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Ex-Primark employee reveals store secrets including what’s going on sale after Christmas
Good to know…
A former Primark employee has revealed top secrets that every Primark shopper needs to know.
Georgia Ponton the twenty-year-old ex-employee has dished all the dirt for the most successful Primark shopping trip ever, from how and where to find popular sized clothing that looks out of stock to how to find out what will be on sale after Christmas.
Georgia worked at Primark during the weekends after college back in July 2017.
One of her tips includes one we have all done before. If you have to come back later, Georgia says to hide your stash.
Like us customers, Georgia says the staff do it too! But here’s the catch, many people fail to come back for the product. So, she says if you’re after a popular item and can’t find your size, look elsewhere around the store where people may have hidden them.
She recommends the corners of the shop, lower racks and to definitely have a look in the nightwear section.
“All the popular stuff goes very quickly,” she said. “The most popular sizes, which are 8, 10 and 12 will go and once they’re gone, they’re gone.
“But sometimes people are undecided about a piece of clothing and will hide it in case they want to come back and get it.
“They almost always forget about it but sometimes if you check right at the back of the rails that are still quite full, some people hide stuff there.
“And in corners of the store. Since a lot of people glance over areas that are in front of them, the corners of the store are sometimes the most forgotten about.
“There was one particular corner in the pyjama section, on the lowest rack, where people would hide stuff.
“When I used to work and I saw something I want to buy on my break, I would put it in that corner too and come and collect it when I was on my break.
“Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure my managers knew I did that.
“It was so hard to not spend all your money in there since we worked around the clothes all the time and saw the items as they first hit the shelves.”
And to find out what’s going in the sale, Georgia says to simply ask the staff!
She said: “Since staff have to be prepared for the upcoming sales, like Boxing Day or New Year’s Day, they might be given a piece of paper with all the things in their department that are going on sale.
“If you like something but think that it could be going out of season or there aren’t many left, ask a supervisor or manager.
“If it’s going on sale soon, and they should be able to tell you, then you can decide whether to buy it then or come back.”
Georgia also warns people to stop trying to cheat the system adding sale stickers onto items to try and get a discount. She explains that ‘if you come to the till with a piece of clothing and it has one of the red reduced-price stickers on the label but it scans as full price on the till then it’s full price’.
If you’ve ever found a random item you really like but it’s been misplaced so you’ve only got the one, Georgia says to check the sort code. Each department has a different code.
For instance, women’s department number is eight so all women’s clothes start with 08. Then women’s bras, pyjamas and underwear have 04. Men’s clothes will begin with 06.
She adds: “For reference, 01: Accessories, 02: Hosiery (socks), 04: Lingerie and Loungewear, 06: Menswear, 07: Footwear, 08: Womenswear, 11: Homeware and 16: Men’s Accessories.”
Georgia said that despite experiences with unhappy customers – she adds not to shout at the people at the till, it’s not their fault they just scan items – she loved working at Primark.
She said: “I loved working at Primark. My first job as a waitress was awful and put me off working in food forever. When I heard a Primark was opening up at the new shopping complex, I jumped at the chance.”
Happy shopping!
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Councils can offer homeless people cash and food vouchers to get Covid vaccine, government confirms
In England, homeless people are a group with a very low vaccine uptake
Homeless people across England can be offered cash and food vouchers in exchange for getting the Covid vaccine, the government has confirmed today.
Eddie Hughes, the minister for rough sleeping, said councils could use part of the government’s £28m ‘protect and vaccinate’ scheme to incentivise vaccinations for those on the streets in the first scheme of its kind in the UK, the Local Government Chronicle reported.
The new funding will go towards delivering mobile vaccinations where people are sleeping on the streets, supporting outreach work in shelters to educate people about the dangers of the virus, and to councils to provide accommodation.
Hughes said homeless people are a group with very low levels of vaccination, pointing out that there is likely to be a degree of ‘vaccine hesitancy’.
Flickr
He explained: “So we’re making an additional pot of money available to incentivise vaccinations for this group. This funding will help local authorities and their partners to use their understanding of the needs of rough sleepers to increase the vaccination take-up.
“Incentivisation will be at the discretion of local authorities but could include transport, subsistence, childcare and support workers’ costs.
“So I want to be clear, you will have considerable support to do this.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities added: “The discretion given to councils include[s] the ability to offer cash or food vouchers as incentives for vaccination.”
Jon Sparkes, the chief executive of homelessness charity Crisis, told Inside Housing that the new funding is ‘incredibly welcome’ and ‘will help to protect the lives of people facing the most vulnerable circumstances.’
Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity
He said: “Through our frontline services, we know that vaccination rates amongst people experiencing homelessness are particularly low.
“This could prove fatal for many when also coupled with other health issues and the physical impact of spending night and day on the streets in the freezing cold.”
Just one month ago, new figures showed that at least thirty-three people died while sleeping rough in Manchester during the 2020 pandemic.
While this statistic is down from the fifty-one recorded deaths in 2019, it is still 65% higher than the twenty homeless deaths estimated in 2013, when the figures were first collected.
Morrisons will now no longer allow shoppers in stores without a mask unless they’re medically exempt.
The supermarket Morrisons has now confirmed that customers who refuse to wear a mask will be told to leave the store unless they can provide a medical exemption.
Chief executive David Potts said: “Those who are offered a face covering and decline to wear one won’t be allowed to shop at Morrisons unless they are medically exempt. Our store colleagues are working hard to feed you and your family, please be kind.”
This comes after shopworkers’ union USDAW said it was ‘inundated’ with complaints from members who were ‘deeply concerned’ for their safety, as the public often ignore Covid rules.
England’s chief medical officer said earlier that the next few weeks will be the worst of the pandemic, pleading with the public to minimise the amount of unnecessary contact with people not in their household.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Chris Whitty added: “This new variant is really pushing things in a way that the old variant, which was already very bad, was not able to. So we have a very significant problem … The next few weeks are going to be the worst weeks of this pandemic in terms of numbers into the NHS.”
Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi also voiced his concerns that the public were not complying with the measures put in place by supermarkets. He said: “I am worried about supermarkets and people actually wearing masks and following the one-way system and making sure when it’s at capacity they wait outside the supermarket.”
The Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) general secretary, Paddy Lillis said: “Retail staff are working with the public every day and not only suffer increased abuse, but are deeply worried about catching Covid-19.
“Where safety measures are agreed, retailers need to make sure that they are being followed consistently, in every store. We are also very concerned by reports that too many customers are not following necessary safety measures like social distancing, wearing a face covering and only shopping for essential items.”
New tighter rules are also now reportedly being considered by the government, six days after the national lockdown was implemented.
The Telegraph reports that a ban on households mixing is being considered by ministers as well as the possible introduction of face coverings in offices, as some businesses have apparently become ‘lax’.
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Shoppers left ‘fuming’ after Poundland’s festive till message publicly ‘humiliates’ them
Naughty or nice?
Poundland’s festive till alerts have been dubbed ‘humiliating’ by some customers.
Not everybody is impressed with new till alert at Poundland that put a festive twist on the automated voice.
Santa replaces the normal voice at the self-serve tills this Christmas, however one shopper was left mortified after her card was rejected and Santa started singing.
A video of the festive alert has gone viral with many criticising it as Father Christmas can be heard warning: “Card not accepted, is it on the naughty list?
“Because I’m checking it twice, I’m going to find out who’s naughty or nice,” before singing: “Santa Claus is coming to town.”
One woman complained on Twitter writing: “Your tills are incredibly embarrassing!! Shouting out my card was declined over and over. How discreet for your customers. Not.
“All because I needed to transfer my money to the correct account, the whole shop thought I couldn’t purchase.
“Not happy one bit. Merry Xmas.”
A video has been shared on TikTok racking up over 150,000 veiws. The caption read: “So guys, I accidentally used the wrong card so it got declined – listen to this self checkout machine.
“OMG I’m absolutely screaminggggggg.
“Narrrh, I’m actually emailing Poundland HR, how f****** embarrassing.”
A person replied saying: “This happened to me yesterday! The most embarrassing thing ever.”
A fed up employee replied: “I work at Poundland and this haunts me.”
On Twitter, one man tweeted: “Bizarrely, Poundland has turned its self-service till voice into Santa.
“Just stood behind a queue of people buying binbags, cotton buds, weedkiller with Santa joyfully proclaiming, ‘Ho ho ho, make sure you get those wrapped nicely for Christmas!’ every time.”
A second added: “Shopping in @Poundland and hearing Santa’s voice on the self serve tills was the cheer up I didn’t know I needed today.”
A Poundland spokesman told The Mirror: “Santa took time out of his very busy schedule to do this. How can anyone be a grinch about Santa?
“Our seasonal checkout voices from Elvis to Yoda are part of what makes Poundland, Poundland. We haven’t lost our sense of humour despite this being an unusual year.”
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