Supermarket secrets revealed: Scones, packing shelves and how not to butcher a lamb

Grocery shopping is normally a simple task.

You arrive at the supermarket with your list of items, grab what you need, pay for them and head out on your way.

And us consumers expect everything to be laid out neatly in their respective aisles. But few probably ever consider what goes on behind the scenes to make all that possible.

To uncover this, the Herald deployed me - a reporter with zero supermarket work experience - to Pak'nSave Manukau to learn what goes into ensuring shopping experiences can be as smooth as possible.

And it's hard work making sure the 5600 different items on its shelves and in its fridges and freezers are there for 26,000 customers who walk through its doors every week.

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Before sunrise, I parked up outside Pak'nSave Manukau's store and got ready for a busy morning ahead.

After meeting store manager Jack Beaton and owner operator Stephen Lockie, I was thrown a Pak'nSave shirt and I was off to start my day.

Time-lapse footage of Pak'nSave Manukau. Video / Supplied

Staff were already hard at work, stacking shelves with fresh produce, butchering meat, baking pastries, and loaded forklifts were being moved around the aisles.

I was thrust into the bakery department where the crew was speedily preparing fresh cakes and scones.

While the department smelt homely, there was no time to muck around as the first customers were due at 8am and I was quickly whisked to the scone station.

Bandana Pal and Simran Singh were the bakery staff I was teamed up with. Within minutes, the pair had created the dough and shaped it for the oven, meanwhile, I was stuck trying to pry the gluey mix from my hands.

A word of advice for first-timers - powder your hands with plenty of flour or risk uncooked dough sticking to you like chewing gum on the footpath.

But with the advice and help of Bandana and Singh, I soon finished a few trays of cakes and scones buns and placed them into ovens nearby.

Grocery morning fill manager James Tupou helps to stack shelves with Luke Kirkness. Photo / Peter Meecham

Next, I was off to the butchery department where I made a right mess of the lamb leg I was handed to prepare.

After a quick rundown by butchery manager Dan Holland, who explained how quickly I could bleed out if I made a wrong cut, I was ready to go . . . albeit somewhat concerned.

As he guided me cut by cut, he explained there was a unique art to being a butcher, adding it was more of a trade than a simple job.

Holland quickly proved his point as he salvaged every millimetre of quality meat from the bad and soon all that was left was a few perfect cuts of lamb.

On the other hand, it was fair to say my leg of lamb was looking a little worse for wear and I'm pretty sure it was later turned into mince.

Simran Singh keeping a watchful eye over Luke Kirkness. Photo / Peter Meecham

I spent the next hour helping in the deli section, with produce and doing the online shopping service, collecting items before they were stored for customer collection.

The most physical part of the morning came with grocery morning fill manager James Tupuo.

He got me to work unloading a crate filled with cans of fruit and stacking them on the shelves.

When there were some boxes spare, James advised we would have to heave the heavy boxes into the air and stack them above the neatly stacked produce.

Spending the morning lugging around heavy boxes of product would easily be as sufficient as knuckling down in the gym.

I was a sweaty mess by the finish and it wasn't long before it was time to serve a Pak'nSave customer at one of the tills.

Produce assistant Abhishek Rathour of Pak'nSave Manukau stacking mangoes. Photo / Peter Meecham

I don't mind a chinwag so I got chatting away to a woman who was grabbing her lunch for the day ahead but soon she was on her way out the door.

And that was about the extent of my day as a Pak'nSave employee.

Before the day kicked off I was a bit tentative about trying my hand at what supermarket staff do.

And I left blown away about what they do - in the process learning about things so may consumers just take for granted.

The work isn't easy, but it was carried about by the staff with expert precision and most notably with a smile across their face.

It was also very clear that the work environment featured a family-like bond that staff had with each other; with some on staff having worked together for 20 years.

And if it wasn't for their hard work, it's fair to say shopping wouldn't be as simple as it seems.

Top 10 stock keeping units at Pak'nSave Manukau

• (1) Skinless chicken breast
• (2) 20 tray eggs
• (3) Corned beef
• (4) Bananas
• (5) Mangoes
• (6) 5kg frozen chicken
• (7) Lamb shoulder chops
• (8) Avocados
• (9) 24 pack water
• (10) 18 pack toilet paper