

This might work in a local store which has click and collect and a real human does the picking and packing from the shelves in the store. But if everyone started to put individual preferences regarding for example, the colour of a food storage box, it certainly could amount to the job being made more onerous for the picker.
However as we have confirmed ocado picking is completed by robots in a giant warehouse. Substitutions are computer generated and an email is sent on the day of delivery. At this point these can be accepted or declined. As far as I am aware there is not the ability to make individual notes about specific items.
Should I wish to obtain a particular item in a specific colour then I would go to a real shop and buy it or look on a website where I could specify exactly what I wanted. Why make ghe job harder for the pickers?

ElderlyPerson Wed 21-Jul-21 21:11:32

> I don’t think anyone is suggesting a note for each item.

Ah! It can get close to that at times.

Perhaps I need to rethink about that.

ElderlyPerson Wed 21-Jul-21 21:13:37

I wonder whether the Ocado robots say "good morning" to each other when getting the grocery!

ElderlyPerson Wed 21-Jul-21 22:27:00

Some people may have understood the reference in my previous post.

Here is a movie clip of to what I was referring.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVGcbaoRtqk