Tesco is facing shopping chaos as shoppers at some stores are offering money for trolleys in a bid to get the last bits of their Christmas shopping. The Newport store in Wales is seeing huge crowds, with one employee revealing just how busy it has been.
Speaking to Wales Online, they said: “A man came over and said to the man with the trolley ‘I will literally give you a fiver for the trolley’. People were that desperate they were literally offering others money.
”Another customer also told me that he had an argument with another customer as they both wanted the same trolley. Queues were filling up the aisles as customers were waiting to pay for their shopping.”
The employee, choosing to remain anonymous, went on to say: “People were turning up to the store at 5am to get their shopping done, it was pretty busy. It got to around 8am and the self scan guns were empty, customers were complaining as they wanted to use them.
“Then around 10am, customers were following other customers to their cars as there were no trolleys left. They were queuing by the entrance begging others to give them their trolleys.”
Besides the trolley wars, Tesco customers have battled long traffic queues on the roads near major supermarkets on both Friday and Saturday as customers prepare for the festivities ahead.
In Swansea, meanwhile, the havoc continues.
Christine Sweener, a Tesco checkout operator in the Pontarddulais area, spoke to the Mirror about her experience working this Friday.
She said: “[I] can say our supermarkets have been very busy around Swansea. I’ve served shoppers today, that reported cars queuing from Tesco, in the Trostre Retail Parc, back as far as Morrisons, over the Parc Pemberton side. I heard of shoppers fighting for the last of the trolleys available at another store.”
She elaborated on the impact of customer frustration on employees: “I usually start work at 10am on a Friday, but had been asked to start an hour earlier today and was shocked to see the number in the store as I arrived. I wish all our regular Tesco, Bont shoppers a Merry Xmas, but ask shoppers don’t take their frustration out on store staff, when they’re unable to buy something they wanted to, at this late date, as it’s sold out now.”
