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Reply 9300
Think its a convenience thing, at the induction I had 6 weeks ago there was no choice, and I was with colleagues for 6 different stores [all convenience].

Got my review tomorrow, dreading it!
Reply 9301
Original post by zigzak789
How hard is it to work on counters? All day at the induction the woman made it sound as though i had applied for a seriously difficult job and now im worried i won't be upto standard as she kept saying things like "you need to be very skilled to work on counters" etc. got me abit worried :|


I think counters is skilled in so far as customers will ask a lot about products. For example, if you're assigned to the delicatessen counter then customers might ask you to recommend a cheese that is very mature or something. On the extreme end of the scale potentially something like suggest cheese for a cheeseboard.

I wouldn't worry too much, a lot of it comes with experience and there will almost certainly be other colleagues working with you (or worst case scenario you can grab someone off fresh foods to give advice).

The other thing that makes counters skilled in a way is learning how to cut all the meats, cheeses, etc. correctly. Although to be honest, any department has stuff that you could probably use to justify why it's skilled work.
Original post by jjgoth
I think counters is skilled in so far as customers will ask a lot about products. For example, if you're assigned to the delicatessen counter then customers might ask you to recommend a cheese that is very mature or something. On the extreme end of the scale potentially something like suggest cheese for a cheeseboard.

I wouldn't worry too much, a lot of it comes with experience and there will almost certainly be other colleagues working with you (or worst case scenario you can grab someone off fresh foods to give advice).

The other thing that makes counters skilled in a way is learning how to cut all the meats, cheeses, etc. correctly. Although to be honest, any department has stuff that you could probably use to justify why it's skilled work.


Thankyou, its just the woman that led our induction didn't really speak much about the roles but just said that its constantly busy and is very difficult which is the reason she only did it for a little amount of time not very encouraging for a new member of staff to hear tbh
Reply 9303
Original post by zigzak789
How hard is it to work on counters? All day at the induction the woman made it sound as though i had applied for a seriously difficult job and now im worried i won't be upto standard as she kept saying things like "you need to be very skilled to work on counters" etc. got me abit worried :|


Hi :smile:

I've worked on counters for about 6 months now so I can tell you that it does require some skill and it took me about 2 months to properly get the hang of everything.

I think deli is easier to be honest, as the slicer is simple to operate although the customers do expect you to know the inns and outs of every single product, you can just ask someone for the time being until you pick it up. Although it's easier than being on meat and fish, I find it more stressful because it is considerably more busy in my store anyway.

Meat and fish requires more practical skills such as cutting up meats, filleting, skinning and descaling fish but you will get shown how to do all of that. The training at my store wasn't too great so I had to hassle them to learn all the skills the customers expect you to have so I'd advise you to do the same if you need to. The tough thing about working on meat and fish is that the customers expect you to be as knowledgeable as professional butchers and fishmongers which we just aren't.

That said, with six months of experience I now feel totally comfortable on counters and it's a decent department to work on. It can be quite an independant role (eventually!) and it's nice because you can't get called onto checkouts. :tongue:

Good luck!
Wait... we're getting a pay rise? No one told me about this. Is this for all staff and all stores?

How much is the pay increase after your first 6 months? at the moment i'm getting £6.58
I don't get this pay rise thing. They've written on a board at work we're getting a 2.7% rise, making band 2 increase to 6.58, but we get paid more than that already?! Are we actually getting a cut in pay?! confused.com
Reply 9306
2.7% will increase my hourly rate from £6.88 to £7.07. It would be an extra £14.49 for 4 weeks.

My hourly rate has always increase every year. I hope they don't reduce it, but I can't be completely sure that it will go up.
Reply 9307
Only bands 1-3 are getting the pay increase [so colleagues and lower management].

The pay increase is adding a cap to each band's maximum wage. In convenience, the cap for band 2 will be £6.82 I think. And for band 3, the cap will be £7.56 or something like that.

This should've been delivered in a huddle, and not placed on your boards - specifically managers were told to deliver this as part of their huddle
Original post by JemMills
Hi :smile:

I've worked on counters for about 6 months now so I can tell you that it does require some skill and it took me about 2 months to properly get the hang of everything.

I think deli is easier to be honest, as the slicer is simple to operate although the customers do expect you to know the inns and outs of every single product, you can just ask someone for the time being until you pick it up. Although it's easier than being on meat and fish, I find it more stressful because it is considerably more busy in my store anyway.

Meat and fish requires more practical skills such as cutting up meats, filleting, skinning and descaling fish but you will get shown how to do all of that. The training at my store wasn't too great so I had to hassle them to learn all the skills the customers expect you to have so I'd advise you to do the same if you need to. The tough thing about working on meat and fish is that the customers expect you to be as knowledgeable as professional butchers and fishmongers which we just aren't.

