Pandemics & Tesco's policy

[dairyfresh]

Screens aint arrived at my store yet but went shopping at my local extra this morning and half of the checkout staff were sitting back to back with the screen separating them. Its not really a screen either looks more like a sign and is only about 70cm wide. Checkout staff were less than 1 metre apart.  I left my phone in my car unfortunately, a photo of one would look pretty s*** on Twitter.

My store only has 1 security tag remover for each 2 checkouts. So are they fitting new ones of these or do the checkout staff need to bend round the screen to take the tags of bottles ect

not meant to tag anything at the moment.

[alf]

We have screens here, but they are used on self service and scan, as an extra precaution, as they still have half of them closed.

Looks like a urinal divider basically.

I can't see them being intended for normal checkouts, as they are so narrow, and besides in theory there shouldn't be enough customers in at at any one point, to warrant double manning.

[barafear]

Been in work today and had virtually all tills open all day, so back to back with other cashier and screen between us. The policy on tills opposite each other allowing customers to pack their bags at same time seems to be different on different days and with different team support. I asked the question today and the answer via the SM was that if the customers stood seven tiles ( in flooring pattern) apart it was ok....but that's impossible to see if cashier is sitting (what choice is there being squashed in by barrier) and would also mean both customers standing at end of till where they would normally position their empty trolley. Impossible. So I was stopping customers going down to packing area until customer on till opposite had left. Our store had a good number of customers in today, worryingly more and more children and families returning and lots of big shops (£150+) ....no online slots? Hardly shopping for essentials!!!

[alf]

Maybe worth involving protector line, whilst it might not solve the issue, it should at least provide some black and white information on what they are considering acceptable.

For the time being I'd be refusing to go on a occupied checkout pod, we literally have signs on the floor dictating 2 metre distancing...

*edit* I know some police forces have an online reporting tool for social distance violations, maybe worth a punt, if you feel they're over filling the store.

[alf]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-news/tesco-six-major-changes-supermarkets-18075451.amp

Protective screens
You may find Tesco has altered its checkouts at your local store too as the retailer has now installed protective screens at the front and back of every till at the checkout, so that all checkouts can be open instead of every other one.

Tesco hopes this will prevent customers queuing more than they have to during this crisis

Unless these screens are bloody massive, I really fail to see how this could ever be acceptable.

[barafear]

The ones in our store are made of hard plastic. Their measurements are approximate.....3 inches thick, about 6 ft tall and 2 foot wide. They have metal "feet" and literally slide in between the backs of the chairs that two cashier's are sitting on

[alf]

That sounds like what we have. But as I said, they aren't (currently) being used on the main bank checkouts.

"If feasible, you should also put up plexiglass barriers at all points of regular interaction to further reduce the risk of infection for all parties involved, cleaning the barriers regularly. You should still advise staff to keep 2 metres apart as much as possible"


Not a chance in hell I would be sitting in close proximity to anyone, regardless of a "shield".

[Mathias casablancas]

The barriers look narrow. Like they offer zero protection. Be interesting to see if the other Supermarkets do similar.

[King1999]

Refuse to double man,seriously wtf are you all doing phone the police this is a breach of the social distancing measures in place to prevent the spread of the virus.Tesco thinks it can do what it wants,like I’ve said bank holiday weekend doesn’t change anything.The only service they should be worried about is keeping everyone safe....they don’t give a s*** about any of us we’re just a number to them end of.

[ProdavnicaTajni]

Unsure why they're being called screens. If they're like our place then the things between the two checkout operators are actually just big pieces of cardboard standing up. Works alright for the self-service but on the manned tills you not only have the two checkout operators rammed into each other with a flimsy piece of cardboard between them but on the customers side there is no space between the customers on each of the tills. And they don't even get the cardboard!

I also heard a rumour on Friday that they were going to allow more people into the store to try and flog more Easter eggs. Hopefully just a rumour but luckily I wasn't in today. Hardly following social distancing, is it?

[King1999]

Like I’ve said refuse to break social distancing laws,your lives are more important.

[trolleyboy96]

Our competitors are also using the barriers for back to back checkouts. Have seen them in Asda and Morrisons.

[lucgeo]

Unsure why they're being called screens. If they're like our place then the things between the two checkout operators are actually just big pieces of cardboard standing up. Works alright for the self-service but on the manned tills you not only have the two checkout operators rammed into each other with a flimsy piece of cardboard between them but on the customers side there is no space between the customers on each of the tills. And they don't even get the cardboard!

