Tesco workers say there's 'annoying' habit customers do that winds them up

Tesco staff have vented their frustration over a "very annoying" habit that some shoppers exhibit, which leaves them absolutely livid.

One fed-up worker took to Reddit's r/tesco thread to express their irritation at "lazy" customers who fail to return items to their proper place if they change their minds about buying them.

The issue becomes particularly galling when frozen goods are carelessly abandoned on regular shelves. The employee's post highlighted: "Customers that leave frozen items on the shelf, when the freezer is right next to them. How lazy do you need to be to just to open the freezer and put the item inside. I found three ice creams which were on the shelf right beside the freezer."

In the comments, another Tesco colleague chimed in, suggesting that shoppers need to be more aware of the consequences of food waste. They added: "I get very annoyed with customers who do that, I really wish we could educate them. See if people could see the amount of food we have to put in the waste system because of laziness from selfish customers then they would be disgusted."

The Tesco employee continued: "Customers complain about the price of food going up and yet they don't seem to realise that they are part of the problem as it costs money to waste products and the business has to recoup the money somehow."

The original poster concluded with a plea for common courtesy, adding: "Yes customers can change their minds which is fine but the least they could do is put the product back where they took it from in the first place even if it means going back to the start instead of being selfish and leaving in random places."

Another Tesco worker said the same thing sometimes occurs in reverse, with non-frozen foods being dumped in the freezers. They commented: "Or vice-versa. You could've dumped that pack of biscuits/tin of beans/loaf of bread/random veg absolutely anywhere and it would have been okay to just put back on the shelf. Now it's frozen solid and has to be wasted."

The original creator of the thread commented again to reveal they had "confronted" a customer about it. They said: "I actually confronted one of them today (Monday, June 10), the guy just left two frozen pizzas and the ice cream with the basket on the floor. I asked him why are you leaving on the floor and leaving.

"He said he is going to Lidl because he couldn't find the items he wanted. He said sorry and said he will put everything back after I explained to them if I didn't see those items they have to be wasted."