Retail Interview Questions & Answers

The interview was conducted online. You will see a question and have some time to think about it (usually between 1 and 2 minutes). Then your camera and mic will start recording over a certain period of time (1 to 2 minutes) during which you can give your answer. If you are done earlier, you can stop the recording and the next question will appear. As the interview in conducted via a program and there is no other person involved, you can do it whenever it suits you best.

There were a few unusual questions. However, unlike most other interviews that I have done so far, Morrisons gives you quite a bit of time to think about your responses. Some questions give you two minutes preparation time, which is a lot. Morrisons mostly wants to know how you think and act and questions are often hypothetical - so not even asking for real life examples, rather putting you into a certain situation and asking you how you would respond or act.

You need a paper and a pen for this interview as you will have to brainstorm during the preparation time you'll be given. While this might sound a little bit worrysome, you are given a lot of time to think about your answer before recording it - so that is good.

No assessment centre at this stage.

The lovely staff members were very welcoming.

The interview was made interesting by other exercises that not all recruiters do, it
wasn't too formal as people are dressed in sports clothes which made the atmosphere more appealing to me.

I was able to learn about the company and it was interesting to see their core values, what they can offer and what I can possibly be a part of.

Being asked to compare yourself to a cartoon was quite tricky.

maybe make sure more people attend the assessment day.

Some staff members were more involved than others, so it would of been nice to have spoken to them individually as well. Other than that, I don't have any other advice - the morning was a pleasant interview!

It was made fun with different activities which appealed to me and the
group exercises were fun and interactive.

filled out application form, attached my CV and Covering letter. was called to assessment for a group interview. had a chance to introduce myself. followed by a presentation (2 min) about anything at all. they give you some time to prepare prior to that. there was Q&A session.they want to know whether you are really motivated enough for this job.

survival exercise.. were given a list of things to choose from.

they want to know if you have done in-depth research about the company so everything from latest news to competitors. also, how aldi can improve services. whats good/bad

just be confident. do your research on the company. make sure you know what the role is all about and you will be expected to do in your role as an area manager. they expect people who are hardworking with leadership skills.

it was tough. there wasn't enough time to prepare for the presentation bit. had no idea what to talk about. i had already spoke about my educational and work experiences when presenting some facts about myself in the beginning.

My initial telephone interview was with a member of the recruitment team, this lasted around 15 minutes - this covered what I knew about Ocado, my CV and why I applied for the role, I was immediately invited to a Assessment Centre in around 10 days time.

Give me an example when you overcame a challenging situation?

Make sure they hear you speaking up and arguing your point in the group exercises.

The assessment centre had three stages and had around 25 candidates. The first stage involved a numerical and a verbal reasoning test and group discussions, after this some people were asked to leave and the rest of us went on a tour of the warehouse followed by 2 group exercises (One was a survival task and the other a building exercise) - I left at this stage but the final stage was individual interviews for around 5 people.

My first interview was on the phone with a manager of the company. He asked me questions about my CV, the reason why I applied for the position, my motivation to work for the company. After successfully completing the first interview, I had been invited to participate to the assessment day. After group exercises, the face to face interview was with two managers. They asked specific questions about my CV, my knowledge about the role, the company, the different projects that I drove successfully as a leader, and so on.

Are you a team worker or a leader? How would you deal with a conflict?

Being yourself, knowing perfectly your CV and the company as well as the reasons why you should have the role.

We should have been more but for some reasons we were just three. During the morning, it was about presentations and group exercises. The most difficult part of the group exercise was the debate. Then, you have lunch with the others candidates and during the afternoon it was the face to face interviews with two managers of the company.

My initial telephone call was from a member of their personnel staff. I went on to do a one to one interview with my 'to be' department manager the following week which lasted about thirty minutes. From here I returned the next week to complete CRB check forms, payment details and carry out my induction which went on for the whole days work, and payed.

Why do you deserve this job?

It's difficult to answer this question without feeling like you could disrespect others. I answered it by saying how motivated, enthusiastic and hard working I was, explaining that I had this from years of working in certain roles and experiences.

Be confident in yourself by going over your experiences from things and what you gained from them, make sure you speak clearly and dress smart. Don't ever rely on chance, do your background research on a company before you talk to a representative from it.

More is less, if you don't know something don't make it up, look interested and ask questions, it shows you're interested and WANT to do better for yourself AND the company.

It was a one to one, friendly and easy going discussion on the company role for the most part. The rest was them asking how I'd fit in with that and what I thought I'd benefit from working with them. It was one of the better interviews I've had in my experience.

Firstly completed their application form and personality test online.
The interview was a set of competency based questions such as "What is exceptional customer service and tell me about a time you have expereinced it"

"Describe a time when you did not do something properly or did something badly and had to re do it"

Look up some competency based questions and prepare answers before hand. Go in with some notes of things you want to remember to say. Also make sure you understand the role you are applying for.

It was individual interviews with myself facing the assistant branch manager(taking notes) and the branch manager asking questions.

In the second interview, the relaxed theme continued. It was a run through of my CV and family history along with a few pressure points where I was pressed.

At Aldi we don't use trade unions. How do you react to that?
I don't think you've got the grit to dismiss someone. What do you think?

In the group interview, just give off a focused impression. You need to be a cool operator and, more important than anything, listen to what everyone is saying.

In the debate session, be prepared to argue your point convincingly - whether you believe in it or not you must be able to sell an idea or at least build a coherent argument with sound reasoning without being overbearing on the other candidates.

For your presentation, choose something original that nobody else has. They don't want to hear about the rich boy's gap yah to Thailand, they want to see a part of your character through an interesting insight into your life.