That said, with six months of experience I now feel totally comfortable on counters and it's a decent department to work on. It can be quite an independant role (eventually!) and it's nice because you can't get called onto checkouts. :tongue:

Good luck!


Thankyou for giving me abit of insight i expect the saturday shift to be busy but what are weekdays generally like? i have a shift thats 5:30-9:30pm on a tuesday
huddle, ha! I've had one huddle in my 3 years at Sainsburys which consisted of my manager saying ' yeah I've been told we need to do more huddles so here it is, anyone got anything to say, no? ok then back to work'
Original post by cherrycola32
huddle, ha! I've had one huddle in my 3 years at Sainsburys which consisted of my manager saying ' yeah I've been told we need to do more huddles so here it is, anyone got anything to say, no? ok then back to work'


Lol! I think my store is pretty good with huddles, I've only been to two though. First one was on my first or second day and the second time was a pure fluke, I was out the back getting something for a customer and got roped into going along. That was a good one though, we got to see all the Halloween toys :biggrin:
Original post by cherrycola32
huddle, ha! I've had one huddle in my 3 years at Sainsburys which consisted of my manager saying ' yeah I've been told we need to do more huddles so here it is, anyone got anything to say, no? ok then back to work'


They have huddles twice a day in my store one at 11am and another 10pm, my manager actually asked me today if I'd been to one recently and since I usally work 2-10 I never get the chance to and I aint staying a minute after 10 for the nightshift huddle unless Im doing nights or its a plinth change.

Also is anyone else seen a real shift in managers recently we have 3 new deputy managers and about 5 new department mangers. Ive been away a week and came back to very different faces. Got a phone call for a Mick and actually had to go ask "Who the hell is Mick?" to one of the managers that havent been shifted away to another store.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 9312
I've been working at Sainsbury's for over a year now and I've never been to a huddle @~@ I haven't heard about the pay rise, either.
Same Ive never had a huddle and Ive been there for nearly 2 years I only work weekends though. Also haven't heard about a pay rise, I currently get £6.37ph so what will I get with the rise and when does it start?
I went to a huddle on my induction, haven't been to one since...although I am on checkouts, so I'm not usually able to go to one. :tongue:
Reply 9315
Original post by zigzak789
Thankyou for giving me abit of insight i expect the saturday shift to be busy but what are weekdays generally like? i have a shift thats 5:30-9:30pm on a tuesday


No problem :smile: Saturday can be busy on meat and fish and it is always going to be busy on the deli. I do 7-4 Saturday (on my lunch break now :P) and it's actually not too bad of a shift and does go fast.

Your Tuesday shift will be closing down on either counter and in all honesty, in my store, it is so dead doing a weekday evening shift. Weekdays are not really busy on counters but in general deli is the busiest of the two.
Reply 9316
Original post by JemMills

Original post by JemMills
No problem :smile: Saturday can be busy on meat and fish and it is always going to be busy on the deli. I do 7-4 Saturday (on my lunch break now :P) and it's actually not too bad of a shift and does go fast.

Your Tuesday shift will be closing down on either counter and in all honesty, in my store, it is so dead doing a weekday evening shift. Weekdays are not really busy on counters but in general deli is the busiest of the two.


may i ask what "deli" is?
Reply 9317
Original post by AgentSushi
Same Ive never had a huddle and Ive been there for nearly 2 years I only work weekends though. Also haven't heard about a pay rise, I currently get £6.37ph so what will I get with the rise and when does it start?


Look out for the notice board at your store. They have put up the pay rise information on the notice board in my store, it's near the canteen.

Pay rise is 2.7% increase on your current hourly rate. It was 2.3% last year, so I am pleased then increased it by 0.4%.

Pay is effective from September 9th I think. The pay rise will show on your payslip on October 7th.

I will be getting £7.05/hour. An extra £3.31/week. It makes up for my low bonus for last year. I am thinking of quitting my job at Sainsburys, with the pay increase. I might stay there for longer.
Reply 9318
Hello, today I was offered an interview after applying for a customer assistant role. Is is important that I bring a passport because I dont own one, so would it be okay just taking my birth certificate and NI card? Also, in the one to one interview, what sort of questions should I expect? It's my first job interview so I'm very nervous :')

Thankyou! :smile:
Original post by Kayla94
Hello, today I was offered an interview after applying for a customer assistant role. Is is important that I bring a passport because I dont own one, so would it be okay just taking my birth certificate and NI card? Also, in the one to one interview, what sort of questions should I expect? It's my first job interview so I'm very nervous :')

Thankyou! :smile:


Birth certificate and NI card should be fine, thats all I had for my interview as long as you have something with you.

For my interview, the team leader asked me what I expect the role I was applying for was like and then explained what the role actually was. They asked me why I wanted to work for sainsburys, any experience I had, what great customer service was. They then asked if I had any questions about the role and what I hoped to gain by working for them.