Who do you recommend for online grocery shopping?.....

[Sparrowlegs248]

I use Sainsbury but am spending a fortune, for me and 2 preschoolers.

They are very reliable though, mostly in stock and substitutions are good.

We have asda, Tesco and Morrisons locally.

I've tried them all, Ocado is definitely the best (and they price-match to Tesco's)
Asda fruit and vegetables were awful, either on or very close to use by date, bruised and mouldy fruit.
Sainsburys is very expensive, awful online shop that is slow and confusing.
Tesco's is ok but too many unsuitable substitutions.
Morrisons is ok but surly delivery drivers have put me off. One complained about 'having to drive all the way out here'😳
Iceland don't deliver where I live.

Just switched from ASDA to Tesco. Infinitely better

I’ve been with Ocado for over 5 years now.
I don’t remember the last time I’ve had a substitution, missed delivery or anything else.

If you want you can pm me your email address and I can send you a ‘recommend a friend’ discount code.

I use Morrison’s - they use Ocado delivery so deliver from 6.30am.

I am finding more and more that their use by dates are within one or two days. Delivery yesterday, bread rolls were already stale (best before today). Makes meal planning/weekly shop hard.

I have a delivery pass so should get round to doing two shops every week but it’s just more to do.

I think so a large extent, it depends on your location. I've used tesco for around 19 years and found them generally reliable. At first, deliveries came from one of the bigger local stores and so everything was whatever was available in the shop floor - fruit and veg not always great if they hadn't had a recent delivery for example. Several years ago our delivery switched and now comes from a huge, purpose built distribution centre and is wonderful. Everything is as fresh as can be and we have few substitutions. The only slight issue, is that as it no longer comes from a store, the 'deli counter'is a bit more limited. But generally, it's not a huge issue.

I quite like Asda as a store, but having read so many horror stories about non-deluvery and slow refunds, I would never use them for delivery.

I think it all depends on individual stores. We order from ASDA, it's fantastic and don't have many subs at all. Whereas, where I used to live they often sent crazy subs (think sanitary towels instead of nappies! 😂). Give them a try, you might be fine!

Also if you order for delivery on Monday/Tuesday the slots are often cheaper and the food lasts until the weekend.

We use Asda. Any substitutions they email and tell you so you're not deciding on the doorstep. They deliver to us at the same time every week, almost to the minute! That's just something that amuses me.
If you log back in the night before your delivery it tells you if anything is out of stock to give you a chance to choose something else, anything short-dated is emailed so you know in advance and can reject it at the door. Always friendly drivers, no complaints here!

Amazon Fresh

I would like to try Amazon Fresh but unfortunately it is not in our area, I tried Amazon Pantry which I found OK and had some good offers but didn't like the delivery so much as it didn't have a definite time slot like the other supermarkets, also it came in a huge box which half filled my recycling bin.

How is Amazon Fresh delivery BIN85 as hopefully it will come to my area sometime.

My mum is homebound due to mobility issues and has the Tesco delivery saver. She gets the same drivers most of the time. They always take their time, chat with her, give her freebies from the store, offer to pack her stuff away. Sometimes they are early so ring and ask if ok to come earky. They often stay for a longer chat as many people don't like them being early so my mum benefits as she lives alone and enjoys a chat.
I might be wrong but I think Tesco are the only one to crb their drivers.
She gets the odd substut. Sadly never anything funny like I've read online but always something a lot better. Tesco are great

I've always liked tesco, substitutes are few and far between.

Morrisons - have only had a couple of subs in the 3+ years I've been using them. Used Asda previously, the subs were fairly frequent, occasionally bizarre, & occasionally stuff was missing altogether. My only issue is that Morrisons don't offer everything they have instore - so less availability of fresh bakery goods, "savers" range of items etc. Although they do pick from a warehouse instead of a store, so there are a lot of items available that we can't buy in our local store. So we just pick up any specific items that we want from the shop separately. I also buy fresh fruit & veg separately, but that's just my personal preference.

