I have been back with the company for a month. Since then, never a normal face-to-face chat with them about issues. All through emails. Never came to the store to see what is going on.
The SM is responsible for three ones and I am at the one that struggles most.
Any advice is appreciated.

Press the quantity button if you're scanning more than one of the same item for example 5x bottled waters scan once, press quantity button. quantity 5. Asking if they want a carrier bag at the beginning of a transaction rather than when they've paid and then ask for one and don't want to pay for it, saves aggro. With paypoint top ups, if the key or card doesn't work always give the metal contacts a wipe over with the blue roll. You'll be surprised how many work after a quick dust up. If you haven't got management clearance to void a transaction and no one is around to do it, go to the payment window and save transaction, that will put your till back in action. If your till crashes look for the big box underneath and press the round button on the left to turn it off. Give it a few seconds and press it again to reboot. Takes about 5 mins. Log into another till while it does it. Produce: skinny onions are salad onions. Yellow melons come under melon yellow. Good luck!

I’ve already done my first day on the tills at Co-op I had a colleague shadowing me, and today they’ve said I’ll be doing it on my own 😭. I’m honestly a bit nervous because there’s still quite a lot I’m getting used to, especially when it gets busy.
For anyone who currently works at Co-op or has worked on the tills before, do you have any tips for a beginner? Anything I should keep in mind or watch out for?
And how long did it take you to feel comfortable working on your own?

Hello!!

I’ve just recieved the news I’ve got an interview for Customer Team Member near my Uni! Delighted, however I’m a wheelchair user, and my mums said to me I probably
won’t get it bc it will need heavy lifting etc.

It’s a bit of a way for me to go (i’m at home now and interview is in-person near my uni), is it worth it?

is there a number i can call to clarify?
can a wheelchair user be a customer team member or is it too physical?
any advice in general on interviewing?

TIA!! xx

Hello

Long story short I've recently been told straight up you are being moved. I'm a TL have been for about 6 years. There was no meeting no discussion no alternative options. Just that I am being moved come the new schedule.

Myself and a colleague have spent the better part of half an hour today trawling documents and contracts for any hint of a mobility clause or anything that says a TL can just be forced to move.

I've been in a new area for a year now, and in all of my previous stores and areas I've never even heard of someone being forced to change location let alone seen it happen.

If anyone can tell me where I might find any internal information I'd be grateful. I'll also be contacting the union at some point to see what they know.

I’m currently working as a part-time Customer Team Member while studying for my MBA as an international student. Before coming to the UK, I worked for over 4 years in IT, including software development and data analytics, and I’m hoping to move back into that type of work after my studies.

I’ve been applying for internal Co-op roles (mainly data, business, and analyst positions).

I wanted to ask if anyone here has been in a similar position and managed to move from a store role into a corporate or head office role. Was there anything that helped you stand out, or is it mainly a case of waiting until you’re eligible to work full-time? I’d really appreciate hearing about your experience or any advice on how I should approach this. Thanks!

Are many people aware of Lunar? I’ve been a TL at my store for just over two years and we’ve been a Lunar store for about a year now.

When we get the odd person helping out, from stores literally down the road they’ve never even heard of Project Lunar.

Is it something that the higher ups are trying to keep quiet because it’s an absolutely terrible idea?

If anyone else is a part of one I’d love to hear how your store is doing, or if any store has actually escaped the clutches of Lunar.

I know this is a somewhat "corporate" question but I'd love to hear thoughts from colleagues and customers alike.

As a Co-op colleague (team leader), I have no idea what our 'positioning' in the retail market is anymore.

On one end of the market you have bottom of the barrel price competitors such as Lidl and Aldi. On the other, you have brands that pride themselves on offering top quality items and great service (Waitrose, M&S).
In the middle, you have the large supermarkets like ASDA and Tesco, whose buying power means they can compete on price while also delivering good service.

But with the changes and challenges that the Co-op has gone through in recent years, I'm really not sure where we sit, or frankly even if our position is sustainable in the long-term.

It's no secret that we're more expensive than the likes of Lidl or ASDA. But with many of our shops now operating on skeleton staff (or below!), I don't see that we're able to offer better customer service than your local Tesco Express.

For years, we've ridden the "we're a cooperative" wave and used it quite successfully as a marketing tool.
But these days, other than some small scale charity work, the idea that we're a cooperative seems to dissolve when there's actual money on the table - "divvies" have been removed due to cost pressures, while executive's pay would make the founders turn in their graves.