MOST IMPORTANTLY do your research thoroughly!! They'll spot you a mile off if you haven't done it, a couple of hours a day for two weeks should do the trick,

The group interview was surprising - there were no verbal or numerical reasoning tests despite spending weeks preparing for them. The interviewer told us that they liked to shake up the process a little so that we didn't believe everything we read online. At the start we were asked to prepare a list of the horrendous things we had heard about Aldi - which went on to being told it was that and much worse. Following that, we had 2 minutes to plan a 1.5 minute presentation on anything we liked. After that, we had to use a Matrix to plan within a group, then say who contributed most and who contributed least. After that, we were asked to debate - one group had one opinion and the other side of the room had the opposite, then we were asked to switch our roles and argue the opposite side. There was time for Q&A at the end. Be aware - Aldi as a company operates as different companies depending on which part of the country you're in, so interviews may well be different everywhere.

After completing the online application, I received a letter inviting me to attend a group interview at the regional head office in Darlington. When I arrived, there was about 16 of us. I'm pretty sure they left us so long in their reception to supervise how we were with the other candidates. Then we went into a room where we were given a questionnaire to fill in. This just asked basic questions like where i'd heard about the scheme, why I applied.
We were then given our first exercise- 2 minutes to prepare a 2 minute presentation on anything but ourselves, no less and no more. Some people really struggled with this. There were some awkward moments when people ran out of things to say, and the interviewee just stared at the person until the timer ran out. Those who talked about a hobby- and had a purpose/argument to their talk- did ok. 2 minutes constantly talking is longer than you think.
Then we were given two tests to complete in 6 minutes- a verbal reasoning test and a maths test. The maths was GCSE standard- but i know some who hadn't brushed up on their maths struggled a little.
We were then given a group negotiation exercise of being plane crash survivors. Firstly, we had to individually order a list of items in terms of their importance for survival and then as a group we had to compile a list. This is to look at how good you are at persuading and influencing others, because it was assessed on how different your list was from the group's. Everyone tries to shout over here and be the leader- but its more important to show that you are active (so make sure you say something) and persuasive, but you're not going to be a bull in a china shop as it were.
Then the interviewer talked more about the job, we were given an information booklet and were told more about aldi as a company. The group interview ended with a Q&A time, but we ended up going round all asking a couple of questions- by the time it got to the 12th person, candidates were frantically thinking of what else to ask and the questions got a bit silly- which the interviewer didn't really find funny.So my advice would be don't follow the crowd- if you don't have a genuine question, just say so.
The final stage was a one-to-one interview, again at the regional centre. This was a lot less formal (and scary) than the group interview, and was just more of a chat with the managing director. I had read before the interview, and expected, the questions to be quite personal- asking about where I lived, whether I had siblings, what my parents do for a living etc. However, he didn't really go into these questions like I expected.
All the contact I had with aldi was via letters and not by phone or email, so watch out for the letterbox. I put my home address on the application, and if it wasn't for my mum accidentally opening the letter whilst I was still at university it would have been missed. The letter also didn't give much away about what the interviews would consist of. I was disappointed that when I didn't get the job Aldi wouldn't give me any feedback on my interview performance, despite getting down to the final few.

What makes you the most happy? What makes you upset?

Be confident in whatever you can do. Aldi want leaders who will go on to be directors within the company. I think where I fell down is that in the final interview I was very nervous and I think this showed through.
Aldi aren't secretive about the amount of work and hours the job involves, and you need to show that you are prepared to work hard. I've been told that the Darlington area managers tend to work 60-70 hours a week, whereas in other areas this differs, such as in the middleton where its 60-80 hours a week. Don't bother going through the process if you're only in it for the car and the salary; you won't get far.
In the group interview, you don't necessarily need to try and lead - its more important to show that you're getting on with doing the actual task in hand, and have the ability to justify your points and persuade others.
Finally, just be normal as it were. As well as emphasising their need for hard workers, throughout the interviewer just said they want friendly people who are good with others. Show your personality and people skills off- the more you interact with the other candidates the better. After all, the job is not just logistics and running of the store, its looking after Aldi's people too.

See description above. There was 16 of us, had 2 minutes to prepare a 2 minute presentation, had 6 minutes to do a maths and verbal reasoning test, had 6 minutes to order a list of objects in importance for survival, then 8 minutes to order a group of the same objects, then there was a Q&A session to finish the day.

I applied through Morrison's website and after a few days got an email asking me to fill out a 'values questionnaire' this gave me scenarios with multiple choice answers and asked me to say which of the options I would most likely do. This was a fairly straight forward exercise. I then received an email for the next stage which was a video interview, this was done online via a webcam. You were able to do some practice questions before doing the real ones and could even do some practice questions then log out and come back later to do the actual interview. The interview was one way so the question would be printed on the screen and you were given between 30 seconds and 2 minutes to read them, I would suggest using this time to work out what you are going to say. You then have a set amount of time to answer but there was a timer on the screen so that you can see how much time you have left, you didn't have to use all the time and could stop it before the time was up. The interview lasted about 15-20 mins and was only 7 questions in all. It began with a few competency based questions however the last 3 were scenario questions which required you to think quickly as to what would be best to do.

There were a couple of scenario questions such as: "An offer is on lamb legs. It is a very busy day and you sell out. A valued customer who rang up and ordered some for his wife's birthday BBQ comes in to the store late and you realise the legs he reserved have been sold, what would you do?" and another "You are manager of a store. You are having a school outreach program and there will be a class of children coming to work in the store for 3 days. Each department will be assigned 2 children. How would you make sure that everyone was aware and everything ran smoothly?".

Read up on what they are doing as I had a question asking what do you know about Morrisons and what is going on in the retail industry at the moment? Also try to think of scenarios they might throw at you and your answer. I would make the most of the time given to read the questions to frame your answers in your mind.

No assessment centre.