I have delivery savers for Tesco, Morrisons and Asda. I don't like the Sainsbos here because there is a higher than average chance of a creepy guy.

In my experience, a lot depends on the local depot. I found massive differences when placing orders for family members in other parts of the country and when on self catering holiday. It's worth trying them all out.

It also depends on your shopping habits. Tesco have a wonderful search function which means you can search for stuff that is gluten free, dairy free, halal, vegetarian etc which is great if you want to browse. It's not perfect but a help. From what I can tell, they are currently rebranding a lot of stuff and reducing the number of lines they carry so they may not have everything you want. On the plus side I think their customer service is completely the best.

If you always buy the same things then Asda have some great prices but it's fiddly to browse if you are not sure what you want but want inspiration. They also have the cheaper slots, if you use flexi slots if you are going to be in all day. They can be really weird about payment, though, and there's usually a few threads every Christmas where Asda have taken a ghost payment, which means that there isn't enough left for the actual payment to go through so the delivery is cancelled and the money is unavailable. I'm not sure if that is still an issue.

Morrisons are great for fruit and veg, but I've found their meat is often 'off' when I get it, though that may depend on the local depot. I have to go gluten free and they have a lot more choice. They also have a lot of local stuff.

Sainsburys have a lot more 'naice' choice, and if you get decent drivers then they are great. You can try dropping down a brand or changing around some of the cooking habits to cut costs.

It may be worth checking out Iceland as they do a lot of fresh food and household stuff, but they don't have a huge range.

I need to get a hobby, don't I.

If I place an order to be delivered on a Monday, how would I know the chicken I have planned to eat on Friday will have a long enough date? Thanks. No guarantee unfortunately although the people picking do choose the longest dates available on the shelf. At Sainsburys, anything within two days is "short lifed" and identified so that you can refuse it if you wish. I'd choose a mid - morning type delivery slot or lunch time - ish if possible because the very early deliveries also get picked the earliest when the shelves haven't always been fully replenished so the chances of some items missing or having short lives is increased - for those orders that are picked at normal stores, not dark stores (the vast majority are normal stores).

I mentioned 'my supermarket.com' earlier in the thread. If you don't like the website of your preferred supermarket then you can use my supermarket.

You log in, pick your supermarket and shop as you would normally. While you are shopping a total of the same shop at other supermarkets is in the lower right corner.

Once you have finished, or while shopping, you can use the price compare, it will tell you of any cheaper items or items that you get better value if you buy more, so in last shop I ordered a bag of minstrels, the site highlighted this and the option was a packet double the size for the same cost.

You then 'send' your shop to Tesco, or ASDA or wherever (and you can split the shop and send to different supermarkets) then you just log in to the supermarket and pay.

www.mysupermarket.co.uk/

I use Iceland whenever I’m in the UK. Their website says they are the cheapest online supermarket. Delivery is always early in the 1
-hour slot (probably because we’re at the top of a hill!) and if you put money on your Bonus card rather than using PayPal or CC they give 5% extra credit. Delivery is free after £25 IIRC. You can also shop in store and they will deliver (hills again!).
www.iceland.co.uk
Yes, the range is basic but I actually enjoy food shopping and I can top up when I do a more relaxed, enjoyable trip to the supermarket.

Tesco or Ocado.

Morrison's all the time, good service, cheaper than tesco and Sainsbury's but not as cheap as asda. I wouldn't order from asda again as they never turned up and took a few weeks to refund my money.

DH refuses to use Asda any more. One time we’d moved house, I informed them we’d moved but they didn’t show up. They’d still gone to the old address! DH contacted them and they were very much 🤷🏼‍♀️ The information that you’d moved wasn’t passed on to the driver. No apology or compensation/vouchers etc. I tried Morrisons but I often found things I wanted (especially gluten free stuff) just weren’t available. I’ve been using Tesco subscribe and save for about 18 months now, very few substitutes, hardly any weird ones! Plus we get a priority slot at Christmas.