I CANNOT get the hang of click'n'collect grocery shopping

[TheOtherBennetSister]

I first tried it last year. Turned up at my slot time to be told they were running 90 minutes behind schedule and it's best not to set off until the order receipt comes through to my email. Would I like to wait for 90 minutes in a car park or drive home and come back again? And no, they can't cancel it at this point so I can't just go in to the shop and do it myself.

Decided to try again this week.

Put my order in a couple of days ago. Forgot to add biscuits. Tried to amend but apparently I can't add anything once it's finished which seems bloody ludicrous to me. Oh well, I'll nip in and buy biscuits when I collect my order.

Waited for the order receipt to come through. Set off. Got my shopping. Parked. Went into the shop for biscuits, still reasoning that I was saving time and effort by having them do the bulk of it.

Got home and unpacked. They did not have the following items and have not substituted: cheese, lettuce, humus, peaches. So that's packed lunches bollocksed for this week! I'm going to have to go back to the shop. AGAIN. Or to the expensive local shop which was what I was trying to avoid by going to the cheap, far away one in the first place.

I pay £6 a month to asda for unlimited free deliveries any time. It's much cheaper than click and collecting.

I use Asda click and collect quite a lot, the advantages over delivery is its much cheaper, you can usually get a slot the same day if you order in the morning, and as I'm driving home from work anyway and more or less passing the shop I can pick up then, so I'm not really making an extra trip.

I haven't had any major problems, I do find that stuff can be out of stock when doing the order and sometimes I know it will be in the store so I just scap the collect and go in, sometimes I prefer to choose my own stuff.
I do get subs, but they email you before hand to let you know, and I just give back what I don't want at point of collection and get a refund.

I did have a few occasions where the collection was cancelled for no apparent reason though which was annoying

The supermarkets love click and collect because it gets you into their stores so you are tempted to do some extra shopping and you do all the hard work of delivering yourself!!

I have used Sainsbury’s, Tesco and recently Waitrose C&C and never have these problems - which supermarket was it?

You don't have to hang around waiting for the delivery, just turn up during your slot to collect. If you have a routine the slot can be when you are coming back from work/school so little time involved.

I’m really baffled by someone who can’t seem to accept that click and collect may be more convenient than delivery for some people sometimes!

I was forced to use click and collect and hated it. It did not save me time and it's just so much easier to do it myself.

I can see how it can really work for some people though, I'm just not one of those.

which supermarket is this. all the ones I use will inform you if unavailable items and substitutions either when you collect or in an email beforehand, and will all let you make changes up to the night before. but I have only ever used Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose for C&C.

I always specify to supply without bags and take my own crates to collect so that I can check while I am transferring everything from their crates to mine that I am happy - anything I don't like can just be left in the crates and gets refunded eg if the bananas are too green.

I once did a c and c and the lockers were broken. Couldn't get shopping and had to fight for a refund as they said it had been collected. Never again.

I use Asda and Tecso, both delivery and click and collect.

You always need to check the receipt for subs and things not available.

I find the subs are about 80% ok, and the last 20% I have to send back.
Recently I have found that there are more and more things which are unavailable.

Both shops have a guarantee that they choose the longest BB4 dates, and they will flag up item with a short date in the delivery.

It is so much quicker and easier than trailing round the shop.

I don't do click and collect (as closest shop is 20-30 minutes away), but do home delivery and have for I don't even know how many years. At least since I went back to work after first dc and that was 10 years ago.

I've never really had any issues. Yes, sometimes things aren't available, but it's no different than in the shop. I just don't get them or a make a quick trip out to a more local shop and hope they have something that will make do. I've only ever had an issue with delivery arriving once - a driver didn't turn up to work and they couldn't deliver. I had the option of a refund or I could come and click and collect instead. I went to get it and I got a free bottle of champagne as an apology!

Wow I’ve never had a problem either! Tesco. Can turn up early even and they’re usually fine. The only issue is annoying people in the queue ahead wiping stuff down (yes still), inspecting everything, taking ages etc.

