Tesco workers have complained the supermarket’s new partnerships with Uber Eats and Deliveroo are “genuinely destroying the store”, with demand from the platforms making their work “a nightmare”.
The supermarket’s workers have taken to online forums including Reddit to bemoan the “ridiculous” situation.
One described how during some shifts rapid delivery orders arrive every few minutes, with an average of more than 30 items per order. The orders often include items that aren’t yet on shelves and picking them means staff have to come off of tills, leading to in-store customer complaints. The demand means shelves are not properly replenished, exacerbating the issues.
Further: “we are getting bollocked for not being quick enough” they added.
The overload means workers are “literally sacrificing their breaks in order to get everything done” another wrote.
One Tesco Extra store team manager posted that “trust me i know the pain, I never see my staff as they are always picking, [rapid delivery] takes up the whole store operation and it’s total chaos”.
In July, Tesco announced it was launching on both Uber Eats and Deliveroo to offer rapid grocery delivery to “millions more shoppers”. It had previously stood alone among its major supermarket competitors in not listing its stores on the aggregator apps, instead offering customers ultra-fast delivery only via its own quick commerce service, Tesco Whoosh.
Following the launch, in August, The Grocer reported the supermarket was ramping up its investment into staff and stores to help them cope with the demands of its new partnerships and providing “additional hours and a dedicated support team” so stores can deal with the likely influx of rapid grocery orders.
Tesco at the time told The Grocer it would work closely with store colleagues – who pick and pack orders before they are handed over to couriers – to address store-specific labour concerns, and help them forecast order volumes, to ensure stores are prepared.
Last week, Uber Eats and Tesco launched a joint advertising campaign communicating that the supermarket was now on the aggregator app. The two companies also launched a special promotion earlier this month offering half-price ‘premium hosting essentials’ for users “scrambling when guests arrive without warning”.
The supermarket’s workers had already been struggling to meet Whoosh orders alone, last year venting on online forums that meeting the growing demand for the supermarkets own rapid delivery service Whoosh was proving “a nightmare” and that being expected to handle the influx of orders alongside their daily tasks is “a piss-take”.
On online forums, Tesco staff urged the supermarket’s executive to introduce an item limit on rapid delivery orders, particularly those fulfilled from Express stores. Shoppers have also noticed the demand coming from the aggregator apps, one posting they had switched to Sainsbury’s “because everytime we go in [Tesco] there are 30+ staff fulfilling Whoosh orders, outnumbering the shoppers in each aisle and making it a nightmare to shop at. Please let it fail.”
Another shopper noted: “God forbid customers dare to walk down the aisles and do their shopping in a supermarket designed for shopping in.”
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