Why do you go the supermarket rather than have food delivered?

[Sweetpotaro]

I took my 2 kids to a big Sainsbury's today whereas we normally have a weekly home delivery. It was awful with them messing about etc.

There were, however, lots of other families there.

Why do you choose to go to a physical supermarket rather than a weekly delivery? Is it:

• you enjoy browsing (but with kids in tow - is this not really stressful??)
• you don't spend the minimum spend (I think £50) to get delivery?
• you want the yellow label items?
• you see it as an outing out the house?

Each to their own but interested in other perspectives.

It is well known on MN that there nothing more stressful than the children of other people.
Especially in a supermarket.

Because I'm not prepared to pay someone else to do it when I can do it myself and I like the spontaneity of it.

It’s the minimum spend for me, no kids so weekly shop isn’t huge. We don’t have a huge amount of freezer or cupboard space to keep a large stock of things.. every 6-8 weeks I’ll do an online shop when I need to top up cleaning supplies, loo roll etc.

I do a shop on Monday at lunchtime with stuff to leave in the office for the week (fruit, yogurts, snacks, cereal), and a weekly shop for the house usually on Tuesday evening.

I do my shop online because it’s so much easier for us with 2 small children. However, the things I don’t like about online shopping are getting poor quality fruit & veg that I would never pick in person and also getting very dented and banged up tinned food. I also sometimes have concerns over frozen food and whether it’s been defrosted by hanging about for too long. Saying that, the convenience of online shopping means we won’t be going back to in-person shopping any time soon.

Because they won't do home delivery on petrol, and the supermarket has way cheaper petrol than other petrol stations I pass.

I don't do meal planning and like to decide on the day what I want. I find online shopping takes ages as well scrolling through, I like to see the things.

Also, and I know I am getting a bit sanctimonious here, I don't like my children thinking everything can be delivered at the click of a button.

^ This plus fatty meat and green bananas.

However although I will never do online food shopping, I will only do Scan & Shop these days. I'll never go back to the unloading onto a conveyor belt again!

I like to fondle the produce.

I'm going to answer this the other way round as I love shopping online. Have done since DS was small he's 13 now.

Shopping with teens is a pain as they always add extra into the basket and cost me more.

I'm often not well enough to go into the shops and do it on my own so need the extra help.

Unlike others we get very few substitutions/missing items. But then I've realised if you don't ask for substitutions you don't get them, yay and as we often ordered similar things they normally have everything in stock. Get the early day delivery helps also.

If there is anything wrong with anything you just tell the driver, they will often let you still keep the item but give you your money back. You can always send back short date items if you don't want to keep them. The drivers are always friendly and helpful.

The parking at our local stores is awful, even during quite times. They where just never built for the number of people using them. I get very frustrated trying to park.

During Covid I didn't step inside supermarket for 2 years. I could quite happily do that again, I don't mind popping into the local small shop if I really need something.

Because I don’t want a week’s worth of meat and fresh produce that has to be eaten in the next 24hrs.

Also we have multiple food allergies and they substitute with products containing allergens, or you can opt for no substitutes but then you’re missing loads of items.

I don't have kids, although I'm hoping to change that. The only time I'd ever accept home delivered grocery shopping is if neither my DH or I could get out of the house. We love getting out of the house, we love to get exercise. We love to move and drive, walk around and get some fresh air. I'm hoping one day I can have a little toddler sat in the trolley and another on the way while shopping. We'll see.

I go to the supermarket if I just need a little too up shop, I need something there and then or go to Lidl to save money (they don't do delivery)

We do Ocado and find them very good. The fruit and veg is fine.

We had two shopping deliveries during lockdown due to having Covid - it was awful, fruit & veg about to go off, fresh items with that day or the next day UBD which were meant to be lunch items for the following week. Substitutions etc. I'll only ever do it again out of necessity.
I go shopping on my days off to Aldi & Sainsbury's, & like everyone else prefer to choose my own fresh items with the dates I need/want, check it over for damage, take advantage of any offers, change what we're having based on what is available etc.
in the holidays I may have to take the kids & yes, then it's not as easy but it's doable & wouldn't make me go for deliveries.

I get food delivered (although only from places that do delivery within a couple of hours because I can't be bothered to plan ahead).

But a lot of people go to supermarkets to save money, as every single item on a delivery has a marked-up price in addition to delivery cost. To me the time is more valuable so I do deliveries for the convenience, but I understand why people go in person.

I do find it funny though that people like to go and pick the "best" themselves, when supermarket fresh food is all rubbish, just varying degrees of. You only realise when you start buying from other places how tiny and bad tasting the supermarket stuff is, which I guess is what happens when they're forcing the lowest possible prices on farmers (and of course there's Brexit).

Because I enjoy a nice big food shop and want to chose my own fresh produce. I don’t really know what I want to eat until I see it. I like buying treats or things I wouldn’t find otherwise. I’d rather spend however long it takes browsing in a food shop than online. I like the human contact. I don’t mind waiting in a queue for a bit.
But if I was infirm, or didn’t have a car or decent local shops, I’d thank God for online.
I love the reduced cabinet 😃

I go for all the points OP makes at the end of her post. Plus I use some smaller shops as well, plus I usually want it there and then, plus it’s sociable (if you want it to be), plus it’s educational for children. How else are they to learn how to shop, choose, use money etc.?
i have never had a supermarket delivery!

I used to shop online, but the number of times I’ve had to complain about bb dates and quality of food was getting ridiculous.

The biggest thing though was that I would decide what we were going to eat and order accordingly. However when delivery arrives I get the mushrooms, tomatoes, salad, garlic bread, garlic bulb, pasta etc., but not the minced beef I had ordered and no substitution (ffs who has heard of a supermarket with no minced beef!). This means I have to either send the items back and go shopping for ingredients, or keep the ingredients and go shopping for the missing ingredient. Both meaning I’ve paid for the online delivery, but also have to pay petrol as well!

I get about half of my grocery shopping from Ocado but then visit Waitrose and a farm shop to buy all the things I want that they don’t sell.

Because I've tried deliveries from every uk supermarket brand and had issues with poor or no substitutions, being late or sending short dated food. So I've had to go the the supermarket myself anyway!

Because my kids are older and don't have to come shopping with me.

Because I go to aldi and it's only got a couple of aisles so I can do a full weeks shop in less than half an hour. Would take me ages in the big Tesco or Asda nearby though!

I only live 10 minutes walk from the nearest supermarket (Tesco).

I like going as I don't get out of the house much due to disability. I like to choose my own and get ideas, things I'd forgotten to put on the list. I can get a clip on trolley for my wheelchair and dh can push me around!

It's sad but sometimes it's the highlight of my day!

I only "real-life" shop in Aldi for that reason - you get in and out in a short time because the store isn't the size of a football pitch with 20 versions of every product to choose from.

oooh.. and our local Aldi does click and collect! 😍

Because I walk past most days and have one beige eating fussy child. And I like our local town centre sainsburys and M&S, the staff are nice and I know where everything is.

I get a sainsburys delivery a couple of times a month for the big stuff.