Grocery shopping delivery or not?

[MsMiaWallace]

Do you get your groceries delivered? If not why not?
Do you actually enjoy going into the supermarket to do it?
Who do you use or where do you go?

I usually get mine delivered as I feel life's too short to stress in the shop in one of my few days off from work. Plus the stress of the tills, packing & unpacking does my head in!

No

• I like to choose the freshest fruit and veg
• the freshest bread and dairy
• I adapt my shopping list to what looks good on the day
• I don't like their substitutions, always worse quality
• It would add 10% to my shopping costs
• I prefer to shop early morning, and get it tidied away. I don't have time to wait around for deliveries.
• Once it's done, I know it's done properly and we have food for the week

@PuppyMonkey

Okay maybe it’s just me that gets stressed doing it online.

I find I sit there and can’t remember a single thing I want. At least in an actual shop you see the goods and can make a decision on if you want an item. Yea I know online shops will remember your previous orders but surely you don’t get the same things every single week?

No, I'm with you on that one.

Choosing decent food for my family is really important and the idea of a bored teenager lobbing garlic or melon into a trolley without checking it's not sprouted or overripe just makes me cringe. Yuk

Choosing decent food for my family is really important and the idea of a bored teenager lobbing garlic or melon into a trolley without checking it's not sprouted or overripe just makes me cringe. Yuk

Simply doesn’t happen with Ocado - their stock control is excellent plus they have robots not teenagers.

More than a decade with Ocado, which used to involve occasionally running into M&S or Sainsburys for some unanticipated desire.

Lockdown turned me entirely online. Ocado’s stumble meant diversifying my sources for fresh stuff, so now have a weekly Riverford veg box as well. (It’s really changed the way I eat.)

I know I could buy larder and household goods more cheaply elsewhere but like the convenience and familiarity of Ocado. But I miss the Waitrose stuff and may eventually switch.

Cheese, fish, wholefoods, wine, coffee, all bought ad hoc online from places that do one thing well.

I like this way of shopping, particularly while I live in a place that lacks exciting food close at hand, but I’d happily potter around really good greengrocers or markets, as I used to when I lived in other places.

I would never willingly go back to lugging milk and loo roll home from a supermarket - way too Station Eleven for me, now.

Because Lidl don't do delivery! Plus, I like checking out the reduced stuff, always good to stock up the freezer with.
We're rural, so limited on who will deliver to us anyway. Fat chance of Ocado ever coming here!
We eat different things each week, so trying to do an online delivery order takes ages - searching the product, comparing the prices etc. Easier to see them altogether on the shelf.
I find it a lot harder to do an online shop, clicking back and forth, than walking around the shop and choosing. Plus, you can make your own substitutions/decisions if something is out of stock!

I get Sainsbury's deliveries and have been until now.

The store my groceries come from has changed to a new, nearer store. Should be great...except, all the bread (sliced, packaged, not fresh from bakery), has had the BBE date the next day - not great if you want to make packed lunches, and on their website it says the BBE date has 5-7 days.

Same with meat, all use by within a day of delivery.

Funniest was a birthday cake, that had the same date as it was delivered, making it invalid for it's use.

Fair enough, the BBE is just a guide, but I'd expect things to be reduced if they all at their best the day of delivery, or the next, and bread does not last past the date, it's already hard and stale, useless for a weeks shopping to make packed lunches from.

Am so tempted to change to another supermarket, but have been offered a great deal for another year's delivery pass, that no other supermarket can match.

I sometimes get mine delivered if it's a really busy week or the weathers awful. I get annoyed though as the dates are always much shorter than what I'd get if I'd picked the items myself. Also I get 10% discount at Asda with my BlueLightCard at the moment which makes quite a bit difference. I've started going at 9.30 on a Sunday when the store opens for browsing, I can be in and out by 10 and the stores much quieter at that time.

@LittleBearPad

Choosing decent food for my family is really important and the idea of a bored teenager lobbing garlic or melon into a trolley without checking it's not sprouted or overripe just makes me cringe. Yuk

Simply doesn’t happen with Ocado - their stock control is excellent plus they have robots not teenagers.

Willing to try anything, I've just been to the Ocado site and looked for unsliced brown bread, one of our staples.

I pay £1.15 for a large wholemeal loaf, Ocado can offer two options, at £2.40 and £3.25. That's 106% uplift and 183% uplift on just one item. Why would I do that?

I get groceries delivered nowadays due to my disability. Supermarkets and mobility scooters aren't a great mix IMO. The whole thing is just too stressful.
Getting it delivered is less so but waiting in for it/listening out for the van arriving so I can get downstairs in plenty time and put my box out for the shopping so the delivery person isn't waiting for ages, puts me on edge.

I spread my shopping over Sainsburys, Tesco, Asda and Morrisons. I have favourites that are only available in one of the stores.
I miss browsing the reduced section and spotting new things.

