Ocado and M&S

[Justajot]

We ship with Ocado and I saw this about Ocado possibly switching to M&S instead of Waitrose. Would you stick with Ocado if they did?

I think prices might rise which would possibly be the end of Ocado for me.

"I’m annoyed as I don’t like M&S food - it’s overly packaged and processed to me"

Completely agree with this!

If it helps M&S stay afloat I'm all for it
Only get M&S or Ocado for occasional treat shop (Xmas, Easter) so would be very happy with them being combined

I'm not sure what I will do. I have shopped with Ocado for over 10 years, and on my last order was about 1/4 Waitrose. I like M&S food, but I wouldn't shop there for my weekly shop as they don't seem to have the same range of products as Waitrose. Their products are also more expensive than Waitrose, and I spend enough on food shopping as it is! I don't buy very many Ocado own brand products as I haven't found the quality to be very good.
I love Ocado though, it would be a shame to have to use something else, or even go out to shop!

I love the app and the food in equal measures!

I wouldn't switch to Morrison's who also use/used the same app as I don't like the range and when I did a price to price comparison using various offers to get the food I wanted, it was the same price.

I would watch and see, and potentially use Ocado in combination with Waitrose separately.

We can only get Ocado, not Waitrose Direct, and I really don't do ready cooked foods. M&S range for ingredients is really basic as far as I can work out. Not impressed - I don't think of M&S as a "proper" supermarket and as others have said it's all highly packaged which is a total turn off for me.

I value things like special flours, flavoured essences, fresh yeast, a particular brand of cat food, some jarred sauces we like, and basics like tinned soup and beans for the DCs. I don't think M&S will have the variety of these things at all.

Oh and also Ocado's range of nice French foods (whole salami, jarred cassoulet) and Scandi food (crispbread in paper) etc.

Been a customer with Ocado for over 10 years and will stick with it, as over the years the amount of actual Waitrose branded products I buy has decreased a lot. Had a shop delivered this morning and out of everything I bought, only a few items were Waitrose brand and all those would be interchangeable with the M&S equivalents. Everything else was either Ocado brand or other brands that they carry. We live about 5 mins drive from Waitrose, so for anything we really want it would be simple enough to get.

I wouldn't switch to Waitrose direct, having tried it a couple of times I was very disappointed as most of the shop was missing or subbed both time, meaning I had to go to the shop anyway.

The timing will be interesting, as Oct 20 will be when Christmas slots are due for release and having improved reliability a lot around stock levels for Christmas over the last few years (in my experience), there will be a lot of pressure to ensure that continues for consumers and the transition is a seamless as possible.

Will they carry the other brands, though? If M&S don't currently carry them?

They’d better do if it’s just M&S they are dead to me

Ocado own brand is ok

It also annoyed me how happy with themselves they were on R4, I’m yet to be convinced M&S food is a good fit - more like overpriced convenience stuff. Given how much we spend they could have asked me.

@drspouse
You'll probably find that by September 2020 you will be able to get Waitrose direct - they are planning to massively increase where they deliver to.

We will definitely be switching who we use - we currently use Ocado for our main weekly shop and buy about 50/50 between Waitrose and brands/Ocado

We enjoy the odd thing from M&S but not enough to make it a feature of a weekly shop. So I think we'll have to do Waitrose direct main shop and local top-ups and probably ditch Ocado entirely. At the moment I have a smart pass but won't renew after July 2020.

Do M&S have basics ranges and large bags of things like fruit and veg the way Waitrose do? (like the 'less than perfect' and Waitrose essentials) Not been in a large-sized food M&S for years.

Ocado's own basics for things like this are often quite limited, not as good value as the Waitrose ones and lots of reviews saying they don't stay fresh as long.

Some Waitrose things, like the essentials pasta and the UHT milk are nicer than the equivalents from other supermarkets.

Replacing all that with what people typically think of as M&S food is going to mean less choice at the lower end of the budget range surely. Will they be keeping that Tesco price match offer they do now?

