Leaning into a new normal - being a Tesco colleague

I have swapped out my 10 photos and 500 words of the world to write a wee bit about something a bit closer to home and that is my week that just was.

My 10 photos and 500 words were going to be about a bike ride in Cuba that I co-led for Discover Adventure back in 2010 which was my first exped as a freelancer. 10 years on and I'm still freelancing, just back in retail, for now.

My new normal had me starting my first shift with Tesco Tesco Extra at 6am Monday morning, a bit of a baptism by fire but with a history of retail on my CV and having just missed the massive bulk buy that a lot of the country seems to have done over the last week to 10 days it was less frantic than I had expected. Tesco took an additional £250 million in those 2 weeks alone 😮 The supply chain was stripped and has struggled to catch up ever since as I'm sure you have noticed.

I was given some quick training on the check out and let loose on my first customer shortly after. All went well, I think! From 6am to 2pm, with a 30 minute break mid way, I'm on the check out swiping left with vigour as we ask our customers to unpack their trolleys at the far end of the belt and to repack at the end of the chute (there must be retail names for these things!). Stand behind the line please Madam. No tail gating please Sir. 2 chevrons between you for sure and a quick hand gel in between clients is all music to my ears. There is yellow and black tape everywhere denoting 2 meter gaps and now signs on the floor asking you to, very politely, back off. Most customers get it, some take a bit of persuasion, some will just never understand.

I actually quite like this social distancing (but not the reason it's been put in place). You don't realise when you are a customer just how close you are standing over the lady or gent who is sat or stood on the other side of the bleep.

Further measures to limit the numbers within stores have now been put in place and here in Salisbury our customers are (mostly) very well mannered, queueing politely up and down the car park at 2 meters apart. 200 in at 6am to start with then a steady one out / one in. No families shopping together unless you are alone with children. NHS and care workers get priority along with the over 70s.

All products are on a max of 3 per item, barring toilet roll which is the same up to a pack of 9 and then it's one pack only and the supply chain is finally starting to catch up. New 8am opening hours will start on Monday to help us to fill DotCom carts and the shelves without getting in the way of customers and the shelves are starting not to be stripped as soon as they are filled but some products are still in short supply, hopefully not for long.

We were vigorously moaned at by a customer yesterday who said that he couldn't do his shopping at the safe 2 meter distance from everyone because our colleagues were getting in his way by refilling the shelves and filling the DotCom boxes. Ugh. He has a point, no they can't, but without those shelves being filled or the DotCom boxes being sorted then he wouldn't be able to do his shopping at all. I get his point but...we are all in this together. We are trying our best to make the supermarket as safe a place as it possibly can be under the circumstances but they are simply not designed for social distancing and the powers that be are working on solutions to change this.

We are using one side of the 2 sided check out islands to keep us and customers apart and we are getting perspex screens so that we are both protected. We are only using every other till on the self scan and scan as you go areas and asking customers to just be a little more chilled in those traditionally fast in / fast out areas. Alex Mason (aka ocean rowing adventurer) joined me as a colleague on Thursday and we were put on the Self Scan are together, what an eye opener that was as to how people treat the staff there. Wow. Gratitude and attitude are a choice, not a challenge, even in these stressy times.

I swiped left at check out #17 for the last time at 2pm today and as of Sunday will be joining the DotCom delivery team with the odd shift in store. When I was walking out to the van with Mark, the driving assessor (he has a much more official title than that!) to make sure I wasn't a girl racer, he asked me if I had much van driving experience. 'Well', I replied, 'I passed my HGV license in NZ when I was 19, have a Transit as my own vehicle and have driven anything from a small van to a 7.5 tonne truck for thousands of miles in the UK and around Europe but this one time I really hope not to muck it up!' I passed I'm pleased to say, apparently I did quite well!

So, a huge thanks to the many many wonderful customers for taking on board what we are doing and why. I never appreciated how much of a social experience the supermarkets are for many and that some pop in every day just to chat to their favourite member of staff and for the social contact, all be it at a distance, and as much as we are discouraging them to do so, and just how much the staff are truly undervalued. I have worked with a fabulous bunch over the last 5 days who have made all of us temps feel so welcome. You all totally rock.

I've met and chatted with a large amount of truly wonderful people all doing what they can to cope with current times from a chap with 4 young children who has set up a climbing wall in his garage (lucky him!) for him and his family to a lady whose husband is delivering caravans to peoples driveways rather than to festivals, so that they can have their parents in close contact but are still able to self isolate.

And a plea to the very few of our many wonderful customers. Please, just chill. I know we are in unprecedented and scary times but we are all, quite literally, in this together. We are truly doing our best to make your shopping experience as safe and non stressful as possible but it works both ways.

You are now likely to be queuing outside for a while in order to be one of the 200 within store but the queues do move quite quickly. Please, give us our space at the check out, we come into contact with hundreds of people a day and it's for your benefit more than ours that you keep your distance.

Tesco alone are taking on around 20,000 temporary staff across the UK to cope with what's going on. Not just with the amount of grocery shopping that is being done at the moment but to support the Tesco staff who are self isolating with their own families.

My Mum said that she was disappointed that she could not do more to help others (she is a very spritely 79) but I said absolutely not and you are helping. You are helping me to be able to work and as much as I utterly miss my dawgs, they are keeping her company and me in a job.

Welcome colleague Alex Mason! I don't think they'll put us together again as we talk too much about adventures to come!

#stayathome #savealife Cuba will come next week!

(selfie taken in September when we were being photographed by Gemma Brunton Photography - one of her photos will pop up on my Jo Bradders Bradshaw timeline on Saturday)