nAs those who know me probably know, I’ve been working in a local supermarket this summer. This piece reflects my limited experience of working in a supermarket, combined with general readings on social mobility, inequality and opportunities in 21st century Britain.
Supermarkets divide public opinion, but love them or hate them, they are not going away – quite the contrary in fact, they are expanding, and fast – Tesco now has over 40% market share and is one of the largest businesses in the UK by turnover. They are big machines too – they devour large swathes of land, pollute our rivers with their carrier bags and monopolise our monthly expenditures. One side of the supermarket story is often forgotten though; that is the opportunities (or lack of) that they provide to the millions of staff they employ UK wide.
At first glance, progression within store seems to be good. In my store, the General Manager started out as a teenage produce boy, working nine hours a week, with little intention to pursue a career in retail – a situation very similar to my own! When I heard this fact, I assumed it was fairly exceptional, yet recent research by Broadbridge (2007) supports this individual experience – a significant number of Store General Managers joined straight from school at shop floor level, with little intention to pursue a career in retail. Progression from shop floor level to Store Management has been found to generally take between 5 and 12 years. There are countless reasons that can be put forward for this upward progression, for example, many supermarkets actively promote those who perform well and run numerous management development programs. Staff rotation has also been reported to help, as it allows staff to better appreciate what is involved in managing the store operation in its entirety, as well as boosting skills, although the most significant factor is no doubt hard work and determination by the individual, in what can be a very competitive internal market. Breaking above Store Management level appears to be more challenging however, as many supermarket firms headhunt experienced graduates to manage at the regional and national levels; it is exceptional for a shop floor part timer to progress to the board of directors.
Of course, supermarkets don’t only provide opportunities to those who are available for full time work – they employ legions of part time workers that march in and take up posts, often at the busiest times of day. Progression is quite predictably harder, for part time workers, but other opportunities are provided – the main being jobs! The flexibility of the shift work required in the supermarket environment allows many with commitments to childcare, university or school to earn some extra money as well as form new (and sometimes valuable) social contacts.
So, is it all rosy for supermarket workers? Job progression opportunities appear good, and job security reasonable. Yet, scores of supermarket workers complain of low pay, long hours and few perks to compensate – arguably the most important issue in a Britain with rife inequality. You may have noticed I’ve italicised opportunities – that is, because research shows whilst they are available, they can be notoriously hard to gain. One only needs to take a look at the (admittedly normative) online reviews of supermarkets as employers written by employees to see various complaints of cut throat competition for promotions, favouritism within the management, and in some cases, discrimination on grounds of gender. Sadly unbiased research on such issues is currently hard to obtain although it would be fair to assume that such accounts are generally accurate – after all, cut throat competition is a key feature of the deregulated labour market.
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