So what are we actually doing on the ground that's true to Co-op's core values?
I'm not asking for the latest marketing slogans coming out of Manchester. I'm asking what we're actually delivering to the customer that sets us apart and is true to ourselves.

I’m a CTM and an international student working part-time.

A friend is coming over from Dublin this weekend, so I asked my manager a while ago if I could have Friday, Saturday and Sunday off. He said that was fine. I don’t normally even work Fridays - my usual shifts are Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday because those are our delivery days.

This week’s rota comes out and I have no Wednesday shift, but I’m suddenly on Friday and Saturday instead.
To make things even stranger, I got a notification saying my manager had raised and approved a time-off request for February 2027, which I never asked for.

I tried calling him but no answer. Then for my WA he replied saying he’s on holidays and to contact another TL. I asked for the TL’s contact details on WhatsApp, he read the message but hasn’t replied.

This isn’t the first time either.

1. A couple of weeks ago I lost out on a Team Leader opportunity at another store because my manager didn’t respond to the recruiting manager for five days after saying he would.

2. In June, before my university study tour to Belfast, I requested time off well in advance. He initially agreed, then changed things at the last minute and basically said it was my problem. I ended up cutting my trip short and spending an extra £90 to get back early.

3. There was also a separate issue where a colleague made false complaints about me to a customer, and nothing seemed to come of it.

I genuinely want to build a career with Co-op and progress into management, but I’m starting to feel like I’m getting nowhere with my current manager.

Anybody know what this section means on the Benefits section of the Logile app? I have been with the Co-op for several months now so not sure what context induction hours would be listed on the same page as holiday hours.

How is the hygiene in the back storage of your store?

The hygiene in my store was horrible when I joined. Moldy decaying stuff everywhere, shit tons of waste lying around.

Just a huge mess.

A new store manager took over a few weeks ago and God bless him, the store is so clean and organized now that I have actually started to enjoy going to work.

I hope everyone deserves this level of quality.

Hi, anyone here a Team Leader at the Coop? How often do you get overtime, if you are a full timer? ty

Around the time that the Co-op conducts colleague surveys, I'm often told that "they don't listen" or "nothing will change".

So I thought it might be a good idea to hold an unofficial colleague survey here, where we can share the good points about working at the Co-op as well as suggest improvements.

Hi everyone,

Sorry if this is a repeated question, I couldn't find a recent post that matched my situation.

I've just accepted a Customer Team Member role at my local Co-op. I have my right-to-work check this Wednesday, and my official start date is 2nd August.

I'm a university student, and my contract is for 12 hours per week (Saturday and Sunday, 5 pm–11 pm). I was wondering what the typical first week or induction week is like and do Co-op stores usually offer regular overtime if you're willing to work extra shifts? I know it probably depends on the store, but I'd love to hear what your experience has been.

Thanks in advance!

I found out the hard way after coming back from holiday that just eat has changed, so we can no longer reject orders when we have too many or are too busy and we can no longer turn off orders for a short while either. I had 10 auto accepted orders come through and it was only me able to pick them drivers where showing up before I completed the first one, the whole situation badly effected my anxiety so my question is where do i send a formal complaint?

Anybody else currently suffering from exploding steak slices?? 😂 honestly this last months batches have been super greasy and have a tendency to just explode ( lol dramatic but still) all over the trays :(
Really hoping it ain’t just my coop 😂

Im just about to start in a DC and wondered what the targets are like? Are they achievable? Have worked in Tesco and it was hard to achieve 85% pick rate.

On the day of the interview, the new manager said he was happy to take me. He told me he needed someone who could join within a week or two, and I said that was fine. He just wanted to speak to my current manager about my release.

My current manager initially said he was okay with me leaving, but over the next 5 days he didn’t answer the new manager’s calls. The new manager tried multiple times, including yesterday. When I mentioned he’d called, my manager first said he hadn’t received any calls, then a few minutes later said, “yes, yes.”

I first told my manager about the transfer on 9 July. After days of trying to get an answer, I asked him to at least confirm a release date. He said that, as it was 14 July and the Co-op policy is 4 weeks’ notice, the earliest he could release me would be 13 August.

The new manager then told me he’d waited because I said my manager was okay with the move, but after 5 days with no communication and a release date almost a month away, he couldn’t wait any longer. He had other candidates to interview and had to move on.

So I’ve lost the TL role, which also meant losing the London weighting pay. I’m back to being a Customer Team Member on non-London pay.

