If you don’t do online food shopping

[PullingMySocksUp]

do you mind me asking why not?

I cannot imagine doing it all in person any more, takes me ten mins to wizz through my favourites.
A friend of mine was looking slightly surprised when I said we do it online, and I think there was a weird superiority to her reply.

Gawd this reads like market research. It’s really not.

I guess I can think of cost (we do any time delivery for £20 a quarter but if you thought it was £7 a delivery I can see why that would put you off).

Because you've got to be at home to receive it - I don't want the days I'm not at work to be wasted sitting round for up to two hours when I can do the shop myself in about 40 minutes.

I used to shop with 3 children, never had temper tantrums in the supermarket, we would talk about what we were buying, i would tell the children about the countries the fruit grew in, which animal the meat came from or which recipe we were going to use a certain item in.
When they were older the were sent to search out certain items and to compare prices or they were in charge of the list.
All of my children by the age of 3 Knew milk came from cows, eggs were laid by chickens and that all meat was from slaughtered animals. Many children these days have no idea where there food comes from. All of mine can cook from scratch and knowing from an early age where the meat comes from hasn't done them any harm.
Now its just me and DH i can do Lidl in 20 mins and spend £50 once a month on the big shop and no more than £15 on a the weekly top up. It would take me hours to do on line as i can never bloody find what i need, it once took me hours and a lot of growling and swearing to find kitchen roll as it was called "household towel" !
If i used online my DH would be delighted as he hates going near a supermarket and it would be such a shame to deny him that weekly treat

I’ve never done an online supermarket shop. We don’t have a car so it would be logical to do it. But we shop at Lidl for our main shop.

• I don't like all the plastic that online shops come with.
• I prefer to shop for fruit and veg at our local market and meat at the butcher's.
• I live and work near lots of shops so it's no bother to op in and get what I fancy for that night.
• I find online shopping tricky - the websites aren't that good and when I have tried it I missed out on deals that were on in the shop.

Replacements.
Often not what I'd have chosen.
The amount of plastic bags they used to use.
Not seeing what fresh produce looked like.
Anything outside favourites would need looking through all different windows and lists.

Used to do online shop when DH and I both worked full time and couldn't park near home, but now I live 2 min walk from Lidl and Sainsburys, online no longer gives those big discounts as you can't register new accounts at the same address, and after dc1 was born, going to the shop and walking for half an hour was required physio (I could collapse in the cafe or on a bench until I could get home again). So I got used to going there most days, know the staff, and 10 years on I almost always meet someone I know.
I use my pully trolley plus make the kids carry a bag if we go on the way home from school (about once a month) so no driving needed. And I usually get inspired by what is on offer or yellow stickered, so it's cheaper to go in person.

Online all the way - I find it the only way to stick to my budget. Working single parent, so it takes max ten mins to place grocery order from phone, and I can usually get a delivery slot I want within 24 hours of ordering. I use Tesco and have never had a problem with freshness of fruit/veg or expiry dates. I choose bag-less so unload straight onto counter from their crates. They have reached me through flood, heatwave and snow.

I have a weekly food budget where most of it goes on the online shop, but what's left over is used for any emergency top ups of milk etc usually from smaller shops. I dislike supermarkets or any unnecessary going out after work and always find I spend more by going in person (as I have no willpower in the chocolate aisle). I don't want to browse food. I cook through necessity not enjoyment, and can't get remotely excited about aisles of ingredients.

Biggest bug bear is that you can't sort by cheapest per kilo/ml,which is how I buy my
Shopping.
I can never find everything I want online, they don't have all of the cheapest own brand items on there.
I buy whatever is cheapest at the time, so if what's in the favourites was on offer last time I have to go and search for the alternatives.
To get the cheap slots you have to be organised.
I don't like short dates.
I do use occasional online shopping to stock up when I get a first shop voucher and for the first day of holiday shop.

My DC1 currently works as a picker for home shoppers (summer job between 6th form and uni)

They do try to pick long dates and will never knowingly pick bruised fruit etc. Pick rates are constantly monitored though, so if an item isn't available they have to make decisions on substitutions very quickly.

