Not long now...

Not long to go to the opening of the new Tesco store and the start of a new job for me.

The new Tesco store opens in Beeston, Nottinghamshire, on November 1st 2010 and myself and my new colleagues from the counters section have been in training with Tesco since November 8th. This has led us from initial induction processes, till training, food safety /hygiene and learning about legal structures to do with being safe at work to working in an actual live store, and more.

All along the way we have begun to get used to our fellow members of the counters team and immediate management. This is from management downwards across what is known as the counters section. This means the fresh fish counter, the meat counter, the deli section and the hot chickens counter known in Tesco speak as ‘hot chicks’. And there was me thinking that we would be working with pretty young ladies collectively known as the ‘hot chicks’. Whereas in reality the counter is for the preparation of and selling of cooked chickens and associated hot comestibles.

Andrea, Steven, Paul and Phil outside Tesco's Toton.

Myself and the other counters members of staff then went on to be trained in store at various Tescos stores around the Nottingham area in places like Toton and Top Valley and Mansfield. My new friends, Paul, Andrea, Steven and I were sent to the Mansfield (Jubilee Way) store where we spent five days learning the way that counters were run and had experience of actually serving the customers as well as replenishing the counters and cutting the produce. We also had to learn the bookwork and records that go with working with raw and cooked foodstuffs. I think that we all learnt a lot and the staff at the store were very professional and friendly as we all hope to be when we start at the Beeston store. We had some early starts, setting off at six am in the morning from Toton and Paul drove us all safely up to Mansfield and back each day with the help of Andrea in the front seat and the satnav. We had some good chats and laughs along the way.

The time in store went remarkably quickly and I particularly liked revisiting my old butcher’s skills in prepping the meat for the counter as well as serving the customers and looking after their needs. It was all very satisfying and it gave me hope for the role I will be taking when the new Beeston store opens. I think we all felt the same in our own sections.


Mansfield Jubilee Way store

For the last two days (Friday and Saturday) we have been in the Beeston store helping to stock the regular shelves. There seemed to be thousands of products and an equal amount of barcodes to visually scan in order to match the shelf space to the products. It has been quite hard work and by the time we all return to the store on Thursday it should look like a supermarket ready to be opened.

This Tuesday coming we (all the counters staff) will be going to the Toton store to run the counters on our own (with management help) in preparation for the further technical training we will get between Thursday 28th and Sunday 31st October. Then on Monday 1st November the Beeston Store officially opens. All along the way we have had super training from Tesco and that with the background in food that a lot of the counter’s staff already have it should be a fun and interesting place to work.

Phil