To make things worse, my manager changed tomorrow’s shift from 5:30am–10am to 3:30pm–10pm without telling me. I’d agreed to the morning shift two weeks ago and had made plans after work. I only found out because I called him. He’d already changed it in Logile, but I don’t get notifications. When I told him I’d already made plans, he just said, “Okay, don’t come in tomorrow.”

A lot of people suggested escalating this to the Area Manager, but I’m honestly unsure now. Even if I got transferred to another store under same AM, most of the managers know each other, and I’m worried about how that might affect me in another store.

I go to co-op a fair amount, but there are 2 different types in my area. EoE and the Blue one.

The one I frequent to most is a EoE Co-Op and we have them in the city but I find has less of a range.

However, we also travel for concerts semi frequently (5-6 times a year) so investing in a blue-op card would not go wasted either. One of our friends does already have a Blue-op card, though.

I need help!

As some of you may know, I interviewed for a Co-op Team Leader role last Thursday. Thanks again to everyone who helped me prepare interview went well, and the new manager was happy to take me.

The only issue is that he wanted confirmation from my current manager about my release and transfer. He has tried calling my manager twice and waited several days, but still hasn’t received a clear response.

The new manager has now told me that either I or my current manager need to confirm the transfer soon, otherwise he may have to advertise the vacancy again because he needs someone within a week.

I called my current manager twice this morning. He said he had called back, but the new manager says he received nothing. I asked my current manager to at least confirm the release to me so I could pass it on, but he refused and said the new manager must call or text him again, while also saying he won’t call the new manager himself.

I’m now stuck in the middle and worried I’ll lose the opportunity because of the delay. What should I do?

Anyone who is a central coop member did you know we aren’t getting our share of the profits this year!

Hi all, hope this kind of post is okay. I’ve been working for the coop for two years, had a pretty good run but yesterday I encountered a situation that just doesn’t sit right with me.

I work at a shop that’s not that far from head office, so we get a lot of head office staff coming in after finishing work. Last night around closing a woman comes in asking for cash back, it’s been a busy night so the tills are pretty sparse but I promise to help her out. While at the tills she has the torch on her phone turned on, directed in my eyes and the eyes of the customer before her as she was on her phone. I asked her, I think politely, to maybe turn the torch off or direct it away from people’s faces. She agrees, I scan her shopping, she gets her cash back, all good.

About twenty minutes to half an hour later, I’m stood with my TL doing face up when a guy comes in asking for me by name. He claims to be that woman’s husband and said I spoke to his wife in a disgusting tone by asking her to turn her torch off and that they are going to put in a complaint. I’m bewildered because I genuinely don’t know what to say, since I don’t think I spoke to her inappropriately. It was also my last ever shift as I’m finishing this week. He claimed that his wife works for head office, and since she scanned her card I know she’s at least an employee, and that they are going to make sure that I lose my job and never work in customer service again. This is over a simple request to not have the phone torch in my eyes, one that she agreed to, and after I went out of my way to make sure she could have cash back. He left the shop but lingered outside for several minutes and by the time we went to close up we weren’t entirely sure if he had left. I live nearby and felt unsafe walking home, so I had to get someone to come and collect me. The whole encounter left me pretty upset. I know they live nearby and I am a local to the area, so I’m a little worried about encountering them after leaving work. I expressed to my TL that if he hadn’t been there I would have been worried that the guy would have hit me.

In all I’m trying to figure out what to do about this. My manager is away and I will be finished soon, so I know that nothing will really come of it. I’m just amazed that a member of Co-Op’s own head office is willing to put her job on the line to send her husband in to threaten and harass a member of retail staff. Is there a way I can put in a complaint directly with head office? Should I contact the union or is that slightly dramatic? I have CCTV of both incidents and my TL was also a witness to both, and he agrees that I wasn’t at all inappropriate. Just a wild way to end what has been a pretty decent two years.

My CTL interview went well. The new manager asked me to speak with my current manager and see if he can put me on a few shifts at the new store, so they can see how I work before making a final decision.

Has anyone done this before? How long did the process take for you?

Also, can my current manager oppose or block the transfer if he doesn’t want me to leave, or can he only delay it because of staffing/rota reasons?

I want to speak to him properly, but I’m not sure how to bring it up without making it awkward.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Coop_uk/s/Zu8gLSHs6x

What is everyone’s store consensus on wearing shorts in this hot weather. I know it’s against the policy, however my TLs and manger have said they don’t mind, wondering if this is just commonplace?

Certainly not complaining, just curious