I've only done delivery for food and that's been fine. Different supermarkets have different approaches to substitutions, so it's worth literally shopping around to see what works for you.

It clearly says on the receipt/email what items were unavailable. If you waited to receive the email before setting off, why didn't you see what was unavailable and then buy what you needed while you were out - or look for an alternative when you went in the shop for the biscuits?

We used to use Sainsbury’s for both delivery and click and collect but stopped after their short life policy changed. It used to cover items that had a life of 48 hours after delivery, but then it became a use by date of that day and the following day.

We always get late evening deliveries as we are out during the day, and there were too many occasions where the meats would expire two days after delivery, which meant we would have to freeze and defrost something we wanted to eat just a few days later.

We now use Ocado, who I find really good for their stock. Very rarely do I have out of stock items.

It saves me a good bit of money. I get delivery once a week, mostly for convivence. But when I started I found my food shop was down €20-50 per week! I'm spending more again, but that's because the cost of everything has gone up.
I write out what I am going to have for dinners for the week and get in the stuff to make those dinners. I don't have to stick to it rigidly but it means I have very little waste and save money.

I do miss getting a bargain though with the reduced stuff.

Thanks for replying @pontipinemum My DCs are late teens and decide on a whim they don’t fancy dinner, or want to do some baking they’ve seen on TikTok and so on. It makes food shopping frustrating and wasteful. I think I may have missed the boat, though would be a good organisation skill to instil in them for later on in life.

I do two monthly shops, both delivered for £4. Which is what it would cost me to charge the car these days.

at our Asda and Tesco you collect from a canopy outside

I've used C&C for a long time and I much prefer it.
I started using Sainsbury but our one was not great - very slow to bring the order round, or lack of available collection slots.
So I moved to Tesco and have been very happy. I order Sunday evening to collect Monday afternoon and combine it with going swimming.
I always pop into the store, either for the items I like to pick myself (e.g. oranges), the items I forgot (because I'm always doing the darn ordering late on Sunday!) and any items they don't have or have substituted. The receipt comes in the morning so I can quickly write a little list.

Some of the staff are great and will check if any of the unavailable items have been put on the shelf between them picking and me collecting. I appreciate that.

Another one who can't quite believe that. I use Tesco weekly and they email me beforehand to say what's been substituted or out of stock but it's rarely an issue and can amend it up to 11:45 the night before.

For me:

• I time it for when I go for a swim, so it's not a special trip.
• there are always a few items I like to hand pick in the store.
• items that I reject at collection (e.g. overripe mango, or their subs) I can replace in store.
• get the things I forgot.
• see other humans. I WFH so it's a break for me.

All told I suppose my weekly shop takes maybe 40 mins to order (this includes the meal plan and writing the list), 25 mins driving to the store, waiting for the collection and driving home, 20 mins max in the store for the above. Total 1hr 25mins

If I did it in person it would take 20 mins for the meal plans and list writing, 20 mins to drive to the store and back and maybe an hour (?) in the store/paying/loading up the car? Total 1hr 40mins
Not a huge amount of time saved, but the difference is that I'm doing most of the shopping from the comfort of my own home, listening to the radio, 'browsing' the aisles if I have time.

I use click and collect a lot. There's always time to make changes unless you are ordering very close to the cut off point. And usually they either email you a receipt in advance letting you know what is missing or subbed (and those are odd things not to be able to substitute, unless you ticked the 'do not substitute' box). Or at the very least when you rock up to load your car.
Maybe try a different supermarket.

I did a great Click and Collect at Waitrose in one of the lockdowns. They somehow muddled up the bags/orders. We just shoved everything into our car ( or rather DH did) and only noticed when we unpacked at home.

Waitrose refused to take back any food and luckily had all our remaining bags and a big freebie bouquet waiting for me when I went back to collect them.

I like to be able to specify what to sub/not to sub but have landed back with Ocado because I rarely get missing items or subs (and get a good 3-6 hours notice if something is missing).