Do Waitrose Direct leave shopping in a safe place without someone having to sign for it? That is the reason I use Ocado more than the others (Tesco, Sainsburys and Asda don't do that) and I might resent this switch to M&S as I'm a captive market. Might because I don't know what the range will be like. Was really hoping these talks would fall through and they'd stick with Waitrose.

I think that Ocado will definitely carry on with the other brands (e.g the big names plus the French, Scandi brands etc). I'm fairly sure they carry those as Ocado, rather than through Waitrose, if that makes any sense. If they reduce all those big brands, as well as the Waitrose lines and simply carry M&S and Ocado branded goods, they are likely to lose a vast swath of customers which is not their aim. They want to grow market share not lose it and reducing their non-Waitrose offering is not the way to do that.

TBH I'm a little surprised that they are going for a new partnership - there has been a definite upswing in the number of non-Waitrose brands Ocado carry over the last few years and the Ocado own-brand range keeps expanding, so I thought it likely that they would step away from carrying another supermarkets offering and try to become a full (online only) supermarket in their own name.

I’ll certainly be looking at switching to Waitrose

I spend about £200 a week with Ocado and near to 50% is waitrose branded. I like the essential cans as they have a ring pull. The tinned tomatoes with garlic and oil. The waitrose 1 cheeses. The organic meat. The Hass avocados. The cooks ingredients range especially the frozen herbs, soffrito, onions. The list goes on. Stuff that isn’t a ready meal but isn’t just a basic ingredient either. Really doubt M&S will be good at this stuff.

Looked at their website and Waitrose won't leave deliveries unattended.

I’m a long time Ocado user, and get a delivery weekly. I just checked my last few orders and the main areas where I get Waitrose branded stuff is veg, cheese and meat (often 3 for £10). Oh, and pasta.

I’ve swapped the veg out for Ocado already, but a cursory look said the cheese and meat would be harder. Pasta is easy. However, M&S will need to do a job on their prices to become competitive with Waitrose in those areas I’ve mentioned.

But. That said. Cheese puffs for the win!

I just looked at my last order and it’s 50% Waitrose stuff

It’s what makes it good

Cross

It seems to be all about the head office stuff, who they find it easier to work with, not what the customers would like.

I don't think of M&S as a "proper" supermarket

Me neither. Well, they aren't are they?

Do many people do their every day shopping in M&S?

"Do many people do their every day shopping in M&S?"

From this report, I don't think they do www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47383159

"Basket sizes at M&S are extremely small relative to other larger supermarkets and significantly below the current Ocado minimum for delivery.

At the moment M&S shoppers spend an average of £13 on each shop, while Ocado averages just over £100 per shop."

It mentioned on theTV yesterday that the main problem was that usually minimum baskets for home delivery are £40 and the usual spend in M&S was £13. Most people just get a few treats or the meal deal from there. Usually if people have a big trolley load it is because they have visitors rather than a normal weekly shop

So cross about this. I use a lot of the Waitrose essentials including the frozen diced veg someone mentioned upthread. None of those have Ocado equivalents. Buy all meat fish and veg locally and can get m &s bits as I want. Don't consider it a proper supermarket either. They will have to massively expand their range if this goes ahead. Waitrose don't currently deliver here.

Really cross about this. My shop is half Waitrose own brand, but with enough Ocado own brand/other brands in there to make it annoying to switch to Waitrose Direct (plus, Ocado do the delivery service so much better). We buy mainly organic food, and M&S organic range as far as I know is v limited and hugely expensive. I will occasionally buy their biscuits, or a sandwich in the train station, or a pizza when I'm travelling, but I'm not interested in buying glorified ready meals as part of my weekly shop! As far as I'm concerned it was that unique Waitrose/Ocado partnership that made it worth the expense. Doubt I'll renew my smart pass when it expires. Will probably switch to Waitrose or try Sainsbury's.

My thoughts entirely la dame.