I also heard a rumour on Friday that they were going to allow more people into the store to try and flog more Easter eggs. Hopefully just a rumour but luckily I wasn't in today. Hardly following social distancing, is it?

It is known that the virus can survive on cardboard for up to 48 hrs...have they put it together with sticky back plastic? They could always make up face masks with the produce bags, sticking the handles behind the ears 

[NightAndDay]

The Tesco area managers and directors who are blatantly forcing front line staff to break the laws around social distancing presents both, an opportunity and a case study of the inefficacy of the SFO and prosecutions against FTSE 100 entities in general. The law has always been very weak against the FTSE more often than not, because the CEOs can hold the national economy hostage as a legal defence.

[King1999]

We know how untouchable the twats think they are,nice to hear a lot of stores are refusing to break the social distancing laws.Theres still a lot of decency left no matter how much they've destroy it in the past few years.

[Mark calloway]

If a colleague has a constant cough, should they be made to go home? One girl is coughing really bad,when a couple of us mentioned it to a manager all they said was is "yeah,I know".

[Redshoes]

A continuos cogent and temp are the signs but has she already been off. Those who have has symptoms can come back to work with a cough as the cough will linger for a long time.

[lucgeo]

And when all this pandemic is under control and things go back to relative normality, there will be a huge recruitment drive for managers, as the ones who gave all their professional advice and dictated their decisions to the workforce during it, will be headhunted by the medical profession for their expertise and knowledge

If a colleague has a constant cough, they go home immediately and self isolate, regardless if they have had it before. I certainly would not be happy having a colleague coughing all over me, at any time

[NightAndDay]

It's all a game of attrition and getting what they can out of people, even during these trying times. Managers clearly breaking the law and guidelines around Coronavirus, no duty of care to their employees, all because they know that if they do try to get reprimanded by law enforcers, Tesco will put the law back in its place, they won't have the law getting too big for its boots.

[barafear]

Worked over the weekend on checkouts (as usual) and noticed a distinct change of tone by our shop - wondered whether this was the new nationwide policy?

So obviously we still have one way system and queuing to get in the shop and then a single queue in the last aisle and being directed to available tills.  Management now seem to have taken on board that operating back to back tills or even face to face tills is not an option (face to face meaning that both customers are close together if
packing their bags at same time.

However, definite reduction in the number of staff now employed - basically half the tills open almost means half the staff - a lot of the new temps taken on have already been let go (thought they were on 12 week contracts?)  - there is no regular or visible cleaning of the till areas being done - that tended to be done by one of the new temps and till
areas were cleaned at least every couple of hours if not more - including chip n pin pad.  That all seems to have stopped - security staff obviously all but cut back to normal - i.e. if we're lucky one guard - staff member on main door - but now it appears to be management decision when to let people in the store and how many - not sure anyone's really counting any more - more a case of "anyone queuing in last aisle for tills?" - if the answer is less than "the whole length of the aisle" then let as many new customers in as you want - this means the more popular aisles start getting full again - and the final aisle queue soon builds up.  This isn't
a plea for sympathy for checkout operators (as I know many shop floor staff think it's very much the easy option) but literally working on the till becomes very much like working on an assembly line with your speed of work dictated by "management" - no time to rest at all - or stretch - or even go to the toilet - constant turnover of customers.  OK the numbers are nowhere near "normal" but what is very noticeable is the average spend has increased massively, combination of people shopping less frequently, shopping for more than one person (i.e.
parents/other vulnerable family) and I guess there must be a switch of online shoppers unable to get slots, Dave assures us that online slot availability has increased massively, but to be honest I rarely see a Tesco dotcom van on the road any more - obviously I don't work in a dotcom store,  so although total number of customers is down the type of shop has very much gone towards every customer spending £100+ - and the pressure on checkout operators to keep reminding people to stand at the end of the till. 

Right at the end of the till our chip and pin pads have now been tied up to only be used at the very end of the till, this is basically where customers normally place their trolleys, so asking them to stand at the end for the whole packing experience is difficult to communicate.  I did ask our team support why the lack of staff/cover and she did state it came from "managers" who want to "save money", I'm sure this probably isn't the corporate message but
it does seem to be what's happening.

Let's look at this in a real economic viewpoint:

When Tesco announced their results, they did state that the additional costs of Coronavirus could be somewhere between £600m - £950m (roughly) - I didn't read the details so don't exactly know how this is broken down - but they are saving £585m by not having to pay business rates this year.  But what extra costs do they have?  Extra staff obviously - to deal with the extra measures, but if they seem to be being dispensed with after 6 weeks that seems a bit of a stretch.