Comments about allergens and vegetarian needs etc would be very helpful in the substitutions notes box.

Toy aisles are evil!!!

which supermarkets have toys mixed with food, the only place I've ever seen that is aldi or Lidl which don't deliver anyway, you can go shopping and never see a toy in all the supermarkets near me, it's not something I'd thought about before but now I wonder if it's deliberate as there's a route that avoids toys in all of them

Lack of organisation. Working full time and 3 kids mean I generally don't know what we need until I open the fridge/cupboard and realise we don't have it

Constantly going to the shops without a list so we end up going too frequently and not really getting the right stuff. Consequently we are never really in the position to think about about and organise "a big shop" online.

I have done it a lot in the past though and will do again.....once I get a bit more organised

I shop in Aldi.

I don’t have young kids, and when i did i still went to the shop. I don’t want to pay someone else to do it.

Because Tesco has changed their minimum to £40.

I stopped 4 years ago when dd left home. My shopping is £15/£20 a week.

Because they didn't check the fruit and veg like I would so we consistently got several badly bruised/old/dried out pieces. And because they often forgot one or two things (and once more than half our order) so it became more hassle trying to get replacements/return delivery/refunds etc. This happened across the two main supermarkets that deliver to out area.
Also I'm pretty fast round the supermarket, I know what I want and where it is and don't spend any time browsing, just in and out.

Cost. I have to shop at Lidl and Iceland with top ups from Morrison's and Asda.
Don't have the luxury of paying mainstream supermarket prices, unfortunately.

I always go to the supermarket at a quiet time so I have seen the shop workers with their big trolleys finding the items for the online orders
I have often seen them just chuck stuff in-with very little care and attention - why would they care it’s not their food they’re choosing

I prefer to choose my own unbruised fruit and veg thanks

I like food shopping. I like looking for inspiration, I like to choose the freshest & best fruit & veg. I buy meat from the butcher rather than the supermarket.
Plus I’m on a budget so money on delivery is a waste. There’s only me & ds so it doesn’t take long and I’d be going past the shop anyway.

Even though I get the odd delivery there's some things in store you can't get online, butcher counter meat, deli stuff, bakery rolls.

Morrison's switched me from depot deliveries to store picked deliveries. They didn't tell me and continued to bill me for a service so couldn't use. The depot picked deliveries are why I signed up for them.
I've been unable to find a suitable replacement. Ocado is pretty good but definitely costs more, I don't like a lot of the meat and they have limited selections of some things I want.
Tesco does in-store picking which I dislike. I don't like Asda. I might try Sainsbury's.

Honestly though I find online grocery shopping a clunky tedious experience. I couldn't solely use it.

I like lidl in terms of cost, experience and product quality.

I can do a weekly shop in the time my eldest is at rainbows.

I do go the butchers,fishmongers and Chinese supermarket.

I do get a Tesco delivery once a quarter for squash, washing powder, potato’s etc. Writing this is so dull I can’t believe what I have become!

The only time I've done online grocery shopping is when my DC were home in the school holidays so I didn't need to drag them all out, and occasionally at Christmas for bulky stuff. I wish it had been available when my DC were small, it would've made life so much easier.

These days, now there's only three of us at home, I do it myself. One weekly big shop with top ups locally when needed, which I do on the way home from work. I prefer to do it myself anyway & it doesn't take long.

I shop in Aldi. If they offered online shopping I would be thrilled, alas they do not.

I shop there because it saves me 50% compared to other supermarkets and I live in a small town which only has a Morrisons and Aldi. Morrisons is extortionate, I cant justify it. I go there for the odd thing Aldi don’t sell or I don’t like Aldi’s version and it just costs a fortune.

Oh and I used to shop online with various different supermarkets, the quality of produce was generally crap. They tend to choose stuff with a short expiry date.

I like wandering around and meal planning based on the offers in-store. Also love a good look at the yellow stickered items... found a beef joint the other week should have been nearly £11 for £4.50.

Btw, you do realise we're probably doing free market research for somebody....