I do a click and collect, which to me is the best of both worlds. I can order at my leisure and add things to the order as I think if them, someone else does the drudge work of going round the shop, and just load it into my car. I can reject anything that I don't like the look of and often pop into the shop once I've loaded the car to top up with anything that wasn't available and scout for bargains.
I always used to get a delivery but then you're stuck in waiting for it and if things aren't available it means a trip to the shop anyway

I use click and collect most of the time because I can drive and it's cheaper, but if I have time I do enjoy doing a shop in a supermarket. If I go to a main supermarket I'll do scan and shop, but I do like Lidl too. I don't like having to chuck all my shopping into the hallway on the two occasions I've had a delivery. I love to cook and enjoy going to world food shops and picking up things I wouldn't normally come across by shopping online.

@LittleBearPad I can assure you that it's very rarely bored teenagers picking your shopping.

Asda kindly give me free delivery for some reason (thanks Asda! )so I order from them 2 or 3 times per month and in between I like to go to Lidl or Aldi to see what they’ve got on offer and to nosey around the middle aisles. Occasionally I might go to Morrisons or Tesco for a change cos, ya know, I’m a bit crazy like that.

I get deliveries because I don't have a car so it's much much easier. I don't get everything from the supermarket though: go to butcher and fishmonger for fresh meat and fish.

Physically being in a supermarket isn't a particularly life enhancing experience so I don't feel like I'm missing out in that sense. There are some products that aren't available online though which is annoying. Morrisons in particular is bad for that. But Morrisons is pretty poor at delivery anyway. And pretty much everyone seems to have stopped using bags now apart from Iceland, which is also annoying. It's still easier than walking there and back with a shopping trolley though.

I just like knowing I have all the basics in plus whatever else we need that week. I like to keep within a certain budget and not have loads of food wasted at the end of the week.
We have a certain amount of snacks so when they run out we know there are more coming.
It suits our work life balance really well

I'm terrible in an actual supermarket as I get really distracted and buy loads of unnecessary items.

I do a mix. We mainly shop at Aldi so I do this mostly in person. I don't find it a chore, I like to browse and I find this easier in the store than online. Once a month I might get a Tesco delivery. My husband works shifts so it's usually in a week where his shifts mean it would be awkward to do the shop. (He needs the car for work). I like having it delivered but it has its own annoying downsides. (Substitutions, short dates, no bags etc).

What I hate most is putting it all away and unfortunately you have to do that whichever option you choose. 😂

My favourite online delivery stores are Tesco, for which I have delivery saver and use weekly, and Waitrose because it's just always so fresh and so delicious. I do like to wander around Waitrose if I'm picking up a JL delivery or a large ASDA superstore when I take the DC nearby for a thing they do some weekends.

I like to choose, fruit, veg, meat and fish.

I do the food shop in store - I prefer choosing my own things as I try to make sure I get long dates & not bruised fruit & veg.
We did two online orders recently due to isolating & I did find it annoying as I could see not all the store options were available online - usually larger sized packs weren't even listed, but I know they have them in store, so you end up ordering more expensive smaller packs (chicken oxo, poppyseed baguette etc). Also the dates on certain foods were ridiculous, some ending the following day.
As soon as I was able I've gone back to in store food shopping.

@MintJulia

No

• I like to choose the freshest fruit and veg
• the freshest bread and dairy
• I adapt my shopping list to what looks good on the day
• I don't like their substitutions, always worse quality
• It would add 10% to my shopping costs
• I prefer to shop early morning, and get it tidied away. I don't have time to wait around for deliveries.
• Once it's done, I know it's done properly and we have food for the week

Don't understand the early morning point. Maybe Ocado is unusual but the earliest delivery slot I can book is 5.30-6.30am. They are hardly ever late so minimal waiting around.

@JesusSufferingFuck22

I get groceries delivered nowadays due to my disability. Supermarkets and mobility scooters aren't a great mix IMO. The whole thing is just too stressful. Getting it delivered is less so but waiting in for it/listening out for the van arriving so I can get downstairs in plenty time and put my box out for the shopping so the delivery person isn't waiting for ages, puts me on edge. I spread my shopping over Sainsburys, Tesco, Asda and Morrisons. I have favourites that are only available in one of the stores. I miss browsing the reduced section and spotting new things.

If you live in a flat Ocado will deliver to whichever floor you live on. (It’s easy to specify this on your account pages.) They will bring either crates with bags or just the bags to your door. (They’re not offering to come inside at the moment, but used to, pre-Covid.)

Have to say I’ve stuck with Ocado in large part because their delivery people are head and shoulders above those from other stores. They are mostly cheerful, well presented, polite, willing …

I have since going back to work after mat leave 5 years ago
I do top up shop at weekend for bread/milk and opportunity for a wander
Have a mid week delivery pass as its cheaper

No, I do all my own shopping in a supermarket, or sometimes, my husband does.

However, I am a picker at a supermarket, so I might be doing the shopping for some of the posters on this thread!

Do you think it's cheaper to grocery shop online or in store?
What annoys me about shopping online most is when it says item unavailable when you know that they'll be a shelf full at the shop.
I feel sometimes they do this to get you to order something more expensive

I haven't done a full weekly shop in a supermarket for many many years. I pay £5 a month for a weekly Asda shop. Sometimes I do tesco (they do better dairy free items for my son) and occasional top up from Morrisons via Amazon.