Dave's weekly emails go on about the number of staff off sick with symptoms - but isn't the Govt paying for the cost of any sick pay? Or certainly contributing most of the costs.  How many staff are still entitled to "company sick pay" (as opposed to SSP) anymore, so not sure this is the case.

This is already a long post so there are other things but I wanted to look at the "other side"

Tesco (and the other supermarkets) are in a unique position of being allowed to open so they must be gaining sales from other retailers who are closed eg. garden centres, BBQs etc.

In addition to that, with promotions all but stopped, prices are at least 5% higher than a few months ago so additional profits there.

any thoughts?

[Mark calloway]

A continuos cogent and temp are the signs but has she already been off. Those who have has symptoms can come back to work with a cough as the cough will linger for a long time.

she's not been off but was coughing loads last night. Labels needed doing so I guess that's why they didn't say go home

[Hammer10]

Our store is a dot com store we are taking more now every week pre Covid so .as much as 200000 more so someone is losing customers as deliveries are more than before one and a half times Xmas deliveries everyday 750 dot com trollies daily.

[NightAndDay]

Worked over the weekend on checkouts (as usual) and noticed a distinct change of tone by our shop - wondered whether this was the new nationwide policy?

(clink link to read full post by barafear. Nomad.)

Compared to BAU they will be taking a hit on sales due to rate of sale hit from the overhead on new operational procedures ( one way system invariably means it could take the customer longer to complete their shop, along with increased self serve use (no KPIs on customer scan rate) and shorter opening hours)

Their competitors big and small are still open, there may be an increase on impulse buying on hard lines, but my guess is it would be negligible considering Amazon, Argos etc are still fulfilling online orders.

The HMRC only has in place the JRS and SSP schemes for the pandemic, the government will pay the SSP related costs on sick pay (I believe as opposed to the employer contributing as well) company sick pay will still be paid under the same terms pre-pandemic.

JRS is for furloughed employees only, so will probably only apply to some head office staff.

Due to uncertainty on the short term plans and what the exit strategy is for ceasing the lockdown, it makes sense to reduce recruitment for temps as that could be an unnecessary significant cost on operations.

[Redshoes]

We still have here to help. We have cut one role but the others still stand. One outside the door cleaning trolley handles for customers as they hand trolley over to them. One inside the foyer explaining the one way system etc. One more on end aisle supporting managing the queues for the tills.
Before all this kicked off checkouts were under a soft structure change. This is still ongoing so the impact of this on your store will depend on how many hours you are over for checkouts and how many for store. For example we are over by 30 hours so we are expected to pick up some of the here to help hours out of checkout hours. We also have four people off for the 12 weeks that add up to more than the 30 hours but still expected to give hours.
Our store now closes an hour earlier. The new soft structure had us with a single colleague at self service for this last hour. It also had us with one colleague on self service for the first hour of the day. We are opening the doors to queues every morning so have put on hold the change to the morning change but we are very quiet in the evenings and as we are closed for that last hour anyway those changes have been made.
The hours we get for the store and dept depend on sales and will be reviewed quartet now. The heat map is now being sent off each quarter. The heat map goes on the base hours for the quiest week of the year. The budget currently goes on how busy your store is. Some seasonal stores have been hit hard but others have greatly increased trade. It is the holiday/tourist ares that are being hit just now.
All stores are reviwing temps now the big panic buying is over. How many temps you get to keep will depend on current trade, how many hours your store is over by and how many people you have off for the 12 weeks etc.
Paying people to be off is costing money. To back fill them with temps is costing money. To fund here to help costs money. As sales steady cuts will be made. There is not a bottomless pit. The books will have to balance. There probably is pressure from above to cut costs, how much I have no idea.

[Redshoes]

As for checkouts. We have agreed that opening up facing checkouts is not good. It does put customers too close together. The screens for back to back colleagues are not good either. Because of this we are using H2H colleague on end aisle that is now one queue for checkouts. This colleague directs customers to available checkouts and offers self service. Team support help and support with this but if they are needed to support with an issue at the till or fetch an idem this queue still flows.
The H2H on the door also is needed to control the flow round the store. If the do the meet and greet on the door correctly it keeps the flow going.
As I stated above the reduction in hours in checkouts may have an impact on routines. We have lost the luxury of cleaning at end of day and topping up bags etc first thing in the morning. This is ongoing. We just have to do what we can but if we get a quiet few mins we give one checkout at a time the chance to clean. It's difficult and not liked but it is what it is.