I looked at

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/s … crafts/all

while not logged on to the Tesco online grocery website and it states 829 items.

When I logged on, it lists 557 items.

Quite a difference.

The store from where my groceries are delivered is a SuperStore.

But perhaps the store is, say, 60% of the size of the really big Tesco stores.

However, depending how one distinguishes one item from another, one can think of it as many more than 557 items, because some items are listed as "an assortment".

For example,

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/p … /262782526

So Tesco has counted that as one item, but I tend to think of it as three items.

One of the many items with the following message.

> Please note that the products shown are an assortment, you could receive any one of the products shown, to make a request for a preference please use the picker notes available on checkout

I suppose that if one is in the store shopping one selects one's choice.

I have found that on quite a number of occasions I have requested a preference for various items, including this one.

One time I ordered two of them and requested one purple and one white, and that is what arrived.

It is like an art form getting one's preferences expressed in the 55 letters, digits, spaces and some punctuation and signs allowed for each type of item.

So a note something like the following.

1 Purple 1 White if poss please OR 2 purple OR 2 white

just in case they do not have one of the requested colours and wonder whether to send two of one colour or one each of the requested colour they have and black, though the message does not indicate what to do if there are only black ones there, as in whether to send two blacks ones or put not available.

Almost always the requested choice has been made by the personal shopper. Probably only not when there was no stock available.

I often wonder whether the notes improve the job for the personal shopper in that what could be a somewhat monotonous activity of going through lists of items, the notes add variety and make the job one of giving personalised service thereby providing job satisfaction and interest.

I noticed this assortment.

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/p … /304533912

I suppose that a request mentioning colour and a distinctive feature could be successful, but I suppose that a lot depends on how many different types are actually in the store at the time and how they are set out. For example if there are 17 rows all the same in each row and the packaging is in a clear plastic pack or if they are in a collection of boxes all mixed in a block, several wide, 3 high and going back five deep on a shelf.

Though, Tesco can be very good, so maybe someone would be given the task to go through them and try to find the requested item.

For example, years ago when I used to shop in the store there was a man and a woman going round, each in a wheelchair, and there was a member of Tesco staff going round the store getting things off the shelves for them, which I thought was good of Tesco to provide that facility.

I have noticed that the example note to the personal shopper has gone upmarket and genteel over the years.

It is now

> pick only ripe avocados please...

whereas at one time it was

> I want green bananas

William