Supermarket Cover Letter Example

What do these supermarket job applicants have in common, besides lack of shop floor experience: a street fair organiser, an undergrad accounting student, and a food bank volunteer? All have a good chance of being hired with a persuasive supermarket cover letter emphasising the right traits and transferable skills. 

Regardless of your employment history, in any field, relying on a resume alone is an incomplete job search strategy. Resume.io offers tips and tools for including a cover letter that tells your whole “hire me” story. Our growing collection of online resources includes a wide variety of occupation-specific writing guides, with corresponding cover letter examples.

This practical guide is geared to supermarket job candidates, paired with cover letter sample wording you can adapt for your own situation. Continue reading as we discuss:

• The best format for structuring a supermarket cover letter
• How to stress your strong suits in each cover letter part: header, greeting, introduction, body and conclusion
• Common mistakes to avoid in your supermarket cover letter.

Related article

How to write a cover letter

An effective cover letter acts as a complement to your CV by adding some much-needed personality, highlighting your fit within the specific role, and setting the tone for your interview.

Best format for a supermarket cover letter

Just like the neatly stocked shelves of grocery store aisles, nothing in your supermarket cover letter should be left to randomness. Nor is there anything deceptive about the reader-friendly first impression when this orderly structure of segments is followed:

• Cover letter header
• Cover letter greeting / salutation
• Cover letter introduction
• Cover letter middle paragraphs (body)
• Cover letter closing (conclusion and sign-off).

There’s a knack to ensuring your cover letter is both short enough — 400 words maximum on a single page — and complete enough. For just-right results, stick to the framework outlined above and the writing advice we’ll provide shortly for each cover letter section.

Here is an adaptable supermarket cover letter example that you can modify to suit the position and employer:

Cover letter header

An attention-grabbing cover letter header can score extra points from supermarket hiring managers. The personal branding benefits are both esthetic and practical — especially when your cover letter and resume have matching design elements. Recruiters will be impressed with your stylish touch. 

Meanwhile, the prominence of your name, occupation, and contact information instantly identifies where your application documents are coming from. On any hiring manager’s desk or digital screen, there’s little chance of confusion or displacement.

Goal of the cover letter header: Stand out from all the other supermarket job candidates with a visually distinctive cover letter header that displays your name and contact information.

Cover letter greeting

You’ll never go wrong with the time-honoured cover letter greeting “Dear Mr. / Ms. Surname.” Off the top, it strikes the right tone: polite and professional without sounding cold or old-fashioned. And it’s personable enough to give a sense of your likeability interacting with supermarket customers and co-workers.

It also reflects the obvious effort you’ve made to customise your job application by personalising it. Research has proven that people hearing or reading their own name are far more likely to respond in a positive manner.

But sometimes it’s impossible to determine who is on the receiving end of your supermarket cover letter. Failing your best sleuthing efforts — online or by calling or visiting the store to inquire — your next best option for a non-generic greeting might be something like: “Dear QRSmart Cashier Hiring Manager” or “Dear QRSmart Warehouse Supervisor.”

Goal of the cover letter greeting: Establish a professional connection with the hiring supermarket in a manner that’s friendly but still courteous.

Cover letter introduction

Your cover letter introduction is the “hook” that catches and holds the reader’s interest right away. It wastes no words as a stirring value proposition connecting your past and present to this supermarket’s future success story. 

Goal of the cover letter introduction: Intrigue the reader enough to learn more about your best-matched qualifications for the supermarket position, while leaving details to be revealed later in the letter and in your CV.

Here’s the greeting and introduction from our supermarket cover letter sample:

Cover letter middle part (body)

Now we come to the meat and potatoes of your supermarket cover letter. It’s time to get specific about what you would bring to the table.

Pick and choose the most relevant employment highlights. Try to frame them as accomplishments, using facts and figures to illustrate beneficial outcomes: cost savings or profit gains, and improved efficiency or customer satisfaction. 

Lack of work experience need not diminish the effectiveness of this cover letter section. Take for granted how much learning for this supermarket position will likely occur on the job. So here you can take advantage of the chance to showcase the transferable skills and innate traits you already possess — those that are universally valued by employers across all occupations. Don’t overlook any abilities or attitudes that you’ve acquired and applied at school or in extracurricular activities … at home or in volunteer community service. 

Goal of the cover letter body: Elaborate on how this supermarket would benefit from your contributions as an outstanding employee.

Our supermarket cover letter sample illustrates what you might include in the middle part:

How to close a supermarket cover letter (conclusion and sign-off) 

Your cover letter conclusion should give no hint of winding down. Rather, your enthusiasm is kicked up a notch. And the right way to do that is with a call to action, opening the door wider for recruiters to respond. 

Expressing hope for an interview — perhaps even proposing a discussion topic — doesn’t make you pushy or presumptuous. At the very least, indicate you look forward to hearing back from the employer soon. 

Your closing remarks should also briefly restate why you are an ideal job candidate, with words of thanks for the recipient’s time and attention. 

Then, simply sign off with “Sincerely,” Best regards,” or “Best,” above your name. 

Goal of the cover letter closing: End on an optimistic note with a call to action that puts some onus on the employer to follow up.

Below is the closing section of our supermarket cover letter sample.

Common cover letter mistakes to avoid

An error-free cover letter is the best way to demonstrate how careful and conscientious you are as a supermarket job contender. 

Naturally, proofreading is your best precaution against preventable typos, misspellings and grammatical gaffes. But those are not the only common cover letter flaws with potentially deal-breaking consequences. Here are some more to avoid:

• Generic letters that are mass-mailed to multiple employers, without being  custom-tailored each specific employer and position
• Wasted page space due to word bloat, including repetition, overused clichés, and imprecise language
• Lack of passion, personality and purpose
• Layout, design and formatting deficiencies that detracts from readability

Key takeaways for a supermarket cover letter

1. Supermarkets remain a mainstay of employment that’s relatively easy to access, even for job seekers lacking relevant work experience.
2. Cover letters enable job seekers to highlight transferable skills and personal traits in a more relevant context than what resumes allow.
3. Each cover letter section should speak to the supermarket employer’s specific needs and wants.

For additional inspiration, check out our related cover letter examples:

• Customer service cover letter sample
• Sales assistant cover letter example
• Retail cover letter sample
• Team leader cover letter example
• Warehouse operative cover letter sample